It takes all sorts to make a world

They say that ‘Variety is the spice of life’. For a bus commuter, the sheer variety of people that he/she encounters during the bus journey is a statistical delight. One can classify, reclassify, declassify, “classifield”ify ;-) and what not!! From my experience there are the following classes, but mind you, these will only grow GRow and GROW as I travel more MOre and MORE!!!

The Morning Commuters:

The suit-wallahs/tie-wallahs – These are the biggies in some firm who might have given up commuting by their car in the interest of the environment/to avoid congesting the city etc

The like-me officewallahs – These guys like me would be at the starting stage of their careers and are commuting by BRTS since it is a cool concept and more so since daily commute by cabs is costly and much more uncomfortable.

The picture-perfect babes – Is it just me or has the professional world really changed so much? Why is it that women in their professional attire look so perfect? They certainly are a sight for sleepy eyes J {contrast with guys who at best look decent/ordinary)

The old uncles

The aunties

College kids

 The Evening Commuters:

All of the above who are tired!!! But still, the women look nearly picture perfect :-)

Today the concept of variety took an entirely different hue. The 19:10 BRTS 1 from Backbay Depot had a malfunctioning AC and hence its destination was curtailed upto its depot – Anik, which is roughly midway between Backbay and Thane. At every stop, the conductor stood at the door and announced the revised route and informed about the malfunctioning AC. This led to different reactions:

The people who wanted to get home soon and did not want to wait – ‘Haan theek hai!!! Darwaza khol ke rakhenge na? To baraabar”

The people who were willing to brave the heat but were taken aback when told about the new destination – “Thane tak nahin jaayegi? Whats this??”: these guys instantly got off

People who were pissed off with both the destination and the AC – “Tum logon ne hamaari gadi cheen lee hai!! Gaadi kyun nahin rok te AC kharaab huwa to?”. yeah right, the AC has deliberately been rigged so that you guys can't go home on time. Grow up man!!! AC is a machine and machines fail once a while.

And then, on the nearly empty bus, as I read P Sainath’s ‘Everybody Loves a Good Drought’ I came across this gem: “Ah well, their philosophical looks seemed to say as we part, it takes all sorts to make a world”. As Kurt Angle would say, ‘Its true, its true”.