Driving On

Consider the following math problem:

SRK left office at 7:15 pm by bus. She reached her house at 10:05 pm. If her house is 26
km away from her office, what is the rate at which her bus was travelling?

I don’t really want to know the answer to that question, but that is exactly what happened to me on Thursday evening. A journey that usually takes me 1.5 hours, took me almost 3 hours! We were stuck in one area, in fact on one road, for one whole hour. I can crib about the rain playing havoc, the water logging all over the city, the inefficiency of the traffic police, the lack of proper drainage and the fact that the city hasn’t been planned well enough to face such a situation. But this post is not about that. This one is to appreciate.

While the 40 odd people in the bus complained over the phone to family and friends and eventually dozed off, there was one person on that bus who had to remain alert for the entire three hours. He couldn’t chat on his phone, nor look outside the window and dream, nor close his eyes and take a nap. He had to constantly shift his foot from the accelerator to the brake, keep changing gears, keep a steady eye on the vehicles around him and inattentiveness was not an option for him. I’m talking about the bus driver.

We all can complain about having to work for nine hours and about how stressful our jobs are. But what about him? He has to be on the roads of this city all day, and even till night there is absolutely no respite for him. Imagine the stress on the man! He has to handle such a huge bus, on that uncomfortable seat and manage all the controls. He has to keep an eye on the trees that could get uprooted, the other vehicles that are honking away to glory and the pedestrians (and cows) on the road. He has to take the bus as close as possible to the footpath and stop whenever a passenger wants to alight. He has to fight the auto rickshaw drivers who try to overtake the bus and with the policemen who stop him. He has to be wary of the bikers trying to crawl through around him. Even one second of being neglectful on his part could lead to an accident. He is responsible for all the people who are seated in his bus. He also has a family and a home waiting for him. And not to forget, he only earns a fraction of most of us do.

I definitely think he deserves a holiday today. When I thanked him before getting down at my stop, there wasn’t a bit of fatigue on his face. He was still as chirpy as he was when we started off from office. To all the drivers who face such situations every day, hats off to you! Keep up the wonderful work. These heroes truly ought to be commended!