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All in a Bus Ride (Jacob Kurien, Aug 6th, 2007) |
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It was the best way to start the school day and the best way to end one.
Traveling to and fro on
the school bus was a real fun experience to say the least.
The trip to school was your morning cup of coffee to gradually get you into the mood to enter
class. It was a great
means to socialize with friends - some of whom you wouldn't see again until the
return ride. It was
a time to exchange gossip and the happenings on TV the last evening. Frantic
students would be
going around asking others from their class if by any chance they completed
the homework due
that day. The shaking of water bottles to aid the conversion of ice to a fluid form easier to flow down the oesophagus, was a constant feature.
On a reverse note, the trip back was a nice way to unwind and relax from the
stresses of the hectic
day. Maybe swap Nintendo games or just get a head start on reading a book
checked out from the
library. Groups of students would be busy playing verbal games like "Give
me a clue".
Some, whose water supply had run dry, would be engaged in earnest negotiations to ease their parched throats, with others who still had surplus at dusk.
Those who were in school during the early years will remember that the
battalion of buses existent today
started off with just three. This was even before we shifted to the more
famous Isa Town
campus. I am sure that a few of us still recall the Main and Branch school
in Manama.
The group of drivers we had, originated in the famous trio of
Bhaskaran, Abdullah and
Joseph - the school's rendition of Amar, Akbar and Anthony. Each with his own
unique personality
traits.
Bhaskaran with his short stature and warm persona was probably everyone's
favorite. The kids
loved making requests for the favorite tune going around and he would comply
with a smile.
Which is not to say that he didn't have an eye for the prettier, older South
Indian girls.
Abdullah was at the other end of the spectrum when it came to being affable.
Discipline was his
middle name and he enforced it rigorously with student monitors tasked with
reporting any
misdemeanour back to him. It was near impossible to hide from his hawk
vision constantly scanning the rear view
mirror. You'd be lucky to get away with even chewing gum on his bus.
The dude had zero
tolerance for any kind of disorderliness.
Joseph kept a lot to himself. Its said that he had softest and most gorgeous
brown eyes in the
whole world. I mean if you were lost in the woods and found a house where
you started sampling
porridge and experimenting with the comfort of sleeping surfaces, you had
better pray that it
was Joseph's house (and not Abdullah's) you were messing with. He could never hurt a fly.
After the new school was inaugurated in Isa Town at the start of the
eighties, a whole fleet of
buses were commissioned for operation. New bus stops sprung up and the
school population
just exploded from there. Since then, our daily ride on the bus remained an
integral part of
each one of us till we left Indian School.
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