BEST way of life !

BEST television or no BEST television, life in the buses can be so intriguing and funny! You must be wondering about my new love affair with the buses…..it’s just that I have started taking my day to day life seriously and I’m observing a lot more. God lives in details, they say. So the other day I was travelling in a bus, I saw this man clicking his pictures on his cell phone. This was the peak of narcissist behavior. He would click his picture, stare at it for some time and then click another one. I tried explaining this with an assumption that he had just bought a new phone with a camera but that didn’t seem to be the case. I and my friend were laughing our way through the bus journey when another thing happened. A gentleman tripped on my friend’s foot and went rolling all the way to the door. I kept laughing and didn’t realize what had happened till he gave me that fierce look. And to top it all, I see this female walking up with too bold a message on her tee all capitalized –MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. I wonder ma’am if you knew what you were wearing! An interesting journey draws to end.

And then there are certain things one can’t account for. Last night when I was just hanging around with a guy friend, this man tried handing us a free couple pass for a DJ Akhtar night at a club in Colaba. We knew what would follow and so we went ahead without even lending him ears. After a while we see him approach us again and say-“Boss, meri girlfriend nahi aayi isiliye ye pass aapko de raha hoon.Lo aur aish karo.” I grew even more apprehensive about what hefty sum he would demand when I see my friend merrily accepting the pass and the man walking away. We ran our eyes through it and found it to be a genuine one. And both of us went like-“Oh, we are not 21”. As though we would have gone in if we were! But such things happen too…

Yippie !

Back to Mumbai and back with some updates as promised. I notice some pleasant changes around. Firstly, yesterday I got a chance to travel in a new local. The brand new silver-blue locals have been around for quite some time now but it was only yesterday that the train I was to travel in happened to be one of them. The fun of travelling in locals has doubled with the arrival of the new trains. Their stylish interiors remind you of the metro rail in Delhi. The compartments are well-lit and airy. Thanks to the dazzling new steel, the ‘sick-sweet’ (too much of Roy, huh!) metal smell doesn’t linger in the air anymore. There are continual announcements of the ‘agla station’ or ‘pudheel sthanak’ or ‘next station’ in all three languages. The info also keeps flashing on a digital screen making it all the more convenient. We are getting ahead of other cities and it is such a proud feeling !

Another pleasant realization dawned on me when I sat in a BEST bus this morning. Most of the buses had two mini flat screen televisions on which some silly local ads used to be telecast. But of late they have come up with something called as BEST TV where they air their own programmes and ads. Today I watched a combo of some of the latest and old movie songs on my way to college. They have much more interesting stuff in their kitty, I guess. And I have to travel more frequently by BEST buses to catch up on them and give you the updates. At the moment, I am basking in the Mumbai sun and waiting for the quite infamous Mumbai showers. So, that’s all from the newsroom for now. Keep watching!