Taking a bus down the Memory Lane

Public Transport, it’s a part of their daily lives for some, an unventured realm filled with doubt and anxiety for others. Trust me, I belonged to the latter for a long time till I was pushed into such a situation of need. And this situation changed my outlook towards public transport altogether.

I never had the need to use public transport till I started college. I was a person who took the school bus to school and rode a cycle to all my classes. Anywhere far I needed to go, my parents would drop me. All this changed when I joined my college which was situated in the outskirts of the city, a solid 2 hr drive from my house. Thus the only alternative to college transport was the MTC.

The only way to learn about public transport is to experience it. Out of all my experiences, I learnt a few key things.

First of all, never trust Google Maps blindly. I learnt this the hard way on my very first bus ride. The situation was that college had ended early and I faced the option of waiting for 3 more hours to board the college bus or take a chance with the MTC and reach home early. This was also my second week into college and I really didn’t know the way back home.

Since a bunch of us were going to the same area, others as clueless as myself about public transport, we gave the green light to the MTC option. My mom was a pro when it came to bus routes due to her extensive experience and naturally, she suggested me all the possible bus routes back home. She was probably more tensed about the whole ordeal than me. I also had Google maps to guide me back home giving me the bus number and ETA. I was feeling pretty confident about the whole thing.

Well, the only problem was, we were at the stop and the bus we needed to get on was nowhere in sight! We had to wait for an hour for the bus to arrive and finally when we reached home, I found that all that hassle I went through was just to reach home about an hour earlier.

The only good that came out of that experience was that I was proud of the fact that I had made it back home on my own.

Second of all, the best way to enjoy public transport is when you have people you know along with you on the ride. Public transport isn’t short on crazy experiences, right from waiting at a bus stop for hours and hours, buses breaking down, traffic jams, missing the bus, etc. All this might seem really putting off but if you have the right kind of company, you can get through anything and it also enriches your lives with exciting experiences which turn into stories for another day. You learn a lot about people too even from a single bus ride. The bizarre topics and random conversations give you a great insight on other people and a chance for others to understand you as well.

Taking the bus alone isn’t too bad either, you get the chance to look at people from various backgrounds, all commuting to different destinations for various purposes. If you are lucky, you might even meet an interesting person to strike a conversation with. You always have the fallback option of putting on your headsets and disappearing into your dream world, don’t get lost there though because you’ll end up missing your drop point and increase your already long commuting time.

The beauty of using public transport comes only out of experience. It gives you that sense of independence, ability to not rely on any other person for your needs. Personally for me, it was a confidence booster and gave me a chance to prove to my parents how responsible I was on my own since they were very protective about me.

Be it thrill of you and your squad sneaking through the college gates to go out, random Meet-ups on the weekends, getting home after staying late for college events, trying to reach college after missing the college bus, all this would be never possible if I hadn’t ventured into using public transport.

Our life is an open book, waiting for its pages to be filled with experiences and memories. Public Transport is something all of us should experience, the hassle will always be there but also much more, the places, the people, the fun to be had is waiting. Don’t miss this bus, it’s one worth taking.