Bus No. 5

No story from school days can be complete without mentioning our dear old PTC Bus...or watever it is called these days.

Its quite a coincidence too think that all of us ( except Tina, Mani and Subha) used to live on the route of the same bus - Number 5. I can still recall waiting for hours for that stupid bus. Mornings used to be fun, many times all of us would board the same bus at different stops, starting with Prasanna from the bus depot to Kavitha in SIT colony. And ofcourse we always made a big racket in the bus.

Returning home used to be awful. The buses would be so crowded and we had to board them with our heavy school bags. Some lucky days, the back seat of the bus would be empty.

Sometimes, while on one bus we would spot another emptier one behind and would make a run for it...do u guys remember ? This was true when that rare 4C made its appearance.

Here is a funny incident from the bus ( must hv occured sometime in 1992). The conductors used to be quite chalu and would not give back the change. Once, all of us had boarded the bus as usual and had bought our tickets. For some reason, the conductor did not give back Prasanna's change. She got very annoyed and asked him to give the amount. He was being a smartass and started arguing,
(Translated from Tamil)

P: Give me my change ( which was like 25 paisa)
Cond: Why are you arguing for such a small amount ?
P: You are supposed to return the money.
Cond: What will I do with that amount ? I cannot even buy a cup of tea !
P: U cannot buy tea but u can surely buy kadalai urundai !! ( donno its english eqv)
Cond: Dumbstruck ... gives the money to P.

Everybody in the bus started LOL.