The Moving Universities

Someone has rightly said" When life f***ks you hard, if you cant withstand it, learn to enjoy it!", though i do not recall the exact words. I would rather regard such statements as excerpts of my personal modern GITA.(Kiran,why are your words almost always syrupy?)

The Management Gurus have always been screaming out "Everybody faces difficulties and challenges in this world. And in trying to overcome such challenges, we emerge out a different person altogether, depending upon the way we think. A pessimist rules out all the growth tendencies and an optimist uses every challenge for his advantage.( I am not sermonising here to anybody, since i consider myself imperfect for that).

I pursued my high school education at Poorna Prajna High School, Sadashivnagar, placed 17 kms away from home.My parents did offer to pay for a school van, but i persuaded them not to; and to this day, i aint know the reason.

In 1997 BMTC was formed as the result of a split of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, in the context of the city's expansion.The Bangalore Transport Service(BTS) became Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the colour scheme was changed from red to a blue and white combination.BMTC remains a division of KSRTC. And i had to cross paths with it, ulteriorly multiplying my sorrows.

Expecting a great day ahead, a high school boy named Kiran, enters the city bus every morning to travel to school. Upon reaching his stop, he gets down from the bus to find his tie missing, shirt completely tucked out, hair style messed up and half dead already, cursing his fate. Nevertheless, i am flattered to think that i have been an optimist unconsciously, as i have rambled on this earth from being a child to an adult.

Being the so called " most affordable" means of travel in bangalore, the BMTC buses are most crowded in the peak hours( beginning and closing time of offices, schools and colleges). From a construction worker to a techie, from a primary school kid to a graduate, all depend on these buses. After an year experience of travel in these buses, i helplessly submitted to my fate. I do not know about the rest of the multitude who have tasted this kind of travel, but i have, for some concrete reasons, learnt much from it, as i have from my formal education.

1. The avilability of seats is as rare as the rains in Sahara. For over 90% of my painful, yet enlightening journey in these buses, i have been deprived of a seat.

LESSON1: The early bird gets the seeds.

2. If the person seated gives a slightest jerk or even stretches his arms, a gang of men pounce at his seat thinking that the person is going to vacate his seat.

LESSON2: Always place yourself nearest to your goal( here, a comfotable journey). SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

3.My first hand experience speaks of such instances, where i have been offered seats on the laps of young ladies when i was a kid.

LESSON3: Childhood has its own gifts. Enjoy all of them, for you may never get it back.

4.Learning how to pay the conductor is an acquired skill, because if you pay him more instead of the correct change, you may be deceived . CONDUCTORS and CONMEN- there are very few nuances between the two.

LESSON4:Managing money is an acquired skill. Do not make yourself gullible.

I sometimes wonder what if i had Harry's Broomstick or Edward's vampire powers to run to places. But isn’t that the difference between fact and fiction?