It had been a while that I had been in a BEST bus. The proud public amenity of Bombay, the Red colored buses often took upon the mantle of handling the very busy people of this big metropolitan city. Looking at the people in my lives, who have now very well moved out of India and out of my very own Bombay for a very logical reason; the beauracracy; the corruption; the bigotry of religion with gods everywhere and our very own filth and poverty. The last thing- I am now more or so proud of after slum dog millionaire hit the theatres, but nevertheless it had been a rough ride being an Indian in India and more so in this lovely paradise of big money big people syndrome of being a Bombayite.
It took a willing power of a political party and its goons to rename it to Mumbai and I was overjoyed. 'Your Bombay will now regain the lost glory under this new name ' said those people barking out of their throats, and making it sure that it goes down my small non thinking mind. But alas- after 15 so years, my Bombay is still the Bombay I knew before. The very same smugness of politicians, the very same slums and the very same BEST buses.
Once proud BEST buses have got such a monopoly in my city, that nowadays they don’t even care to stop at the bus stops. They know for sure that being a Bombayite, the only road transport available to you is these very own bloody buses. The conductors and the drivers are the same filthy buggers just as the filth that you found on the door, on the seats and in the corridors of those buses. So, one fine day they decided to bring in a new AC' buses from the biggest manufacturer of the world- CHINESE. Not looking at the quality, they decided to import as many buses as possible. Now one would ask why suddenly there was these need to get AC buses for our very own common man. The ones who were still struggling so hard to keep up with inflation and price rise, that he won’t even think about traveling on these buses.
The logic was simple and everyone knew. It was just an attempt to give a taste to another bus service from another city close by which introduced AC buses on some Bombay routes and which was turning out to be a big hit. Looking at the change of taste in the common man and giving a new logic that it will reduce the car traffic in the city, BEST introduced the new AC Chinese buses. Slow, sluggish, AC problems, maintenance problems made its way in to these buses. The same people who were running the very old BEST buses were now running theses so called modern but Chinese make AC buses and so, pathetic service, those usual crankiness associated with normal BEST buses made its way in AC buses too.
Losses started mounting with every year and Chinese AC buses must have been a factor while deciding to hike the price of a basic ticket. But, the elections were round the corner and so the decision to hike was deferred each time.
Let us now understand what happened after the elections were done with. Unfortunately for Bombay, again the very old same party came to power on the basis of regional cards that they often played with whenever they want. Once they were back in power, the first thing they did was to give a biggest present that they can give to the very common man who elected them. Well, you can’t blame them- the losses were too much to handle, and so increase in the basic ticket by almost 70% was a fare one. But the systems and the processes still remained the same and the same old people were still governing the service.
They also gave another point to male bastion to cry foul when the management reserved almost half the seats for ladies. Many of my friends switched from theses Buses to their very own transport due to this single point. 'I can't travel long distance standing in these sweaty buses just because the lady wants her rightfully reserved seat ' said someone . While other close to me owning a car talked how the service is not to their expectation to switch themselves from cars to theses Buses.'Its slow, they don't come on time and anyways who wants to listen to the conductor's nonsense over a change after the tiring day at the office'. So, it seems the only people who travel in these buses are real needy people and who are most affected by these price hike.
As of now, I can still the same very old BEST buses, the same conductors and drivers who increase the sale of paan gutkha, the same very old foul language that they often talk, and the same disgusting pathetic way those buses are maintained. Well, for those AC buses, somewhere someone told that Mercedes or Volvo will be a part of the fleet now. Good for car owners that they can save on the fuel cost now, but for my very old common man, the only thing that had changed is the price on the ticket and the reduction in his daily savings.
And for the political party that came back again, they must be laughing in their big imported fuel guzzling AC cars and going through the toll junctions without paying anything.
(Sorry to the readers – I just forgot to point out actual statistics on the people killed by these BEST buses on the roads of Bombay. But for that, you can always check on Google- the numbers for sure is huge!!)