Shuttle bus woes

Having a huge campus, our university has been considerate enough to have shuttle buses to take us around the campus. Till last year, we had to drop a 20 cents coin everytime we wanted to go in one. This year, the univ came up with the plan of (finally!) making it free. So, we thought, there ends the hassle of finding 20 c. coins every time you wanted to travel by a shuttle bus. Things didn't get that better, though.

After making the rides free, the univ. seems to have cut down the number of buses plying around. Buses now seem to take an eternity to come, and sometimes they even take as long as half an hour.

The most horrible times are the mornings, with huge queues for 8:30 classes. Being an unfortunate person with 8:30 a.m. classes three times a week, I am a victim of the overcrowded shuttle buses. There are some arivu jeevis who wake up earlier so that they can take the first bus that goes in the campus at 8. But come on, namalku idhellam otthu poguma? I make it a point to reach the bus stop only at 8:20. Some Indian mates may argue that even this is way too much, but since my lecturers aren't very pleased to see people walking in late and openly rebuke them, even if I don't care, at least I have to make some effort to make them think that what they say has some effect on me, :P so the whole thing.

The bus stops are still crowded. The univ is smart in that it has two shuttle bus routes A and B, which cover almost the same stops on the opposite sides of the road. So we have the 'comfort' of running to the other side of the road if a bus comes there.

As the morning buses are incredibly crowded, many a time the buses don't even stop in the bus stop, and we're left with standing in the stop staring like fools at the bus which just goes by, probably even wave a 'bye' if you find someone you know inside the bus.

Buses here stop only if you wave before it comes to the stop. There are some sad people who don't realise that the bus is overcrowded and go about waving, expecting the bus to stop, and even give 'what the heck!' stares if the bus doesn't stop. And I resist laughing with great difficulty, despite the pressure of reaching class on time.

What's more (self) entertainment is when I cross the road when I see the bus on the opposite side coming. We cross over, wait for the bus, realise it's crowded and hence won't stop. Then the bus on the other side comes, and we cross back again, only to realise that the driver was being unfair and didn't stop though at least five more people could've managed to get into the bus. Maybe he got intimidated at the sight of about 30 people waiting with bated breath for the bus. It's funny, when you realise that you've been 'shuttling' across the road more often than any 'shuttle' bus available. One comes at long last, and a huge wave of people swarms into the bus.

I must say that Singaporeans are quite inexperienced when it comes to traveling in a crowded bus. No one can probably beat Indians in that. Singaporeans, when they do try to squeeze into some place in the bus near the driver, unfortunately block the driver's view and get slightly yelled at(in Chinese, which of course I don't understand).

While this is one extreme, there is this other one of two or three empty buses going behind one another, within a gap of say, 30 seconds. One day I had the misfortune of getting into one of the second buses of a row of three. And I was the only one in the bus. The driver was really angry with me, why I didn't know, then I guessed that maybe if it weren't for me, he would've parked the bus in the 'depot' and gone for a rest or something. He kept expectantly looking at me through his mirror as every stop neared, wondering if I would get down, making me extremely uncomfortable, wishing I could get down somewhere and walk the rest of the way. Nobody, unfortunately for me, even got into the bus, despite the driver waiting for a couple of minutes at every stop. Finally after what seemed to be hours of discomfort, I got down from the bus.

Hmm....accounts of a shuttle bus travel!