The Bus Affairs

Mr. Hari takes a bus to his office everyday. The bus has air conditioning. Only that’s why he takes that bus, even though it takes sometimes twice his time. The bus is not even a bit faulty. But sometimes, as if to make fun of the commuters, the driver sadistically takes it very slowly across the big empty bridge that everyone else races on. It makes everyone go crazy.  

There is a boy in the bus. There is a girl in the bus. There is another girl too. There is the driver. There is the conductor. And then there are they. There is the bus-stop. And then there is her bus-stop, and then there is his bus-top. 

There is traffic.

Mr. Hari has kind of reserved a seat for himself. If anyone takes that, he is frowned upon by everyone else around. Even the conductor asks people not to sit there. The driver keeps the bus longer when Mr. Hari gets down from the bus.

Mr. Hari takes even longer.

The boy in the bus is in love with the girl in the bus. He is also in love with another girl in the bus. He is generally of a very loving nature. The driver does not like so much loving. But the conductor does not like the driver.

The girl in the bus used to sit next to Mr. Hari, until the morning Mr. Hari’s beloved wife came running to hand to him his forgotten wallet. No one knows what she saw. But the drama that followed became a legend and a subsequent life of many a gatherings. The girl no longer spoke to Mr. Hari, and Mr. Hari no longer spoke to anyone else. And that’s when the girl in the bus started to sit with the boy in the bus.

One day Mr. Hari chose to break the awkwardness and invited a few fellow corporate commuters to his daughter’s birthday. They all came and sat for a while. They all brought crayons for gifts. They sat like a bunch of stoned chimps waiting for the candles to be removed from the chocolate cake. They laughed a lot, not talking much, just looking at a bunch of excited kids play with the dog from third floor. Mr. Hari smoked his cigar while giving wife a hand in the kitchen. His wife used to be his dentist. She still is.

The girl in the bus seems to be deeply in love with the boy in the bus. Sometimes she gets down at his bus-stop, sometimes he gets down at her bus-stop. Another girl in the bus seems to have started loving another girl in the bus. The driver does not like so much loving. But the conductor does not like the driver.

Mr. Hari now sits in the front with the conductor.

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