Gibberish-4

Vice versa!!!

Peem....peeeemm.... a horrible hooting roused me from my sleep. I woke up startled tucking my disheveled strands of hair behind my ears. "Oofoo these bus drivers are horrible. Their day will be complete only when they startle a handful of people everyday", I muttered as I came back to reality. I was on our school bus; it was just ten minutes to six and I was exhausted— the gift of the day long jam-packed schedule. 

As I peeped through the window, I saw a college bus veering past. That reminded me of the carefree college days. It has been more than half a decade since I ceased to be a student. Being a teacher has changed me a lot— a funloving, boisterous girl to a grim faced, focused woman.

I have been a part of so many conveyances— auto-rickshaw,school van and I even have cycled all the way to school. That was the era of sheer freedom— insert a key, clutch the handle, mount the cycle and pedal, feeling the late evening breeze on the body with a sense of relief. No one to stop but a few friends to overtake. 

But the college bus had its own charm. Those were the bindaas days where boarding the bus was more an adventure than a trouble. I still remember the hefty driver with a balding pate, waiting for the students to board the bus, without showing the slightest of irritation, nodding his head to the song being played on his USB player. 

Those sultry afternoons wafting farrago of perfumes and jasmines, sounding jingling anklets and bangles were the best days of my life. Our days would be incomplete without the songs played on his USB player— how fun filled it would be to load our 8GB pen drives with carefully handpicked songs on vogue and listen to the same whole week.

There was a sense of belongingness in everything. I would never bother to get a window seat. Being silent was strangely unusual. Bus was just for commuting or might be to chatter, to burst out laughing, to socialize and to have wild fun. Not for sleeping or preparing for classes and such serious businesses. There was freedom in the air; life's rein was still in my hands; No aspiration, no commitments and nothing. Nothing got complicated. I had everything despite having nothing;  and now? It's vice versa!!!