Rohit aka Rotty.... I

“Are Jaldi Bhag nahi to Bus miss ho jaegi”, seeing the standing DTC bus at the stop , I shouted and increased my speed hoping desperately to catch it so that we will be saved from the horrendous bus ride in the private buses, which according to the passengers is full the moment they step their foot into and which for the conductor is never full even when he has close to 10 people hanging from both the doors.

In these private buses, you can always hear each of the conductor nearby the two doors shouting to the people standing there “Are undar ho jao, kitne jagah hai wahan beech me”.
From outside, on seeing the amount of people boarding it at every stop you simply wonder that this bus is somewhat similar to the tents you see in Harry Potter movies which seem so small from outside but on entering it you see that its nothing less than a huge palace but these are similar to tents only from outside.

Ok now coming back to work in hand. Somehow I felt that the DTC bus was not moving as if just waiting for us, I thought may be the bus conductor or driver has seen us running behind it or maybe he just wants to pick some passengers in this somewhat empty Friday afternoon but soon I saw the actual reason, a trailer was parked ahead of it and driver was honking desperately for it to move. I thanked the trailer driver in my heart and soon reached the bus and jumped inside. On finding it somewhat less crowded, I dropped my bag on the seat in front of gate and then looked back to see my friend who was right behind me.

What I saw, having known him for so many years, did not seem un usual to me. Hero was hanging from the door with his right hand outstretched ala DDLJ. He later told me as always that I should always roam with my guitar so that I could play a song whenever he wants me to, in this case he imagined me playing the DDLJ Tujhe Dekha to.... tune in the background.

I raised myself little from the seat and could see from the window a Girl running with a black bag hanging rather falling from her shoulder. By one hand she was holding on to her bag and by other she was trying to remove the hairs that were falling on her face. Since the driver was still trying hard to find his way across the trailer, I thought she will make without a problem but then suddenly it started moving. I got up but our hero I saw was cool, he just bent little more, quite sure to grab her hand and pull her up.

For once I thought that the DTC conductor will look up from his routine of counting the cash or tearing the ticket from the pack and look behind and signal the driver to stop but instead I saw him whistle for the driver to move. I looked outside,she was still running hard and hopefully the bus has not picked up speed yet.

Soon she was near the rear end of the bus and like our hero thought, I even thought it’s going to happen. Just then I saw her stop. A car from nowhere appeared (ok it was always there but we did not notice). She very casually boarded it leaving our hero stranded with his outstretched hand.

I was disappointed but at same time amused too.

He very calmly pulled himself little back and banged his same outstretched hand on the bus shouting “Border, border....”

That’s Rohit or as I call him Rotty........