'Speed thrills but kills' … but… Kochi buses…
Published August 18, 2010 | Travelling in some of Kochi‘s private buses is a daunting experience for me and for other commuters who are concerned about time. In the morning, reaching office on time is a concern for all those who work in a well administered office. In the evening, most people hurry back home, especially women, before it gets dark. If you are staying in a hostel, you’ll have to meet the deadline of time before the gate closes. And even private buses in Cochin are also concerned about punching in time at the punching stations. 
But it happens mostly in the evening when you want to hurry back home. If you have got into a bus which moves like it is taking you for a sightseeing in the city. Here you end up getting mad. Some buses move at such a snail’s pace, that we can even take a nap. I have counted seconds and minutes from the time I got in to reach my stop. The time I took to reach from Janatha(Vyttila) via south to Kacheripady was an hour!! And this happened despite the traffic blocks at Panampilly Nagar and South over bridge. I wanted to ask the driver if he was learning the driving or taking us for a sightseeing and then I curse myself for getting into this bus.
Some buses go slow until they reach the punching station at Menaka, but once they punched out they rush for life. Most people, who like me feel that time is very valuable, are happy to travel in fast riding private buses. If once I got stuck in such bus, I’ll be careful not to step into that bus again.
Although, the traffic rules says “Speed Thrills but Kills”, these snail-buses are sometimes beyond tolerance.
The day the busmen played truant!
Published November 24, 2009 | 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?