Bus day: anti-social nuisance
My first experience of a ‘bus day’ celebration (!) was today. Driving home in the afternoon on the OMR, I came across this infamous ‘celebration’ at the cost of everyone in general. The OMR, in the throes of being turned into the IT Corridor, is not an easily motorable road to begin with between SRP Tools and Kandhanchavadi. Then to have a bus moving along at walking pace obstructing traffic and slowing everything down for more than a kilometer behind it made it that much worse.
We finally managed to pass the ‘celebration’ near the Life Line Hospital. A bus crawling along at walking pace, with a bunch of unruly students in front of it. Dancing, shouting or walking, but generally wasting everyone’s time and their own while achieving nothing. There was a police jeep ahead of this noisy ‘procession’ and a police car following behind, their only purpose being to ensure the matter didn’t get out of hand. It certainly looked like the situation could boil over at any time, as the so called bus day seems nothing but an opportunity to be rowdy with impunity.
What are they celebrating? Our bus services? By disrupting the orderly schedule of buses, as well as the flow of traffic on the road? Are they being appreciative of the bus systems staff? By forcing them to crawl along in a humiliating fashion while they ‘revel’ in behaving like a bunch of anti-social elements? If they truly wanted to appreciative the daily dedication of the bus system’s staff, they should organize a felicitation of the staff at their college and fete them, like WCC does. What I saw was simply an excuse to hijack a bus, behave in an unruly manner and get away with it.
Why do the college authorities, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the police put up with this nonsense? They should crack down on this so called ‘celebration’ without purpose and put an end to everyone’s suffering at the hands of a bunch of students who don’t seem to have anything better to do.
David….ayya..u touching in sensitive spaats by talking abt this issue….
but the bus day celebration brings about a sense of satisfaction to the lower middle class chennai youth(to quote pravunplugged…it rhymes with something more appropriate)…
the class of ppl that dont aspire for anything much but feel dissatisfied at everything pretty much…
at getting low grades and having no other option but to study BA Literature, Theology and other useless subjects…
at yengufying and perumoochufying for better girls though their own personality wud not be exactly “Peter” enough…
at not being able to join a saftwhere gumpaynee..
at not being fit enough to join any other gumpaynee…
at being more comfortable in Ambattur than adayar…
at having good sound knowledge of all bus route numbers and the depot codes associated with each depot and the kind of fleet that operates from there(about the only knowledge they have of anything in this world)
etc etc….to such yooth…an odd bus day celebration gives them enough reason to feel that they actually “own” something on four wheels and be able to do whatever they want with it for just one day gives their creative and frustrated selves an outlet to have a “go at it” for all its worth…
ayya…unga pechu kettu..if they end up banning this…u wud not only end up frustrating the “Biddle Class”(Bus going Lower Middle Class)…but also creating an entire generation of ppl that will so much saabam vidufy that…david ayya…words will fail you when u touch the keyboard…appuram neenga blogging how doing…
Never mind celebrating those brave souls who drive and put-up with people on the bus for so many hours of the year, I would be more than happy if these…these……”yooths,” would stop their X-treme footboarding antics for a day on Bus Day.
“generally wasting everyone’s time and their own while achieving nothing. ”
You don’t work in a normal office, do you? :)
I like the Silanthi Manithan’s comment on this issue. It makes lot of sense to me. He has a point there.
Silanthi, thanks for your thought provoking comment. As someone who went to college by bus I can relate to student life. However, I’m troubled by some of your comments and will attempt to elaborate why.You talk of not aspiring for anything much and being dissatisfied pretty much. I think the two are related. Everything else seems to flow from there, including the low grades, courses that are a last option etc. The starting point is aspirations and the ability to work towards them dont you think? Things like ‘bus day’the way it was being done only waste time and take away from the focus on getting somewhere. And reinforce a negative spiral, making the particpants defensive, which comes out as aggressive behaviour. Instead of all this, why not look at what one really wants to achieve and work towards it? Secondly, doing something positive will add greatly to a sense of purpose and joy. For example, as a bus day celebration, what if the students took the bus and went to an orphanage and worked with the children there for a day? Or took them out on a picnic? What a difference it would make to those kids! And I daresay to the students who did that! I’m sure the MTC would co-operate. There are so many opportunities open for young people today, that I often think I would love to be a student again! So its disappointing when one sees students throwing away all thats in front of them with activities such as this which dont contribute to anyone in any way. Least of all to the students themselves.Just a few thoughts I thought I’d share.