Travails Of Travel
Tough Experiences Aboard BMTC Buses
With the congestion in the BMTC buses, there are certain things that you must not do before entering them. For instance, if you plan to use the bus, you must not dress to kill. Why dress so smartly and shine your shoes yet you are going to be stepped on every time people have to get off the bus?
what is BMTC in full? Well, I don’t know and I will never bother to find out. However, what I know about them is that these are buses that one will dread to think about or even swear to the God never to step in them again. If you are used to traveling in buses where you sit like a king back home, when you come here and travel in the BMTC buses on several occasions, the one question that will pop in our mind is, “will these buses ever get full? Sometimes you get so frustrated with the buses and the crew that you will instead read words like inconvenience, congestion, disgusting instead of acronym BMTC when they stop to pick up people. If you come from a country like mine, Uganda, there are a certain number of people that are supposed to sit in a bus or a taxi for that matter. You exceed the number, believe you me, you will never pass the police. Therefore, if you are used to that kind of convenience and you come here and you devote yourself to travel in the BMTC buses, you will have to be tolerant ,bearable and patient and it will take you ages to do that. Will the BMTC buses ever get full? Well, the answer is no because at every bus stop, these buses have to stop to take more passengers. It does not matter whether a certain number of people have disembarked from the bus or not. Surprisingly, people can be parked at the entrance of the bus but more people are struggling to squeeze themselves in that space where even an insect will not feel comfortable.
When you enter these buses, definitely there is that person who comes to collect money from the people you may call him conductor if u wish. The word “come” that I have used I feel it is so polite, the conductor does not just come as soft as the word its self but instead the guy forces his way through the already packed bus not just asking for the money but also pushing people like they are luggage to be pushed around. The way he talks when he is pushing his way through, you may think that he is ordering his ten year old kids to step aside. And the way he asks for the money, Jesus! You may wish it was allowed not to give him the money. The guy asks for the money in a very impatient manner and mind you, the bus is too packed to even get some space to push your hands in the pocket to get a five rupee coin. And the conductresses, if you thought that women are submissive and soft as it is in the bible think again. The difference between the two on the BMTC is the same or even worse. The reason I say that the conductresses may even be worse than the conductors, is that a man will not take it lightly when a woman comes and pushes him around. Judging from the behavior of the two, you may be forced to get so angry as a wisp that you may be forced to exchange words with these guys, but remember you have to be tolerant with them. Therefore, I find these guys especially the conductors to be so rude to the passengers in the bus.
With the congestion in the BMTC buses, there are certain things that you must not do before entering them. For instance, if you plan to use the bus, you must not dress to kill. Why dress so smartly and shine your shoes yet you are going to be stepped on every time people have to get off the bus? There are so many classes of people who use them. Realistically, there are those who come in the bus when they are so dirty with luggage. There are also those who come in when they are so drunk that they find it so hard to gain balance and so they will end up falling on you most of the time. So why go through the fuss of tiding yourself yet by the time you get off the bus, you will be a different person altogether. Another thing you must not do is to wear your expensive perfume when you are going to use the bus. With the categories of people I have mentioned above, believe you me you will have a different scent by the time you get off the bus which will be so disgusting.
Another thing that made me resent the buses is the throwing up in other words vomiting. If the word itself is disgusting, how about watching someone seated in front of you in the bus throw up? One time I was in the bus with a friend heading for the city when a passenger in the front seat threw up suddenly. I was disgusted that I could not even swallow my own saliva for once. Those sitting in the front seat were not so lucky to escape the splash. It is the distance that saved many of us who were behind. But still, I couldn’t bear to look in front or even at the person. The vomit remained there for quite some time and the bus crew did not even bother to do something about it. From that day, I swore to all my friends never to use a bus again, even though it was for a short span of time. Soon I got used to the inconvenience because I had no option. Throwing up or spitting from the bus seems to have gained a lot of currency that some of the passengers go to the extent of thrusting their heads out of the windows to vomit or spit outside. That’s at least better. But for the record, it is not convenient at all. The inconveniences aside, traveling by BMTCS buses is cheaper compared to the autos. So I guess they are not that bad after all.
