Nostalgia ------ Bus day 27D

Its been a long long time since I travelled in public transport bus in  Chennai. But in my college days the bus was our lifeline.

To give due credit the Public transport in Chennai was one of the best and is still is in this country ,of course after BEST in Mumbai.

I used to be staying in Vepery with my aunty and going to my college in Royepettah.My classfellow and dear friend Viji lived in Ayyanavaram.

The bus route 27D used to start in Ayyanavaram and its destination was Foreshore Estate those days . It went via Kellys turning right near the tank in Purasawalkam.The bus route was through some important roads, passed  two popular girl’s colleges Stella Maris & Queen Mary’s. So the bus had students from those colleges who lived in Ayyanavaram & Kellys, which attracted a lot of boys to that bus route whether their destination was on that route or not! So the bus had a certain attraction to it.The bus was invariably full, with a lot of students footboarding.

Viji my classfellow and dear friend, took 27D at Ayyanavaram and I caught up with him at Purasawalkam tank,( after taking a bus from Vepery) and somehow managed to squeeze myself into the bus with an occasional hand from Viji inside the bus .Certain day’s it was too  jampacked, at which stage I would take the next bus which was invariably 23C and intercept 27D at some place. There were times when I took an auto to catch the bus at the next stop.

There were lot of regulars in the bus,one among them stood out ,a dusky tall girl whose presence filled the bus at least for us.The day she did not come the bus seemed forlorn.But not surprisingly enough none of us tried to befriend her. It was the 70’s , and we did not have social media!!

Surprisingly enough even the bus drivers & the conductors would know the regular student commuters and would slow down to allow the regulars to embark or get down even out of bus stops.

I still do not remember how the idea started ( probably my friend Viji will clarify) we decided to felicitate the driver/busconductor of the bus , by having a Bus Day. To the best of our knowledge, nobody had done this in Chennai.

We put together our meagre resources and some donations form our regulars to buy a dhoti for the bus driver /conductor , some sweets for the commuters, and painted a poster to hang in front of the bus with a garland.

If memory serves me right, we stopped the bus in Cathedral road , gave sweets to all in the commuters in the bus, felicitated the driver & the bus conductor, with a lot of cheering from all . Of course the commuters from other passing buses looked on with interest as they passed by our bus bemused.

( unfortunately we did not have camera phones those days to record the event or had Newspaper reporters or TV crews to record such an unique event)

I do not know whether this Bus day happened in the immediate  years following what we did.

Over the past years  in Chennai ,there seems to be a revival of the Day, but Bus day’s  seemed to have  turned unruly , with students hijacking buses and  putting commuters into trouble . The police are said to be against this, and have warned the students.

Every time I go to Chennai &I see this bus route winding its way to its destination , my mind is filled immediately with the time we celebrated a Bus Day.

https://youtu.be/y3KEhWTnWvE