Daily Dabba Journey

47 comments
What astonishes about the office shuttle is its ingenuity. It looks like its been reassembled from stolen automobile parts somewhere in the gullies of JC Road, yet I prefer its cozy, almost vulgarly dark inside to a super cool Volvo, mostly because it is free. 

My office shuttle is painted white and blue, the royal colours of the corporate world, not too showy, not too laid-back, just the right hues to spread the message of the noble corporate world. The architecture inside is a mechanical marvel, It shines with the sun and pours when it rains, taking us closer to nature everyday.

Before I proceed any further, please look at the pictures below:


Fig 1: Illustrates my imagination of the office bus when I was in college

Fig 2: Readers may assume whatever they want. 


Anyway, coming back to my story.

It carries the same set of people every single day, in varying degrees of droopiness. Some bury themselves in their newspapers, some stick plugs into their ears to drown the noise of the chaos outside, some sleep blissfully, and I have still not decided which group of people I belong to.

 I cannot sleep, I wish I was one of the people who doze like Kumbhkaran's long lost children, but alas! I am all but an owl in the tinted night of the bus. Initially, I used to take a different novel every week and try to read it, I don't remember half the stories. You see, the shuttle makes me semi-inebriated. 90% of the time, it doesn't budge, but when it does it makes sure that we all experience a Mexican wave. This makes reading a little too hard. Also I desperately try and make conversation with the neighbour, most of the time I get grunts in response but sometimes when the fellow-corpo (A corporate employee, inspired from the word 'psycho') also feels like talking, who am I to stop him? And he can't stop me too. So there goes the reading.

My friend advised me to use the time in the shuttle constructively, so I thought I'll meditate. It didn't work. I'm worse than the kid with ADD in Taare Zameen Par, so ahem! we all can guess how that ended. I tried people-watching for a while, but decided its not my cup of tea to watch people with their eyes closed and mouths wide open.

One unfortunate day, I thought I'll look outside the window. That day I remembered my high school physics lesson. I think the concept is called relative motion, I'm not sure. When you are in a moving vehicle, it seems like you are still and the world outside is moving. Strangely, I felt that neither of us are moving. I guess some laws of motion need to be rewritten for the Silk Board-Sarjapur stretch of Bangalore.

Recently, I discovered the joy of calling up some random friends from there. This is how it goes:

"Hello Loose..ellidya?" (Loose is our slang for chaddi buddies)

"You know what? S got married!!"

"Yaaaaa, She didn't invite us only alva?..Ganchali!" 

"Blah blah blah blah blah"

At this point, the uncle in front of me turns back and glowers at me as if I murdered his mistress. Two more uncle type stares later, I grudgingly cut the call.

Tell me what am I supposed to do in the bus?

PS: One girl who was sitting next me one fateful day said this about the abundance of air inside our bus:
"Can you please open the window? It is so "sophisticating" in here"

Citation: I first published this post on another blog that I started, frustratedofficegoer.blogspot.com on 29th Nov,2011.

47 comments:

  1. Sophisticating ?? Suffocating ??
    haha.. Liked your post. This is good stuff. :)

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  2. @Raja- Yeah dude, you guessed it right..lol :D

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  3. life can be *made* interesting, oh wait.. why should you be doing it? shouldn't it become beautiful and glorified just like that?

    Just remembered reading an old phrase...'empty mind is devils workshop', seems to be other way round in your case!

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  4. @Mohan- My mind is always a devil's workshop, whether it is empty or not..If I turn the phrase around, It becomes "Devil's mind is an empty workshop"..Are you calling me a devil?..:D..

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  5. hahahahaha...I can only say that i enjoyed reading this post...pity on the girl who was Sophisticating in that suffocating bus...

    anyways...all the best...hope you get something "interesting" to do... :P

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    1. ya poor thing..I didn't know hw to react..:D..I'll find something interesting to do

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  6. Enjoyed reading your post. Putting out some unsolicited advice here, I can live with the mistress-murdered stares. Try using the commute time to catch up on your learning and reading but without reading. Get your hands on to some of your favorite reads in the form of audiobooks and download them on your phone or pod. You can also subscribe to some of the podcasts relevant to your field of interest and keep them on your ithing. Another great way to use commute time is with subliminal audio or with meditation music. It is worth the money to invest in a good pair on on-ear headphones for this, preferably with powered noise cancellation circuitry. You will look like a space-person, but it keeps the conversationalists away and lets you get maximum bang for your commute buck. Keep writing. Writing is the answer to sophistication!

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    1. Thanks!..Believe me, I tried listening to some subliminal audio, even that didn't work..I do read books in the bus, even if it is difficult..I still haven't warmed up to an e-book..and ya writing is the answer to sophistication..hahahaha

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  7. flashback to my own days in the company transport :))
    some good laughs there

    sophisticating reminded me of kangna saying "supportive" for "sporty" during a film promo. she said 'i was not 'supportive' in school' :o

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  8. hahaha!! I can totally empathize with you. I travel to Hosur Road everyday from BSK 3rd stage and I thought the stretch from BTM to Silk-Board was the worst, I guess you might disagree. :P

    Bus rides are always fun, especially in our good'ol BMTC buses :D

    "sophisticating" in here? hahaha!! Loved it. Very funny take. :)

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    1. I also start from BSK 3rd stage and yes, BTM-Silk board is horrible!..Thanks for visiting my blog :)

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  9. :) absolutely funny...:) loved every bit of it from the pic to suffocation ;)))))))

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  10. I loathed the company transport. It used to take me to from Kormangala to Hebbal office. More than two hours. So hot and traffic..I tried everything...novel, sleeping...but then the journey got to my head and then I decided to change my work location.. :P

    'sophisticated' haha :P

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  11. i thought i ll give u some advice here but cudn't come up with anything. so u think of something for urself and all those ppl who sit in their cars at silkboard junction with an expression which says "why m i alive?"

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    1. Hehehe..says the man who stays happily in a hamlet somewhere :)

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  12. Ha ha ah: Sophisticating:) I cant stop laughing out here. One hell of a post it was. Will be coming back for more sure. Nicely written.. And yeah I can relate to the bus travels especially with an uncle staring :)

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  13. Is the second pic of the bus which ferries people between Sangam and mekadatu .

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    1. I don't know :D..I just searched "dabba" bus in google images and found it :)

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  14. the second picture reminds me of PUNJAB ROADWAYS :)

    she said that well If i remember my school maths teacher he would have said .. Open the windows .. let the CLIMATE come in :)

    I think the uncles were jealous they did not have anyone to talk to thats why ..

    Bikram's

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    1. Hehe..i guess they are..I'll ask them next time:D

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  15. dabba bus nodee ne bhaya aaythu:-) agallari . sari andri.

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    1. Aiyo asht ket dhagilla nam office bus..papa tumba ne condemn maadidini!

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  16. The only time i enjoyed my bus journey was with all of my friends dancing at a time. It was a memorable journey, otherwisse riding on a bus would always made me to look out the window and stare the same buildings daily or just feel drowsy. I never liked reading books on a bus, because it always distracted me somehow. Your post made me to look back and feel once the bus journey i have had gone through.

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  17. hahahahhaha
    really nice post
    specially the last part
    http://drivingwithpen.blogspot.com/

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  18. I know what you can do! Note down all words that you 'learn' in the bus. Think of what fabulous vocabulary you will have in a few weeks! Then it will stop being 'sophisticating' in the bus :))

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    1. I wish I could..but not everyday does one meet an intellectual like that! :D

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  19. Hilariously written. You have a wonderful sense of humor. :) From staring uncles to rewriting laws of physics.. lot of laughs. Also reminded me of similar(ly) eventful journeys in more or less similar shuttle bus in Blore. :)

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    1. Thank you Raj..:)..Only you and I agree that I have a sense of humor :P

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  20. sophisticating .. lol

    it was a fun read .. in my case it was different .. as soon as i hit the bus, i always dozed off to a good sleep till someone from the bus awakes me to tell that my stop has come.

    try listening to music on your phone or ipod if you have one...instrumental music can used for meditation as well..

    regards
    rahul

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    Replies
    1. Ahh yes, you are one of Kumbhkaran's long lost children!

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  21. excellent sense of humor! almost sophisticating!
    I had to go through the same thing for almost a year. I always took the last seat, and used a little beer to fall asleep. My friends would wake me up at my stop.

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  22. sophisticating? :| Have you tried reading calvin hobbes or dilbert? that might help :D

    i am lucky, i haven't used an office shuttle in ages. auto drivers were my bestest friends :| NOT.

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    1. Just last week I was reading Dilbert, its so bloody funny :D

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  23. You could use that time to deeply think about the purpose of our existence... Existence of the humanity, I mean. I think we need to crack an answer to this important question and then go about doing mundane jobs like going to office, etc! :) This is much better than going to office and then thinking, 'Is this the purpose of my existence?' :P

    Destination Infinity

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    1. Hmmm..we should tell that to ourselves, but aren't we all hypocrites? :D

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  24. I went thru this for 4 years in a college bus. HSR Layout to PESIT. Taravari jana, taravari vasane. DEVRE!
    TURIKE namge.

    Coming to the post, I tell this again. You have excellent sense of humor

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  25. Wow! All your posts are way too hilarious :D :).
    Loved this one also :P :D.
    Couldn't stop lol-ing :D.

    The best idea is to take a Camera and take a snap of everything you see :P. Even the snoring people :P :D.
    In future when you start travelling in your own vehicle(and probably miss travelling in bus :P), you can check them out and have a great laugh :P :D :P.

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