Adjustments : a life

Adjustments: A Life!! :-)

Was traveling in the bus today (it’s a daily chore though), traveling from morning to evening here in Delhi. Public transport, you know, how crowded it is here that you have to jostle to make your feet firm on the ground because surging crowd will take you to straight to the driver by pushing and nudging you and that too, without any of your efforts. Yes it is difficult to get a seat in bus. It is a matter of the all good deeds which you did in your past life/previous birth that makes you the best suitable contender for a seat, in the bus. Believe me it’s not less than a Royal Throne, everyone keeps an eye on it and lust for it. The moment a seat gets vacated people rush to grab the 'once-in -a-lifetime-opportunity' (though for few hours!) but the reflection of satisfaction (still to be researched) on the face of the ultimate winner is beyond any explanation.

What happens is, the buses are loaded and run more than its capacity. So seats get occupied by all the alert opportunists. There are some early grabbers (they are the regular office goers, they reach the starting point or the lap where the bus starts from) as well, who are lost in their own world. They concentrate outside, of the window. Some try to catch sleep by resting their heads on other person's shoulders. Though it is not an intentional act but it does happen. So this scene occurs on daily basis. And the bus gets packed with more and more numbers of people at various stops. So, this is a normal practice. Anyone can elaborate that. There is something interesting in this chore as well, and it is the Adjustments. There are different ways people claim a seat and adjust or get squeezed in it. Sometimes if the lucky person gets a seat he will put his bag or even small thing like a handkerchief to caution all other co-passengers that the seat has been occupied and that there should be no false anticipation for a chance. Then the person will go for ticket purchasing possibility. 

Sometimes familiar faces meet in bus. Their voices, responses, 'hi-hello' tells and alerts all other passengers that God! You are great, you made these two old lost friends/colleagues met here. They roar so loud that others get to know more facts about them like who are they? who is sharma ji and who is verma ji? where they work, where is their postings? And what they purchased recently and so on. And this sweet meeting makes the seated person so emotional and restless that he offers to share seat with the standing friend/colleague. it is a mix of offering, request, order and the standing person try to deny to as much as possible by saying, it’s ok, ha ha ha. And then slowly gets into the seat disturbing the already seated, lost person of the window seat. And this ha! ha! ha! goes on and so the discussion. Some takes interest. Some gets disappointed and some starts imaging that wish this seated person was our friend.

The other adjustment is of College goers, they adjust in the name of friendship in a crowded bus, with a bulky friend sitting in the lap of a malnourished friend, sharing earphones. i don't know why such compromise? And why it is always the weak has to suffer?

So, the adjustment goes on......am still thinking about what other possibilities can be think of.

Harish Benjwal