Ab... Bus
It’s been quite a long time since I last wrote on this blog. After a break of exactly a week, I am back. A lot has happened during the last one week, much of which I would love to write about here. But all that will have to wait till the next post, as this post will be dedicated exclusively to Delhi’s most commonly used mode of public transportation, the Bus. I will be writing about how buses, and more specifically Bus Route No. 507, play an integral part in my life.
You might be inclined to ask me why I show this bias towards Route No. 507. It is because 507 is the 'King Of Buses'. Allow me to make my reasons a bit clearer.
I live at AIIMS. I study at IIT. I watch movies at Priya. And I play LAN games at Reliance Web-World, near Priya. As a result, I spend about 95% of my time at one of these 4 places. And bus no. 507, the 'King Of Buses', conveniently connects all these 4 places. The only problem with bus no. 507 is the fact that the service is crappy. But we'll come back to that later.
Let me first acquaint my readers with my daily bus-schedule. I have classes at IIT at eight in the morning these days. I get up at about 7:25 every morning, and reach the AIIMS bus stop at about 7:55 AM. At that time, I am still half-asleep, and I groggily board the first bus that I see. (I once boarded a school-bus by mistake and ended up at a school someplace in East Delhi. Since then I have been very careful to avoid buses with 'Vedram Public School' written on them.) It is an extremely good thing that all buses (except school-buses) from AIIMS go to the IIT fly-over, without taking any turns on the way. This means that I can afford to groggily board any bus in the morning (except school buses) without worrying too much about where I am going to get to. Once the bus gets to the IIT fly-over, luck comes into play. If I am extremely unlucky, the bus takes a left, away from IIT, increasing my walk to get to class by about a kilometre. Under normal circumstances, the bus goes straight, which means that I get down on the Mehrauli side IIT gate, a ten minute walk from the main academic building. However, if I am very lucky, the bus turns out to be a 507 (the odds of this occurring are infinitesimally small, due to the above mentioned poor frequency), and takes a right, and drops me right in front of the main IIT gate. No crossing of roads. No lengthy walks. When I am lucky enough to be in a 507, I am in class within 3 minutes of getting down at the bus-stop, which means I am only about 15 minutes late for class.
The only drawback, as I mentioned earlier, with 507 is that it has a very very poor frequency (1 every half an hour or so). 507 is the most crowded and heavily used bus, but for some reason there are fewer buses on this route than any other. The chances of getting a seat on a bus with Route Number 507 are practically nil. A 507, at an average, holds about 200 people at any given time. You have to stand all the way, in an aisle which contains a solid mass of human bodies congealed together, having a width of approximately 3 human body units, and a length of approximately 40 human body units.
Now, I don’t really mind standing in bus no. 507, because I know that it gets me to my destination in the minimum time, and I know the importance of choosing efficiency over comfort. What really gets to me is something else. When 120 people stand in a bus-aisle, all with their arms hanging from the overhead support bar, the major problem is not the physical discomfort. It is the smell that poses one of the gravest challenges. It is the smell of about a dozen kinds of body-odour fused together. Winters, for obvious reasons, tend to worsen the situation. Route 507 is not for the feeble-hearted. The smell can get slightly overpowering at times, and fainting episodes aren’t completely unheard of in buses which ply on this route. The smell in 507 is one of the main motivations for me to quickly get a permanent driving license. Then I probably wouldn’t have to go through this mental torture everyday.
However, it is not all bad. There are some good things about traveling in 507. The entertainment factor is one of them. 507 goes to Okhla, which, from what I hear,is a very interesting place. One gets to hear a lot of remarkable stuff about the place. Today, for example, I heard a very interesting conversation between two people about the deteriorating quality of fish there, and how it is unjust that people living in South Delhi get better fish than people living in Okhla.
In the last half year, I have spent a large amount of my time on buses. With the semester restarting, bus travel has once again become common in the last week. But I have yet to come across any other bus-route half as interesting as 507. 507 is not just a bus-route. It is an experience. An experience that should be undertaken at one's own risk.
You might be inclined to ask me why I show this bias towards Route No. 507. It is because 507 is the 'King Of Buses'. Allow me to make my reasons a bit clearer.
I live at AIIMS. I study at IIT. I watch movies at Priya. And I play LAN games at Reliance Web-World, near Priya. As a result, I spend about 95% of my time at one of these 4 places. And bus no. 507, the 'King Of Buses', conveniently connects all these 4 places. The only problem with bus no. 507 is the fact that the service is crappy. But we'll come back to that later.
Let me first acquaint my readers with my daily bus-schedule. I have classes at IIT at eight in the morning these days. I get up at about 7:25 every morning, and reach the AIIMS bus stop at about 7:55 AM. At that time, I am still half-asleep, and I groggily board the first bus that I see. (I once boarded a school-bus by mistake and ended up at a school someplace in East Delhi. Since then I have been very careful to avoid buses with 'Vedram Public School' written on them.) It is an extremely good thing that all buses (except school-buses) from AIIMS go to the IIT fly-over, without taking any turns on the way. This means that I can afford to groggily board any bus in the morning (except school buses) without worrying too much about where I am going to get to. Once the bus gets to the IIT fly-over, luck comes into play. If I am extremely unlucky, the bus takes a left, away from IIT, increasing my walk to get to class by about a kilometre. Under normal circumstances, the bus goes straight, which means that I get down on the Mehrauli side IIT gate, a ten minute walk from the main academic building. However, if I am very lucky, the bus turns out to be a 507 (the odds of this occurring are infinitesimally small, due to the above mentioned poor frequency), and takes a right, and drops me right in front of the main IIT gate. No crossing of roads. No lengthy walks. When I am lucky enough to be in a 507, I am in class within 3 minutes of getting down at the bus-stop, which means I am only about 15 minutes late for class.
The only drawback, as I mentioned earlier, with 507 is that it has a very very poor frequency (1 every half an hour or so). 507 is the most crowded and heavily used bus, but for some reason there are fewer buses on this route than any other. The chances of getting a seat on a bus with Route Number 507 are practically nil. A 507, at an average, holds about 200 people at any given time. You have to stand all the way, in an aisle which contains a solid mass of human bodies congealed together, having a width of approximately 3 human body units, and a length of approximately 40 human body units.
Now, I don’t really mind standing in bus no. 507, because I know that it gets me to my destination in the minimum time, and I know the importance of choosing efficiency over comfort. What really gets to me is something else. When 120 people stand in a bus-aisle, all with their arms hanging from the overhead support bar, the major problem is not the physical discomfort. It is the smell that poses one of the gravest challenges. It is the smell of about a dozen kinds of body-odour fused together. Winters, for obvious reasons, tend to worsen the situation. Route 507 is not for the feeble-hearted. The smell can get slightly overpowering at times, and fainting episodes aren’t completely unheard of in buses which ply on this route. The smell in 507 is one of the main motivations for me to quickly get a permanent driving license. Then I probably wouldn’t have to go through this mental torture everyday.
However, it is not all bad. There are some good things about traveling in 507. The entertainment factor is one of them. 507 goes to Okhla, which, from what I hear,is a very interesting place. One gets to hear a lot of remarkable stuff about the place. Today, for example, I heard a very interesting conversation between two people about the deteriorating quality of fish there, and how it is unjust that people living in South Delhi get better fish than people living in Okhla.
In the last half year, I have spent a large amount of my time on buses. With the semester restarting, bus travel has once again become common in the last week. But I have yet to come across any other bus-route half as interesting as 507. 507 is not just a bus-route. It is an experience. An experience that should be undertaken at one's own risk.
posted by Manu Saxena at 5:02:00 pm
7 comments
7 Comments:
Here's one you can try.
Bus Surfing on the 864 : This is the craziest ass buss you will ever be on, for sheer speed. It's not very crowded, because you have to be fleet of foot and strong of mind to board it, for it stops for the exact period of 1.732 seconds at each stop, irrespective of number of boarders. It'll take you to school, my place, GK, Nehru Place, and other wild locations, and you can board it from the Ring Road side Medical bus stop. (Medical medical medical medical....)
I tried 864 today. Impressive, as far as the speed goes. But then, speed isn't everything. The experience, as a whole, was nowhere near the 507 experience.
And just for the record, 507 does not actually stop at any of the appointed bus-stops. Boarding a 507 is a risky process. When you see a 507 on the horizon, you run like crazy, and regulate your speed such that the relative velocity of the bus is zero as it passes you. Then you jump, and hope for the best.
Rishi, you must get over this Mori Gate fixation. Such obsession is not a healthy sign.
Rishi, you must get over this Mori Gate fixation. Such obsession is not a healthy sign.
Stupid slow connection.
Just a small correction Bhavya...the cry is usually "maddykal, maddykal, maddykal".
It is quite embarassing when in normal conversation I sometimes end up referring to AIIMS as Medical or the IIT flyover crossing as IIT gate instead of the more common Essex Farms. Perils of travelling on this route, I guess!
Ask any bus conductor or driver in Delhi whether the bus will go to AIIMS, or All India Institute, and they frown at you. Ask them about Medical, and a look of instant recognition lights up their face. "Jaayegi!! Jaayegi!!", they say, and usher you in.
I don't know if any of you guys have noticed, but the sign at the IIT flyover no longer says 'AIIMS'. It proudly proclaims the name of the place to be 'Medical', along with an arrow pointing straight ahead.
Irritates me no end.
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