Hailing from small town in Western Ghats, meant very rarely available public transport & distances that were not so much far. So as I grew out of callipers(steel), knee surgeries which hyper-extended both of my hamstrings, resulting in loss of control & very frequent locking of both of my knees in hyper-extension; I gradually started walking ever longer distances for endurance. 4 yrs of disciplined efforts at building the endurance paid off, I started relishing my long walks to & fro college 4.2 km one-way on secluded stretch of road. The walks while drained me to the point of physical exhaustion also provided me with a chance to introspect to defuse my anger and bitterness for being pitied, ignored, or ridiculed, which, unfortunately was disturbingly common occurrence.
Got through the turbulent teenage & college education at the same time with flying colours when I landed a job in bigger city. With it came different set of problems, my parents were not at all ready to let me live away from them. After roping in all of my entire extended family & thousand arguments & another million tantrums later, finally got a nod on the condition that I live with my paternal aunt who very graciously agreed to take care of me & look over me. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the context, Indian kids live with their parents till either of them dies or in case of girls till they get married off).
Unfortunately for me, that meant taking 2 buses just to reach the office. This Ordeal made me wonder who designed the red buses that ply on Indian roads as public transport? and with which demographic in mind? I have never seen even a tall man climb the bus without using the support of hand rails, ergo it is only designed for young men with all 4 limbs working in perfect order. The lowest step to climb in bus is so high that knee of leg reaching the step used to touch my chin. Believe it or not at 5ft, I am as tall as an average Indian women. Same goes for insides too, the support railing is so high most women would not be able to reach it unless they have Chimp-long arms. This high step climb into bus required me to swing myself up using the 2 door-side handrails to get in, unfortunately these double bar gymnastics did take a little more time for me than needed by others to board the bus.
While the public transport was feasible it was not accessible/practical at all. The bus stops had no queues, people shoved & pushed to get ahead; most testing of all bus drivers & conductors would not allow me to board from front door. Front door boarding was right of access for physically handicapped & infirm, but the awareness & implementation of the law was infinitesimally minimal. I persistently complained at the interchange every time with the bus number & statement that the driver did not allow me to board from the front door. The clerk at the complaint desk mostly laughed it off till he got annoyed & then literally told me to bugger off saying "I was asking too much of privilege which I do not deserve".
In mean while I figured out that if I start sufficiently early as in an hour before the rush hour I can board the bus, optimistically considered I might even improve my speed of gymnastics to climb too after everyday practise. Boarding the bus from back door, meant the conductor would ring the bell every single time before both of my feet were inside the bus, as I was a slow person who always boarded at last to avoid being pushed underneath the bus by the crowd in hurry.
Eventually I decided, on walking the second leg of the commute instead of trying to board bus at the busy interchange. This gave me back the very chance of catharsis, I so loved. But the distance in the second leg was longer than what I was used to walking & besides this I was throwing up my breakfast everyday due to motion sickness induced by riding the bus. This routine caused a significant drop in my weight in a month which was always a concern for my health as per doctors'. After nearly missing being run-over by bus by falling down while climbing in, I finally convinced my parents to let me live close enough to office so that I can walk to office, instead of taking public transport.
2 weeks later I moved in as a paying guest with a kind family, they also ran a catering service. In the evenings the living room of the house served as makeshift dining hall. I credit my stay here for re-introducing me to my hobby of reading that I had given up under the guise of studying. I first took to reading whilst being admitted to the hospitals, as post-op pain would not let me sleep, sort of made a record of reading 50+ pocket books in 3 months from Tom Sawyer, Black beauty to Sherlock Holmes. The master piece The hound of Baskerville, hooked me on to the series & weird similarities in thought process of the protagonist & mine made me feel a tad too proud.
Got through the turbulent teenage & college education at the same time with flying colours when I landed a job in bigger city. With it came different set of problems, my parents were not at all ready to let me live away from them. After roping in all of my entire extended family & thousand arguments & another million tantrums later, finally got a nod on the condition that I live with my paternal aunt who very graciously agreed to take care of me & look over me. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the context, Indian kids live with their parents till either of them dies or in case of girls till they get married off).
Unfortunately for me, that meant taking 2 buses just to reach the office. This Ordeal made me wonder who designed the red buses that ply on Indian roads as public transport? and with which demographic in mind? I have never seen even a tall man climb the bus without using the support of hand rails, ergo it is only designed for young men with all 4 limbs working in perfect order. The lowest step to climb in bus is so high that knee of leg reaching the step used to touch my chin. Believe it or not at 5ft, I am as tall as an average Indian women. Same goes for insides too, the support railing is so high most women would not be able to reach it unless they have Chimp-long arms. This high step climb into bus required me to swing myself up using the 2 door-side handrails to get in, unfortunately these double bar gymnastics did take a little more time for me than needed by others to board the bus.
While the public transport was feasible it was not accessible/practical at all. The bus stops had no queues, people shoved & pushed to get ahead; most testing of all bus drivers & conductors would not allow me to board from front door. Front door boarding was right of access for physically handicapped & infirm, but the awareness & implementation of the law was infinitesimally minimal. I persistently complained at the interchange every time with the bus number & statement that the driver did not allow me to board from the front door. The clerk at the complaint desk mostly laughed it off till he got annoyed & then literally told me to bugger off saying "I was asking too much of privilege which I do not deserve".
In mean while I figured out that if I start sufficiently early as in an hour before the rush hour I can board the bus, optimistically considered I might even improve my speed of gymnastics to climb too after everyday practise. Boarding the bus from back door, meant the conductor would ring the bell every single time before both of my feet were inside the bus, as I was a slow person who always boarded at last to avoid being pushed underneath the bus by the crowd in hurry.
Eventually I decided, on walking the second leg of the commute instead of trying to board bus at the busy interchange. This gave me back the very chance of catharsis, I so loved. But the distance in the second leg was longer than what I was used to walking & besides this I was throwing up my breakfast everyday due to motion sickness induced by riding the bus. This routine caused a significant drop in my weight in a month which was always a concern for my health as per doctors'. After nearly missing being run-over by bus by falling down while climbing in, I finally convinced my parents to let me live close enough to office so that I can walk to office, instead of taking public transport.
2 weeks later I moved in as a paying guest with a kind family, they also ran a catering service. In the evenings the living room of the house served as makeshift dining hall. I credit my stay here for re-introducing me to my hobby of reading that I had given up under the guise of studying. I first took to reading whilst being admitted to the hospitals, as post-op pain would not let me sleep, sort of made a record of reading 50+ pocket books in 3 months from Tom Sawyer, Black beauty to Sherlock Holmes. The master piece The hound of Baskerville, hooked me on to the series & weird similarities in thought process of the protagonist & mine made me feel a tad too proud.
