Bus No.41

I wonder if you have ever seen the PMT (for newcomers in this town of PunyaNagari, PMT stands for the Pune Municipal Transport) bus no. 41 pass by on Senapati Bapat Road. It's not your fault if you haven't, given that the frequency of this bus is something like once every hour. Here are some vital statistics regarding this bus,which I think are worth mentioning.

• The route of the bus: Marketyard to Sanghvi Gaon, via Swargate, Tilak Road, Deccan and Senapati Bapat Road.
• Manufactured by Ashok Leyland.
• By the looks of it, I won't be surprised if it belongs to one of those 67 PMT buses which are more than 15 years old and have run over 5 lakh kilometers.
• Very vulnerable to breakdowns.
  

Eh, hold on - if you think this article is about PMT bashing, you are wrong. It is not.
I just happen to belong to those set of people in Persistent who depend on these multi-colored (Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White) buses sporting the Ashok Leyland Logo and different kinds of advertisements, for daily commutation.

Believe me, one journey by a PMT bus, and you will face different kinds of experiences. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say, during the period of your journey, you feel like you are a part of a mobile village.The longer you stay in this village, the more bonded you get with this village and the people in it.

I stay at Marketyard. So to come to office, I use Bus no. 41, which stops just near Persistent. Thus, I stay for about half an hour in this mobile village - once in the morning and once in the evening.

But this half an hour is filled with experiences that leave an indelible impression on my mind. It just reminds me every morning of the world that goes beyond a computer and a cubicle. It helps me capture a set of human emotions that cuts across different layers of society.

This is how I spent one morning in Bus No. 41...

It's 7.55 AM. Monday morning. The Marketyard bus stop. Bus No.15 has just left for ShivajiNagar and Bus No.41 is about to come. Today I have donned the Persistent Product T-shirt for the first time and am waiting for Bus No.41.

Ramabai is just in time today and her husband and 9-month old son have come to see her off at the bus stop. Ramabai works as a peon, at some private office in the city. She is one of the regular commuters who use this bus. Her husband comes to the bus stop daily to see her off, and is occasionally accompanied by their 9-month old son. He is a cute guy with chubby cheeks, who likes to sit near the window seat of some bus parked near the depot, and wave back at his mother.

Just next to Ramabai stands the bespectacled Mrs.Nadkarni, a middle-aged school teacher. She has set her priorities right. She is calmly reading some novel and is oblivious to the noisy surroundings. She is incharge of the play that will be staged at the annual school gathering. Probably looking up for some ideas...

Then of course, there are 4/5 children in uniform with heavy bags, lunch-boxes and water-bottles. The topic of their discussion every Monday morning is the episode of Shaktimaan aired on Sunday... and it's no different today.

One more citizen of our mobile village is Sardar Amardeep Singh. As his name suggests, he is a Punjabi Munda, who is currently pursuing MBA and learning German side-by-side. He is inquisitive by nature and likes to talk about Marketing. Just last Monday he was trying to explain to me how Shaktimaan can be used as a global brand name. He considers it to be a powerful word, since it is double edged... in rural India you can use it as Shaktimaan and in the US you can use it as Shakti-Man.

Finally we hear the all-familiar sound of Bus.No.41. It's just another day in the life of this bus as it is ushered out of the depot by the bus driver and the bus conductor.

The first thing that strikes you about the driver of this 25-year-old bus is the thick beard that he sports. But he is one of those drivers who has mastered the art of driving such old buses. For him it is a daily challenge to run this bus on the overcrowded Tilak Road (especially during the rainy season, when the brakes don't work properly) and he does enjoy it. Talk of job satisfaction !!

His partner, the bus conductor is an equally interesting person, with an amazing sense of humor. If he has a stroke of luck, I won't be surprised to see him in the next Colgate / Close-up commercial. He always gives away something more than just the ticket you ask for. He has laid down a set of principles for himself for dealing with passengers, right from passengers who fret and fume over the change he hands them, to small kids who innocently request him for a half ticket "Kaka, don half ticket, Swargate" (Uncle, two half tickets for Swargate)...

The passengers soon make their way into the bus, using both, the front door and the back door.

To tell you the truth, they are normal and simple people, like the rest of us. What makes them stand out are the emotions that come to their mind during the bus journey.

Just as the bus is about to leave, Ramabai waves at her son. The sight of his mother leaving him, makes the child restless in the arms of his father. He soon begins to cry. The father tries his best to console his son and tells him "Aai khau aanayla challi aahe" (Your mother is going to get sweets for you). Ramabai smiles at her husband as the bus slowly leaves the depot. Mrs. Nadkarni, who generally sits next to her, tells her that she is lucky to have a husband who respects her space and individuality. It also reflects the positive changes in our society!

The bus now heads for Swargate via Mukund Nagar. Again some familiar faces get into the bus.

Prominent among them are Mr.Dongre, an elderly gentleman who makes it a point to congratulate the bus-driver each time he arrives on time at the bus-stop. He has a copy of the "Lokmat" newspaper with him, and for the rest of the journey, he is engrossed in reading it.

Then there is the usual college-going crowd that gets into the bus at the Mukund Nagar stop. The bus is meant to cover some major colleges like S.P.College and Symbiosis on its way.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Nadkarni, removes a bunch of Answer papers from her handbag. These are the Answer papers of the recently concluded Unit Test. She takes out a red pen and starts correcting the answer papers, scrutinizing each paper and giving marks for each answer. Can't find a better example of blending work with travel !!

As the bus nears Swargate, my eyes fall on a school-girl, who wants to catch this bus. She comes from the slums of BhagwanNagar, an area just behind Swargate. She waves at her friend who is sitting in front of me. Some unknown communication takes place between the two girls and her friend immediately requests the bus-conductor, "Kaka, majhi Maitreen yet aahe, bus thambva na..."(Uncle, please stop the bus, my friend is coming)... Who can break a child's heart? The conductor readily obliges and signals the bus-driver to stop. The girl enters the bus and sits next to her friend. The purest form of friendship is put up for display...

The bus proceeds and soon a part of the college-crowd gets down at S.P.College. Amardeep, who is sitting next to me, is taking a keen look at the hoardings near S.P.College. He says, if given a chance, he would transform Tilak road into another F.C.Road. I don't know why he even thinks about this... What's wrong with Tilak road? But not a bad idea... imagine another Vaishali near S.P.College...

The bus zooms past Alka Talkies and passes over Garware Pul near Deccan. Amardeep tells me how much he likes the Amul billboard near Garware Pul. He has made a special book that contains these tongue-in-cheek advertisements that change every week, depending on the topic that is most widely discussed in society.
This week, the ad proclaims:

" Terrorism ab KABUL nahi hoga... "
Amul Butter: LADEN with taste.

Amardeep is a big fan of the Persistent Product T-shirt and would like to have one. Inspite of me telling him that it is impossible for a non-computer person to understand these products, he insists that I explain to him what the products are. He has many doubts regarding the nature of the three products enQuire, enSure, and enList.
Firstly, he wants a logical explanation as to why the first letter in each of the products is not a capital letter and why letters in between are capital?
Secondly, he wants to know how to use the three products.Though I try my best, I can't satisfy his queries and thankfully to my rescue, my destination arrives... and I have to take leave of the mobile village.

End of yet another simple and pleasant journey in Bus No.41. And time to say Good Morning, Bhageerath !

So whenever you see Bus No.41, don't go by its outward appearance... not only is it a carrier of human beings, but also a carrier of human values and emotions.