THESE SEATS ARE RESERVED

On a Govt. Bus from Jalgaon to Aurangabad, a journey of about 100 miles, I was interested to see that, on this, filled-to-capacity bus, men occupied the seats and women stood in the aisles, clutching onto children as the bus swayed round bends or crammed on brakes or careered down hills. Old women sat on the floor. Many traveled with amazingly heavy sacks, which were dumped in the aisle, and which inevitably became a seat for some. This is the way it is, so there was no rancor - I saw patience and resignation on their collective face. The journey took about 5 hours, as we stopped at every watering hole en route, to take on water and allow hawkers to come aboard to sell food. An old crone got on at one of these stops to beg, before I could respond, she had pressed my head with her hand, in a blessing or benediction, whether I gave her money or not.

The Conductor sat in front and worked in perfect harmony with the driver - he, the driver, like many men in India, had henna on his hair - this is to hide the white hair, the henna turns it red and the sun turns it orange - they also apply this treatment to their beards ! I found the sight alarming at first - it's still a bit unnerving The conductor, with a whistle, indicated to the driver when to stop and when to start, he also used his metal ticket clippers for the same purpose and he would bang on the metal rail in front of him, already heavily scarred from so many commands over a period of time ! For the business of guiding the driver who had to reverse the bus into a bay at a bus station, the conductor would use a language of blasts on his whistle which said 'a little more to the right' or 'go forward' or a long blast for 'STOP' !