The Enlightened Driver- 3

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No matter how much the police guard insulted and ripped down his dignity, the driver stood still, like little kids at school waiting for the teachers to get tired of yelling. And so it did work here too; the guard with the help of his subordinates pulled apart the heavy barricades and let the bus pass through. Right after we joined the highway, the bus was submerged in awkward silence. I imagined that everyone was digging through their dictionary of bad words, without much luck. That's when a comic relief occurred.

               A few aisles back, a hefty man woke up from his sleep and sighed. He marched to the driver, took a deep breath and -- Out came a string of 11 dirty slang curse words in full tilt and pitch. I counted because I never saw this man do anything in our 12 hours of travel till now. After that ended, he marched right back, settled in his chair and went back to sleep. I glanced sideways at the driver. Yup, he still sat motionless; that wise expression of serenity spread across his face. Sleep tugged at my eyes and I left it to the driver to hopefully go in the right direction while I dozed off in the few hours before morning. 

When I did awake, I frantically pushed across the curtains at a 'Mooooo' sound.  Sure enough, I was greeted with the sight of chickens flocking around aimlessly, old grandmas hurling broomsticks at our bus, and my own window grazing the edge of a hut. 

"What are you doing!!" Is this the way?" I asked, surprised at the break in my morning voice. 

"A drunk guy pointed the way down this lane... I'm following his instructions" Now it was my turn to smack my forehead. 

"Great... do whatever you want" I muttered as I walked back feeling sick as ever. I should've reached a long time a ago, sitting in these seats made my knees hurt.. Then I switched over to watching the video outside without the audio and whiled away time.

                    Eventually we made it to Kumbakonam, one stop away from the destination where everyone got off the bus except me. The old man made sure all of us filled out a complaint and had us sign it as well. The driver obliged by giving us his name.Then, the old man handed it to me.

"Since you're the only one going all the way, please give this back to the Bangalore office. This body of mine can't fight against this idiot and his actions anymore.'' Saying so he cursed the driver a bit more and caught another bus. After everyone had gone, the cleaner boy looked at me with pity.

"Mam aren't you leaving?"

"I paid to get off at Mayavoram and that's the only place I will get down at! Do you get that?" I raised my voice and then started dishing out directions to the driver. 

             If I said right, he'd turn left, if  I asked him to check the sign boards, he'd do so after crossing the sign itself. I ignored it all and made a call to my brother beforehand to save the time he'd waste on finding the office again. Finally my stop came, but he went the same loop again and again trying to get the office. I got down gave him directions and watched as he did the direct opposite. Some things never change.... 

   

 When it was time to get back to Bangalore, I asked the guy at the desk a million times if I was going to get the same driver. 

"Hahaha no mam', he's not our permanent driver."

"But he said he drives to Palazni?" I defended without knowing why. 

"Well did you ask him from where he drove to Palazni?" Uh oh I thought as I shook my head. The guy laughed more. Seems like the joke was on us, for the poor driver used to pick people up, four stops from Palazni and drive them there. A straight road, then a simple U-turn and back again. The guy never knew a highway, or exits, and never really had the need to go more than 40km/hr because he never drove out of the village!!!! Ha! I thought. For all the screaming and yelling we showered on him, the driver was sure enlightened enough to take it all in and still do his best to get us to our destination!