Published on 12:00 AM, March 26, 2015

5 Types of People on a Bus

BUSES CHANGE, PEOPLE DON'T

Have you ever been in a bus where there wasn't a 50 year old person trying to convince the bus conductor he was a student and therefore should pay half? I know I haven't. The buses here are magical places. Anything goes inside. 

Today, we observe a few them. 

1. The person with the tinny Chinese feature phone playing random Hindi music.
There's this new invention called earphones. These people need that badly. I actually saw a person who had earphones on him yet was still doing that. Don't be that guy. 

2. The guy who thinks he alone has stuff to do and has no time to spare while the rest of us on the vehicle just got in to annoy him.
This guy will repeatedly shout at the driver every 5 seconds if the bus shows any sign of even slowing down. He will look at his watch and tut to show his irritation every once in a while. 

3. The sleepyhead.
This one's a common sight. The person will fall asleep and stay asleep till the bus makes three or four rounds. Then they will wake up and ruffle the conductor for not telling them when their destination arrived.
Once, on the way to school, this happened to the 12/13 year old kid seated behind me. He explained to the guy beside him that he works at a bakery and has to stay up all night to work — that's why he couldn't keep his eyes open. Sometimes people can't help it.

4. The middle aged man who occupies seats reserved for women.
I'm not talking about you if you have mistakenly, once upon a time, had done this, but about the guys who do this all the time. I don't know what they think they achieve doing this. They would say, "Better seats." But, really? You may be all, "I believe we are equals and therefore don't believe in the 'reserved seats' system," but you should be aware that reserved seats exist because so does harassment. 

5. The "student".
Bus conductors get harassed almost every day by pseudo students. People do need to realise that there are buses that accept what they call "half pass" (that is, half the ticket money for students) and buses that don't. The people I'm talking about are the ones who know that the particular bus they're in don't accept "half pass" yet they still try to wheedle the conductor into accepting halfsies.