Today I tried to do something different ...and decided to go to the site by a local bus...it was not a long trip ...yet it was a long journey ...now I have travelled by buses all my life but this time it was different ..here I was wearing my 3000 buckz killer loops ,laptop dangling from the shoulder of my classy shirt.. smelling goody goody ,as i steeped into a rickety n two tyres in the grave bus....n thought ... damn u INDYA...why cnt ply AC Volvos evrywhr...v need the greyhoundz here 2..my butt which has become more accustomed to having cushioned surfaces underneath protested at the very sensation on coir filled PVC....n since my cranium is emotionally attached to my butt via spinal cord,i thought bout hiring a cab...but my heart n the prospect of saving a few hundred rupees persisted ...n i mounted the bus.....5 minutes hogging my precious seat n I was dripping like Mumbai's skyline...n the bus wasnt gonna move till it was packed like Pam Anderson's bra...thankfully ..the torment lasted for a few more more minutes... n v were off....I was clueless bout where to get off ,so relied on the Reliance brand name and my weird Punjabi to eventually rch my destination...The dealer was nice Sardarji,who started abusing the company as soon as he shook my hand.It so happened that his pump was almost dry n despite repeated requests ,no despatch was being made ,apparently due to shortage of tankers.I personally saw him turn down dozens of his regular customers...n it hurt...
That apart he was oki n offrd me chai n biscuit...Eventually realization dawned upon him that he needed to offer me some grub..... at 5 pm....n I had to settle for junky patties n anothr cuppa chai..
Got late n he asked one of his vistors to drop me somewhere.....the guy took me in his antiquated Omni n set me on a path which would eventually end up as a road in the not so distant future...till then its a path..He stopped at a dhaba or sumthin.......n had a peg....n now I was scared....if the road wasnt bad enough ,n my luck fickle enough,this guy was gettin high....Thankfully he dropped me before I got killed ...
to be contd.........................
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hmm.. here you make the point. It is so unconvinient to travel cheap in country side. We always wish that if we could spend some more money we would be doing better justice with our ass. But I wonder how many people who were travelling with you were thinking same? Probably not many only someone like you who's job required you to travel over there. But for the people who live there and get such abuse daily, ac volvo might be just a dream. Infact even if they tough such a vehicle they may risk themselves getting publicly insulted.
But inspite of all this, there are many people who are trying hard to break out of this vicious cycle of illetracy and poverty. There are many organizations who also work with such BOP (Bottom of Pyramid) population and try to make difference to their life. These are step in right direction, but we have way to go and need lots of such steps along with some less netagiri.
Opening of boarder, hmm.. that is just a small idea and I believe it can add some value. Why discard it ? Can't we do a prototype it ? We need lot of experimentation as we have still not found the right formula.
details.. yes we can always debate them out at lengths.. we all enjoy doing that ;-) What better to do untill ISB put us back in acad soup!
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