2 weeks ago, I experienced a different kind of journey, one that I am not much used to. The journey was an eye opening one so much so that I had made up my mind to write about it while travelling itself.
So this is how the story goes….I was scheduled to travel from Trichy to Bangalore in XYZ travels (name concealed intentionally) after commemorating Sankrati with my kith and kin. But the bus I had booked was starting off from Karaikudi and passed through Trichy on its way. So, just to be on the safer side, I called up the travels several times to confirm my seat and the boarding point. Everything seemed fine till the bus actually arrived. To my utter shock, all the seats were already full!
I was enraged to say the least and consequently an argument broke out between the travels operator and me. But it was as if the guy was programmed to do one thing and one thing alone…shout at the top of his voice and turn a deaf ear to anyone arguing with him. After a couple of minutes, I realized that I was up against a sleazy, conniving bloke who was part of a gang that was in the business of making a quick buck with scant regard for professional and ethics. With no other viable alternative, I reluctantly accepted the ‘conductor’s seat’ that was offered to me in return for the overbooked seat.
The first hour or so went off well with me striking a conversation with the bus driver. He whined about pot holed roads and the powerful head lights of incoming Lorries. It was nice to hear, feel and see, literally, things from a driver’s perspective. I felt a sense of adrenaline rush every time he accelerated and these fleeting moments of excitement were the only saving grace of the otherwise arduous and unpleasant journey. I even managed to sleep for about 1.5 hours, sitting up straight in a tiny weenie seat while swaying in circles the whole time due to incessant braking and accelerating. I got to know of some trivia while interacting with the driver during the last leg of the journey from Krishnagiri to Bangalore. The toll charge for a bus for a round trip from K’giri to B’ lore is Rs 300. There is a CCD in the outskirts of K’giri. I arrived in Bangalore early in the morning, feeling groggy, sleep deprived and absolutely relieved to have got off the bus.
But there are some nagging points in my mind even now. What is the grievances recourse that misled passengers have? Who do we have to approach, how do we initiate proceedings etc. Or should we just brush off the incident as a random one. This kind of behavior [overbooking of seats in my case] smacks of the crony capitalism which led the global economy to the worst ever recession in recent times. Why have we let ourselves be blinded by money rather than being guided by principal and ethics…?
