Two cities. Two bus rides. One issue. One solution.
Scene 1:
I was visiting my in-laws in Jaipur and had gone shopping with my sister-in-law. It was evening when we had called it a day and decided to take a bus back. As soon as we boarded the bus and found our bearings and straps to hold on to, we found an argument brewing in the front seats. A man was occupying ladies' seat while a lady was standing with a kid in her lap. Two other ladies' seats were occupied by men. All women spoke up against this discrepancy but the men kept sitting shamelessly.The conductor was summoned. He was boyish and his requests went unheard. Unable to do much, he proceeded to collect fare. We ladies decided that if the conductor couldn't get the seats vacated, he wasn't getting any fare from us. This flared him up all right. He asked "Are you sure you don't want to pay?" We chorused YES. He repeated his question and got the same answer. His voice had somehow found steel, which was clearly missing while dealing with the erring men. He then called up someone to report that women were refusing to pay the fare. We egged him on to report the reason for non-cooperation, which he ignored. There was a lot of commotion in the bus. The conductor said that the bus was being taken back to the depot. We were new to the city and couldn't figure out if we were going towards our destination or away from it. The bus was moving in fits and starts and finally it stopped near traffic policemen. One of the men got up from ladies' seat and slithered down the exit! When a cop entered the bus, the guy in the front started getting up. He was taunted by women to hold on to his seat. He delivered a sob story to the policeman that he was ill and was returning from a doctor's visit. This was totally a new angle and excuse.
However, after the intervention of cops, the seats were vacated and ladies were given their due.
We then happily paid the fare. The disappointing note was the indifferent behavior of bus driver and conductor towards the whole episode.
However, I was very impressed that women took a stance and got their right.
Scene 2:
I boarded a bus in Bangalore at Kalasipalyam. Having boarded the bus at source, I easily got a
seat at the front. Later, a few ladies boarded the bus and found two men occupying ladies' seat. They asked the men to vacate these seats. The men started shouting and turned abusive. I could not follow the actual conversation as it was in Kannada but the gist wasn't hard to get. The ladies found other seats for themselves but one of them was a crusader for justice. She went down to look for the conductor and came back with him and a cop. As soon as these officials entered the scene, the men came up with silly excuses. "There was an emergency call which I had to take" said one. They were however ordered to get up and this time, they complied.
In both instances, women had spoken up. They did not take things lying down. Hats off to this spirit which will subtly but surely bring winds of change in our country.
