Day 30: Have you ever been thrown out of a bus?

Well, not so long ago, a close of friend of mine was. He was thrown out of a bus and I had to go pick him up because he was literally abandoned on the side of a road, literally smack dab in the middle.

You might wonder, what could he have done that he alone got kicked out of the Ducking bus! Did he create nuissance, did he not buy a ticket, I mean… did he hit somebody…?

The answer is none of the above. He got kicked out because he handed the conductor a ₹200 note in exchange for a ₹5 ticket. And the conductor got so annoyed and was so hot-headed, he made the driver stop and left my friend on the road. What was his problem exactly? We’ll most probably never know.

Having this experience in the back of his mind my friend told me to always carry change when taking a bus. And I, forgetting that, had only a ₹500 note. And this wasn’t something new to me. When my friend told me to always carry change, if I’m being honest, it did feel quite unnecessary. I had no cash let alone change, so I figured it would all workout in the end. I mean, I’d never had such a problem, conductors have generally been very nice to me (please God, tell me I’m not jinxing all this), and whatever the cash I had, they’ve returned the exact amount in change, as they should.

But when I got on the bus, this thought did hit me. When it was my turn to buy a ticket, I handed him a ₹500 note. The conversation was a short and quick exchange during which he smiled and gave me back ₹495.

There’s a bunch of differences here. Actually, there’s only two. My friend had his expensive headphones on his head and a fancy ass phone in his hand. I was dressed modestly, although, I too did have a fancy ass phone in my hand. And what’s the other difference? I’m female, he’s not ;)

That second difference was what I’d first pointed out to my friend when he first had given me advice on carrying smaller bills. But who’d have known the difference would’ve been this drastic. I told him, I like conductors, they’re most often very polite and helpful.

Had this been the only incident, I think I’d have blamed it on the ₹20k headphones ;). But this was more than an isolated incident. Similar things had happened to him, more than once, although of course never as extreme as this. And I can count the number of times I was treated “impolitely”, not even rudely and unfairly.

I’ve even had auto-drivers agree to drop me off because it was too late at night - at a reasonable price at that AND even when they were just finishing up their shifts and going home. I’ve had a bus drive a bit further after the last stop, again because it was too late at night.

These are some of the moments that it really hits me. And I’m grateful for people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I know what I’ve written today will hit people in 2 majorly different ways. One party is gonna think of the true meaning of feminism, the other will probably think I’m sympathizing with them. I’m not.

Actually, in my next post, I’m just gonna write about a small activity regarding that very word, “feminism”. Who wants to come at me?