Special Bus

People travelling in TNSTC buses must have experienced it, especially during festive season like Deepavali or Pongal. A temporary migration happens from Chennai to other parts of Tamil Nadu. The roads leading to Koyambedu CBMT bus stand gets jam\biscuit packed. Once, I had to walk from Vadapalani signal to CBMT as the traffic became standstill for hours.

Recently (for few years) by the vazikathudal of Makal Mudalvar, TNSTC opens reservation counters for special buses. As a commuter, once we get the ticket, we see it as "S-P-E-C-I-A-L" ( Our 32 teeth will be visible...eeeee), but after we see and experience the bus, we will become like a "sappi pota mankottai"

So, here are things you will experience,

1. Most of the time the tickets wont have the bus number. It'll be hard to hard to identify bus. 
2. Once you are inside the bus, due to security reasons, it'll be hard to identify the seat. The numbers will be written using chalk. Sometimes, the number sticker will be there, but there will be paint on it, so we have to use Braille system to identify the numbers.
3. The bus will always start late. They will have a special timing. If the ticket timing says "22:30", the bus will start at "22:30".
4. Special conductor, who doesn't have experience in handling reservation tickets. He'll repeatedly verify our tickets, at least four times. 1st- He'll put a circle mark on the chart, 2nd- He'll draw another thick circle, 3rd- a tick mark, 4th- He'll shade the number and the chart will get a hole.
5. Special driver, who haven't done long drives. Sometimes, he wont be sure which road to take too. Passengers had to guide him.
6. Special ceiling, which lets water in, even if there's a drizzle.
7. Special window, which cannot be closed properly.
8. Special seat, which hosts all sort of insects.

I SURVIVED.

Above pic by Sathish Kumar, who blogs at www.divyadesamyatra.blogspot.in