Whenever I take a particular bus, the last stop of which is near my office, I meet this conductor — a dark, bald and bespectacled man, possibly pretty close to his retirement. No matter whether the bus is full or empty he would stand at the door like a sentry and wouldn’t allow anyone to get inside without first buying a ticket. He doesn’t even bother if people are clinging to the moving bus like ripe leaves of a tree that may fall off any moment.
The other aspect of his peculiar behaviour is that he always seems to be very confident about his memory. So much so that when he doesn’t have the change to give a passenger, he doesn’t even stop to write on the ticket how much is due to him or her.
One day while waiting for the bus I saw an overweight man coming to the bus stop. He asked another person about something and stood there. At the bus stop everyone had been waiting for the bus eagerly. The bus had never been so late, at least not in my experience. Suddenly some people jockeyed for position after getting a glimpse of the bus approaching.
When I saw them getting ready, I went a little further towards the bus where it would slow down for an abrupt turn so I could sneak in while it was still moving. I saw people getting on to the bus like a torrent of water.
As always the conductor didn’t allow me and others to get inside without first paying for and collecting the ticket. While I was struggling to get inside I turned to the door and found the heavy-set man at the edge of the door holding on to one of the iron bars of the bus. He patiently stood his ground for some time and screamed at those who were in front of him to move inside.
But the conductor wasn’t about to relent. He was just allowing one by one to get inside, ensuring that the person had the ticket with him. From the other door through which only women are allowed, two of the women were jostling for space and finally began an altercation.
The driver, disturbed by all the noise, tried to calm them down, but without success. Soon after that the driver probably lost his concentration a bit because of them and the bus veered to the left. He didn’t see another bus coming in the same direction. Now, the big-set man who was hanging like a gymnast realised that the bus which was coming from behind couldn’t overtake without toppling him down. So, he gave a loud scream and gave a push with all his might to the person standing just ahead of him.
The push was undoubtedly supposed to have a cascading effect on others. It had the worst impact on the person standing near the conductor and he fell right on the conductor with great force and the conductor in turn fell on a woman. His trademark bag full of currency notes and coins was flung in the air and everything inside it was scattered on the floor.
The driver, after seeing all this, stopped the bus. The conductor got up from floor, seemingly regained his composure, and immediately started collecting the money strewn on the floor and from the hands of others. The heavy-set man took a deep breath and got inside the bus and scolded the conductor for stopping people at the door. The conductor, who was in a great deal of trouble by then, scolded him for getting on the bus while it was full. And everyone except the two of them were restless to reach office. So, everyone helped the conductor in getting his money back and the bus moved.
The next day when I boarded the bus I thought the conductor would have learnt a lesson from the previous day’s incident. But to my surprise he again stopped me at the door to collect the fare and issue me a ticket before I could get in. And people were still boarding the bus even if it was full.
Indeed, old habits die hard.
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