I felt like Columbus when I first stumbled upon my accidental treasures. My bus mates. My extended family. Sometimes you just get lucky. You hit the right combination, wake up on the right side of the bed, strike the right note whatever you call it . . . . and boy did I hit the jackpot with those guys! My class 9 year will forever be branded as the best year of my school life solely because of them. I stepped into their world quite by accident and they swept me away before I really knew what hit me!
I remember the first day I sat my behind down on one of the dingy seats in an equally dingy bus which surprisingly was carpeted . . . on the roof. My brother and I were expected to travel in this wheezy, stuffy vehicle a grand total of 14 Kms up and down everyday to reach school. I was politely requested to get my behind off, the seat I had seated it on by a girl who appeared far too young to talk to me like that. I don't remember who she was but I remember she was damn stubborn. I had wondered why. I don't anymore.
So I shifted to the back of the bus and smiled a grateful smile when I spotted Sambodhi, a classmate of mine. We had been in the same section in class 7 hence we knew each other quite a bit more than the hi-bye types. I plopped down onto a seat next to her, the very last seat, towad a corner of the bus. A seat which would forever be claimed as mine. I didn't know that then.
I was nervous, not unduly so. I knew Sambodhi, her brother Prabuddh, our Head Boy and Pratham, another prefect personally. And another dude by the name of Sohit. He I knew cuase of his nefarious activities in and around the school, he was sort of the bad boy of our school. I chatted away with Sambodhi once in a while and basically just stared out of the window. Our stop was the second last, before Sambodhi's. We shared it with another class x boy, who's name I later learnt was Rahul Sylvester.
I was not very impressed with my method of transportation. it was nothing but a mean of reaching school and back. I had travelled in a bus once before in class 4 and it was okay, mildly enjoyable. But then this was Pallavi and I was wrong.
Day two I stumbled out of the bus naueseous and annoyed. I understood why the girl had been finicky about me vandalising her property on day one. Apparently these idiots had a reservation system. And so I was stuck in the last seat. Gifted with a driver who was gifted with a knack of steering our bus into lanes physically impossible to fit into for a vehicle that size. Plus the amout of speed brakers we hit did not do anything to help. I remember being fascinated by the way none of the bus people were fazed or interrupted during their talks, they just bounced up and came down, their flow uninterrupted.
And then slowly I got to know them. And my world was not the same anymore. We became a group of 7 guys and 2 girls including myself and my brother. I was part horrfied, part amazed at the jokes they cracked and the things they did. They belonged in a zoo. And the funny part I wanted to be in that zoo, with them!
I got to know Sylvester, the guy at my stop. A sweetheart, with spectacles pushed up on his nose and the most stupid grin you've ever seen. Provided fodder for jokes and was the fodder for countless others on a number of occasions! Sambodhi, myslef and my brother used to get a kick out of trying to decipher what exactly the hell he was speaking in that Tamilian accent. Yes! Tamilian he was. A fact that surprised us and mortified him when he learnt the same of us. He used to discuss Tamil movies and so on with us and was flabbergasted at our illiteracy. We enjoyed his reatcion! Sylvester, flabbergasted is something worth seeing if you want to life a happy and satisfied life!
Sambodhi. What can I say? I learnt so much about her, everytime I spoke with her. I'd just known her as Sambodhi, a girl of my class in 7th but now, this new and improved version was constantly amazing me with every aspect of her personality. A fiery, no - nosense girl , she held her own against our rowdy guys and soon left me wondering whether she was the same girl I had known but a year ago. She became my sister in arms, we pulled pranks on the boys together and were praned on together. I vented out my frustrations to her and she to me. We talked and talked and discussed songs, movies, T.V shows and argued and gossiped and swooned over cute guys together and talked some more. It was bliss. She definetly changed me somewhere as a person and made me rethink things I took for granted. Wonderful to debate with. She's the only person I can say I've lost so many arguments to and so happily to I might add.
And then there was Ayush a.k.a Shorty. Bindass dude! Our senior, was the funny man of our group, 5 minutes into any coversation with him and I would burst out laughing. Did the most stupid things, exactly the kind of things we wanted! His favourite pastime was sticking his head out of the window to harass bewildered pedestrians. His killer dialouges were 'Mere ghar do kilo bhijwa dena!' , 'Oi! Terese hi baat karra!' and 'Arrey!' There was this shopkeeper dude who Ayush used to torment on a daily basis by saying 'namaste' to him and generally behaving like a mentally unstable person. We used to love it! Oddly enoudh the shopkeeper seemed to like us too, except his wife kept brandishing a broom in our faces and yelling curses at us for troubling her hubby.
Yeah, that made us laugh too. We laughed at every silly thing and that made us laugh some more!
Pratham (class x), christened 'Pinky' by Shorty and Sambodhi was another item. God! He was a paitent man. We used to pretend he was a girl and say stuff to him like, 'arrey pink lipstick suits you better!', 'Don't run so fast, you'll tear your miniskirt!' We used to point at the buffaloes on the highway and exclaim, 'Pinks! Dekh tera family jaara' Shorty toh used to look at a bufflo and shout, 'arrey Pratham, bus ke bahar kya karra?'
He took it all sportively and was a bindaas banda. His jokes were as merciless as ours but we enjoyed them all the same. His laugh was extremely pleasant to hear and was often heard pealing out, contagoious to anyone who heard it.
Prabuddh was a year elder to his sister, I knew him from class VIII, brilliant but occasionally annoying fellow. He probably thinks the same of me, minus the brilliant. Anyways, it did not take me long to figure out this dude was as much of a crackpot as his sister. So yeah, I liked him too.
And then there was Sohit, again class x, basically only Mukundh, Sambodhi and I were 9th graders. You know I had always wished for an elder brother and I ended up with a twin. I guess in a way my prayers were answered by Sohit. He is my brother, friend all rolled into one. I miss him propably the most in our group. I adore the others too no doubt, but this boy will always have a special place in my heart. A fiercely loyal friend, a coke addict, rebel, the most AMAZING dancer and a softie at heart, this buffalo is a friend I wouldn't give up for aything. I knew him through Mitisha, a common friend and initially did not know what to make of him. I didn't need to see his track record to know for sure that he was a trouble maker, that mischievous expression always made you want to check whether he had stuck glue to your chair or poured water on your seat. (Yes, Both of which happened to Sambodhi!) But behind that highly misjudged exterior I found a decent guy, who could shine provided he moved his backside to do so. He was the guy who cheered me up whenever I was low or frustrated by thrusting a coke bottle in my face! Whatever the problem, the answer was Coke! He made sure things didn't get too out of hand when Sambodhi and I fought and basically just kept us all together.
And then there was Raman. A friend, a memory. an important part of who I am today.
Those 45 minuets which I spent, to and from school, were the best parts of my day. I went to school with a smile on my face and returned home smiling. My group of course had a name for me too, LALA (courtsey: Sambodhi). Mitisha told me it sounded like a dog's name. I liked it nevertheless. I tasted my first Red Bull, travelled for the first time in a share auto, understood what it felt like to have coke in my hair and celebrated my victories and mourned my defeats along with these people. My flaps, sweater and yes even my socks were on more than one occasion held hostage by my bus mates who found that kind of thing enjoyable. They used to stare bemusedly when I would differentiate a male dog from a female one at first glance and used to laugh when I used to pine for street dogs with my nose pressed up against the glass. There was this foreigner who used to teach at a school near Pratham's bus stop. I was quite fascinated by her looks and used to fight with the boys to catch a glimpse of her. Pratham named her LISA and the name stuck ever since. They used to hog each others lunches, and basically anything that was edible. I was so proud the day they wolfed down the sandwiches I had made for Work Experience, they know just well, how to push my buttons.
Life has a meaning more profound than just shooting to the top and earning a big buck for yourself. Its about doing things that you don't have the courage to do and aiming for things others deem are out of your reach. The folks in Route No. 18 gave me all what I ever hoped for plus some more. They touched my life and changed it forever.
So this is dedicated to all ma homies Sambu, Sohit, Pratham, Mukundh, Sylvester, Shorty and Prabuddh. KINDLY STAY IN TOUCH OR I WILL FIND YOU AND MURDER YOU.
Thankyou
I remember the first day I sat my behind down on one of the dingy seats in an equally dingy bus which surprisingly was carpeted . . . on the roof. My brother and I were expected to travel in this wheezy, stuffy vehicle a grand total of 14 Kms up and down everyday to reach school. I was politely requested to get my behind off, the seat I had seated it on by a girl who appeared far too young to talk to me like that. I don't remember who she was but I remember she was damn stubborn. I had wondered why. I don't anymore.
So I shifted to the back of the bus and smiled a grateful smile when I spotted Sambodhi, a classmate of mine. We had been in the same section in class 7 hence we knew each other quite a bit more than the hi-bye types. I plopped down onto a seat next to her, the very last seat, towad a corner of the bus. A seat which would forever be claimed as mine. I didn't know that then.
I was nervous, not unduly so. I knew Sambodhi, her brother Prabuddh, our Head Boy and Pratham, another prefect personally. And another dude by the name of Sohit. He I knew cuase of his nefarious activities in and around the school, he was sort of the bad boy of our school. I chatted away with Sambodhi once in a while and basically just stared out of the window. Our stop was the second last, before Sambodhi's. We shared it with another class x boy, who's name I later learnt was Rahul Sylvester.
I was not very impressed with my method of transportation. it was nothing but a mean of reaching school and back. I had travelled in a bus once before in class 4 and it was okay, mildly enjoyable. But then this was Pallavi and I was wrong.
Day two I stumbled out of the bus naueseous and annoyed. I understood why the girl had been finicky about me vandalising her property on day one. Apparently these idiots had a reservation system. And so I was stuck in the last seat. Gifted with a driver who was gifted with a knack of steering our bus into lanes physically impossible to fit into for a vehicle that size. Plus the amout of speed brakers we hit did not do anything to help. I remember being fascinated by the way none of the bus people were fazed or interrupted during their talks, they just bounced up and came down, their flow uninterrupted.
And then slowly I got to know them. And my world was not the same anymore. We became a group of 7 guys and 2 girls including myself and my brother. I was part horrfied, part amazed at the jokes they cracked and the things they did. They belonged in a zoo. And the funny part I wanted to be in that zoo, with them!
I got to know Sylvester, the guy at my stop. A sweetheart, with spectacles pushed up on his nose and the most stupid grin you've ever seen. Provided fodder for jokes and was the fodder for countless others on a number of occasions! Sambodhi, myslef and my brother used to get a kick out of trying to decipher what exactly the hell he was speaking in that Tamilian accent. Yes! Tamilian he was. A fact that surprised us and mortified him when he learnt the same of us. He used to discuss Tamil movies and so on with us and was flabbergasted at our illiteracy. We enjoyed his reatcion! Sylvester, flabbergasted is something worth seeing if you want to life a happy and satisfied life!
Sambodhi. What can I say? I learnt so much about her, everytime I spoke with her. I'd just known her as Sambodhi, a girl of my class in 7th but now, this new and improved version was constantly amazing me with every aspect of her personality. A fiery, no - nosense girl , she held her own against our rowdy guys and soon left me wondering whether she was the same girl I had known but a year ago. She became my sister in arms, we pulled pranks on the boys together and were praned on together. I vented out my frustrations to her and she to me. We talked and talked and discussed songs, movies, T.V shows and argued and gossiped and swooned over cute guys together and talked some more. It was bliss. She definetly changed me somewhere as a person and made me rethink things I took for granted. Wonderful to debate with. She's the only person I can say I've lost so many arguments to and so happily to I might add.
And then there was Ayush a.k.a Shorty. Bindass dude! Our senior, was the funny man of our group, 5 minutes into any coversation with him and I would burst out laughing. Did the most stupid things, exactly the kind of things we wanted! His favourite pastime was sticking his head out of the window to harass bewildered pedestrians. His killer dialouges were 'Mere ghar do kilo bhijwa dena!' , 'Oi! Terese hi baat karra!' and 'Arrey!' There was this shopkeeper dude who Ayush used to torment on a daily basis by saying 'namaste' to him and generally behaving like a mentally unstable person. We used to love it! Oddly enoudh the shopkeeper seemed to like us too, except his wife kept brandishing a broom in our faces and yelling curses at us for troubling her hubby.
Yeah, that made us laugh too. We laughed at every silly thing and that made us laugh some more!
Pratham (class x), christened 'Pinky' by Shorty and Sambodhi was another item. God! He was a paitent man. We used to pretend he was a girl and say stuff to him like, 'arrey pink lipstick suits you better!', 'Don't run so fast, you'll tear your miniskirt!' We used to point at the buffaloes on the highway and exclaim, 'Pinks! Dekh tera family jaara' Shorty toh used to look at a bufflo and shout, 'arrey Pratham, bus ke bahar kya karra?'
He took it all sportively and was a bindaas banda. His jokes were as merciless as ours but we enjoyed them all the same. His laugh was extremely pleasant to hear and was often heard pealing out, contagoious to anyone who heard it.
Prabuddh was a year elder to his sister, I knew him from class VIII, brilliant but occasionally annoying fellow. He probably thinks the same of me, minus the brilliant. Anyways, it did not take me long to figure out this dude was as much of a crackpot as his sister. So yeah, I liked him too.
And then there was Sohit, again class x, basically only Mukundh, Sambodhi and I were 9th graders. You know I had always wished for an elder brother and I ended up with a twin. I guess in a way my prayers were answered by Sohit. He is my brother, friend all rolled into one. I miss him propably the most in our group. I adore the others too no doubt, but this boy will always have a special place in my heart. A fiercely loyal friend, a coke addict, rebel, the most AMAZING dancer and a softie at heart, this buffalo is a friend I wouldn't give up for aything. I knew him through Mitisha, a common friend and initially did not know what to make of him. I didn't need to see his track record to know for sure that he was a trouble maker, that mischievous expression always made you want to check whether he had stuck glue to your chair or poured water on your seat. (Yes, Both of which happened to Sambodhi!) But behind that highly misjudged exterior I found a decent guy, who could shine provided he moved his backside to do so. He was the guy who cheered me up whenever I was low or frustrated by thrusting a coke bottle in my face! Whatever the problem, the answer was Coke! He made sure things didn't get too out of hand when Sambodhi and I fought and basically just kept us all together.
And then there was Raman. A friend, a memory. an important part of who I am today.
Those 45 minuets which I spent, to and from school, were the best parts of my day. I went to school with a smile on my face and returned home smiling. My group of course had a name for me too, LALA (courtsey: Sambodhi). Mitisha told me it sounded like a dog's name. I liked it nevertheless. I tasted my first Red Bull, travelled for the first time in a share auto, understood what it felt like to have coke in my hair and celebrated my victories and mourned my defeats along with these people. My flaps, sweater and yes even my socks were on more than one occasion held hostage by my bus mates who found that kind of thing enjoyable. They used to stare bemusedly when I would differentiate a male dog from a female one at first glance and used to laugh when I used to pine for street dogs with my nose pressed up against the glass. There was this foreigner who used to teach at a school near Pratham's bus stop. I was quite fascinated by her looks and used to fight with the boys to catch a glimpse of her. Pratham named her LISA and the name stuck ever since. They used to hog each others lunches, and basically anything that was edible. I was so proud the day they wolfed down the sandwiches I had made for Work Experience, they know just well, how to push my buttons.
Life has a meaning more profound than just shooting to the top and earning a big buck for yourself. Its about doing things that you don't have the courage to do and aiming for things others deem are out of your reach. The folks in Route No. 18 gave me all what I ever hoped for plus some more. They touched my life and changed it forever.
So this is dedicated to all ma homies Sambu, Sohit, Pratham, Mukundh, Sylvester, Shorty and Prabuddh. KINDLY STAY IN TOUCH OR I WILL FIND YOU AND MURDER YOU.
Thankyou
