To a bus-mate who was never a bus-mate
July 8th, 2010You know very well how long it takes to reach to office in Bangalore if you are staying in residential areas ( I don’t consider Electronic city / Madivala / BTM as residential areas 
).
These long commutes make commuting people bored. To beat boredom, people keep themselves engaged in several activities like listening to music, reading books, sleeping, thinking and also some stupid things like observing bus in which they are sitting, seats & its nuts and bolts, scribblings written on back of seats..etc.
Many do one more activity.. observing other commuters; watching them when they board or alight. Several people call it with several names.. starring, ogling, watching, observing.. etc. Whatever you call it, it is one of the most common things people do during commute. I also used to do that.
Watching / observing people, as I call it, helps you to identify a pattern in them. It helps you to identify people’s likes, preferences, style statement, dressing sense, habits and even their relationship status. Yes.. even relationship status can be identified. It is very easy to identify whether a person is single or committed or married or has bf in bus or at some other place over the phone. Guesses might go wrong but most of times it would be accurate prediction if you have acquired the skill of observation.
There was this girl who used to commute from my area to office in the same bus at same timings.
She never used to talk to anyone either with fellow bus-mates or over the phone. She was not hot or sexy. She was an average good looking girl. She was just another commuter in the bus. Yet I used to observe her a lot.
I prefer a two seater window seat of last but one row. Her preference was also a two seater window seat but of mid row. I never felt of sitting next to her or talk to her. I had always chosen last but one row in spite of several opportunities when a seat next to her was not taken.
Eventually I had to come to US for an onsite opportunity. A year stay away from homeland had totally removed her out of my mind.
Last month when I had gone to India, bus journey to office again reminded me of this girl. But I could not find her in bus during my whole stay of month. Some of obvious thoughts that came across.. she must have gone to onsite or married and moved to some other area or city. But that was not the case.
The day before my departure to US, I saw her. I was in bus. She was in opposite bus stop standing waiting for some other bus. She was wearing a different company ID tag. She had quit the company.
This post is dedicated to her.. who I never knew.. who was a stranger yet so familiar.. to an infoscion .. now an ex-infoscion 