"Kachakach bhari Hyderabadi bus mein safar ..."

When I was new to Hyderabad I was terrified, petrified and mortified by the way kids hang around at the rear exits of the local buses. "God, How am I going to travel in this place!" I thought. It is not worth the risk I thought. I used autos most of the time. I never ventured far off from my college. I stayed near the college. After some time I thought I was missing a huge slice of Hyderabadi life by not using the local transport system. To my surprise I found it both exciting and very cost-effective. Who would let you hitch a ride from KPHB to Dilsukhnagar for a meager fare of Rs.13 that too in the comfort of a "Veera" ? The more I grew accustomed to the pace of life here the more I felt that I was missing bus travel. I had other reasons for shifting to Dilsukhnagar but my fancy for bus travel was along with them. One night when I was traveling from Masab tank to Dilsukhnagar one of my friends asked me as to why I had taken the pains to change my residence. The answer was simple - In my part of the state Hyderabad was as famous for its buses as it is for bangles at Charminar! It was notorious for the 'hangers' at the exits as well. I knew that my stay at Hyderabad would be short (assuming I live to be a 100 :) ) and I didn't want to miss this slice of life in Hyderabad. I get to see a lot of different kinds of people each time I travel. Contrary to what people think I keep observing people for a lot of things - their mannerisms, voice modulations, dialects etc; What is a more perfect place to study the people than a bus? Traveling by these buses made me realize certain things in life like the other day (the two blind men episode from my previous post in this blog). The incidents have been both positive and negative but most importantly I have learnt lessons from all those experiences. Through experience I have realized that - just because there are 'hangers' at the exit doesn't mean there is no place in the bus - There is always place in the middle. When the bus for a particular route number comes crowded the next bus on the same route would be not so crowded, sometimes you would be lucky enough to find a place to sit! Lessons like this have been many. But even to this day I resist 'hanging' - It is simply not my cup of tea. I would rather wait for the next bus than to do the 'ape-hanging' act!