Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

My Daily Commute

By Ashmita Kunwar

Photo Courtesy : http://i.huffpost.com/ I travel every day in a public bus (micro bus) while coming to college, where I get to see and meet different people with unique behavior. Journey from Banasthali to Jayabageswari in public van is sometime very attention-grabbing and sometimes very hard-hitting. Here, I will share some of the incidents and conversations that people had in the bus which were notable to me. First incident: “If it is a girl then abort it, if not you can give birth”. This is what two women were talking about when I was returning back home from college. What the hell are they talking about? I just could not control myself and immediately turned back and stared at both of them and they changed the topic.  I can’t understand why this society still undertakes such disgraceful things? How could those two women plan to kill an infant inside the mother’s womb only because she is a girl? Oh my god! Mercy! People are shameless creatures, they are never going to change, and they just pretend to change. Second incident: This incident occurred after few days of the declaration of reservation seats for the women. An old man and his wife entered the bus and they both sat in the women reserved seats, where I was sitting. Then at the same time, the driver asked the old man to stay back in next seat with the dialogue “Baa, government now does not want you to stay together with aama, so you have to go back”, the old man smiled and went back. He did not argue but proudly said “okay, I do not have any problem sitting back here, I respect women and want everyone to do the same because there is no difference between woman and man, if this is the way to respect women and protect them, I will do it”. The next man sitting next to him joined the conversation and said, “You are absolutely correct, this is the way how the society will change, we should respect women, they are no different than man, they are the one to create the world”. They had more conversation on that topic, and at that moment I had a big smile over my face, I was so delighted listening that. I had feeling that society is changing, and will change soon and no girls should die inside the mother’s womb. Third incident: This incident occurred many times, I never understand who is right and who in wrong, traffic police or drivers? Every time whenever traffic police stops the van and checks for every little thing, the discussion starts there.  Some driver’s cooperate with traffic officials and do whatever they are asked, but some just ignore, don’t do what they are asked and start to discuss with traffic. I don’t know whose fault is this as I hear people saying “this traffic polices get commission from government if they catch vehicles with fault, so they point out even small mistakes for their personal benefit”. But I don’t think so, the government has given such commands because they want traffic officials to do their duty seriously, implement rules strictly and make people aware. After making the rules of MA.PA.SAY and strict checking, the rate of accidents has dropped in Kathmandu valley. Human nature is very problematic to understand; when there were no rules they complain saying that government is careless and after when rules are made and are being strictly implemented they criticize and always swear at traffic. But personally, I like what traffic police are doing these days and I support them. Fourth incident: Ha-ha… :) :)  I find this comical, when two people; one in last seat and the next one in first seat know each other and they meet in the same van, they don’t care about anything and start to have a chat from last seat to first seat. They don’t care what people will think and they just talk out loud where everyone can hear them; some of them laugh while some get irritated with such behavior of people. These are the different incidents that I experience in the public van; this is sometimes fun as I get to know different opinion of people. I feel that the public bus is the representation of the society; different people of different category, different nature, attitude and behavior. Travelling in public bus is fun and inspiring so long as there is a comfortable seat and respectful passengers. Happy Travelling!