The day the busmen played truant!
Published November 24, 2009 | 
Private buses stay still as part of a token strike Photo: Rajesh Parambil
Today, school children (at least those who depend on Kerala’s private bus service to reach school and back home) will be late. So will quite a few office workers. So what’s new, one might ask, tongue-in-cheek.
To be frank, there is, and (it seems to me) will be, nothing new. The private bus owners have declared a ‘token’ strike, putting thousands of commuters to distress.
As the buses stay off the roads, people are resorting to forced ‘Long Marches,’ irrespective of their political affiliations (red or otherwise!). Meanwhile, another segment of the ‘Working class’ the autorickshaw drivers are making hay.
A 10-minute ride from North Overbridge to Ernakulam South makes me poorer by Rs. 30. Quizzed about the fairness (or lack of it) of it all, my middle-aged driver is all support for the striking busmen.
And he has his reasons: the ’rich’ students who have money to splurge on everything except bus tickets, an unsympathetic transport minister who sees no reason to hike the fares to match the recent fuel hike; so on and so forth.
The man is so passionate about the whole issue that I restrain myself (with great difficulty) from asking him a moot question: Dear sir, what about us public, who are at the mercy of you and your ilk?
Meanwhile, he departs, with the cheering information that should the talks with authorities fail today, we can all expect an ‘indefinite’ strike by the busmen.
And going by his enthusiasm, I am left with a nagging doubt: will the autorickshaw drivers join the busmen, just for the fun of it all?
