Bus Surfing

Hey guys :) This is sort of what happened to me the other day on the bus... Hope you like it!

It was a hot day. I had started out huddling into a jacket to escape the cold breeze of the morning but it was already five thirty, my jacket hung over my arm and the heat of the day was worming its way into my skin. I arrived at the bus station hungry, thirsty and just plain, old tired. Buses roared in and out of the station like they could barely stand and wait for desperate people who ran after them, arms flailing. I put my headphones in and tried to relax into the soothing drone of my music. The world always seemed better when I had songs singing their way past my ears and into my brain. Finally my bus arrived! There was the usual scuttle for it, a blast of hot air as I climbed the metal stairs and the shock I felt when I saw the state of this particular bus.

Bodies were crammed into every free inch of space. Women were stuffed against each other, feet vying for space on the metal floor. I half-turned, determined not to let myself get jostled into some small, damp corner but the bus was already speeding past the station. Vague yells informed me that I was supposed to move further in although how I was supposed to squeeze past them all was a mystery. I landed up leaning heavily against a peeling yellow pole, my fingers clenched tightly around all the free space I could get. I prayed fervently every time the bus went over a bump. I knew my feet were going to go through the floor and get mangled in the strange contraptions that spun and squeaked and groaned beneath me.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to get off. I could feel it in my bones as more and more people squeezed into the bus, shoving me further into my personal hell. I could barely breathe and the music that had once been so soothing was now just a blare of strange noises strung together. It was at this point, when I was just about ready to club some poor soul over the head, that I saw a school-girl. She was half the size of everybody else on the bus, her hair tied into those two neat plaits bound with black ribbons. She grinned at my irritable expression and winked. Against all odds I found myself starting to grin resignedly too. An old woman squished in a seat, heaved herself towards the window and patted the microscopic space beside her. I declined with a smile but the action lifted my spirits. Sure, I had to witness a million potentially devastating scenarios everyday as buses swerved out of the way of absent-minded pedestrians, scattering their passengers liberally onto the road, but through it all I knew that there were people who cared enough to offer some form of relief.

I’d been scowling at everyone in my way and still I was smiled at. Strangers who shouldn’t have given a minute’s thought to my well-being actually offered me a seat! People often accuse me of being idealistic and many believe that I’ll get swallowed in a moment in this “dog-eat-dog” world. I really feel though that help will always come when it’s needed. You may be clinging tightly to a yellow pole, feet planted gingerly on a floor that’s about to fall through, trying to “surf” the waves of this world. But there IS that somebody who will make that extra space and give you that smile you’d been looking for in vain.

-Taarika