En route Enlightenments!!

When counting sheep doesn’t seem to help and I end up staying awake throughout my 80km journey to work, here is a peek into the stuff I get to see…
- A dog pees like a man…standing on hind legs!
- A woman in a half sari does that too… balancing a basket on her head. Wonder how though!!
- I see little chicks that grow up into well fed hens and disappear one fine day, only to be replaced by little chicks again in the coop.
- Fully blown pictures of young gals dressed in all finery put up in villages to celebrate their first period! A feast follows and the picture is left to the mercy of the winds – probably till the fact that the little girl has ‘come of age’ is etched in every villager’s memory.
- Irrespective of the number of people boarding the college bus, there is not one person standing when the bus is on the move. Thanks to flexible bases and accommodating laps.
- Seats that I choose or begin to think are comfy get occupied when I just start thinking of the seat as ‘mine’!
- Saw some people bidding goodbyes to their dead, sitting by the road(!) and performing the last rites.
- Veggies being transported – some fall almost into the gutter but as long as they are retrievable, they are hauled back into the cart! Makes me wash veggies n times more!!! Ugh!!
- Stuff that blocks the gutter – plastic and the like is fished out and deposited by the side of the pavement in a heap. Only to be spread out on the road by scurrying feet/ the ever flowing vehicles. Heavy rains and they all go back into the gutter and the cycle continues. Ahem – atleast somebody has a job. So what if it is redundant? Huh!
- People spit out/blow their noses (double yuck!!!) out of windows, oblivious to others in the bus.
- This year, I knew the birthdays of high rung Telgu actors. Thanks to the innumerous wishes flashed in almost every village! Those guys must be shivering with so many ‘fans’ following. ;)
- Ice blocks are put in sacks and beaten up to be broken to be used in ‘on-the-move’ foodie carts. I sit back and hope with fervor that this is not followed elsewhere!
- All the weird little boards that are spelt wrong! Makes me want to go on a correcting spree with a bucket of paint & brush in hand! But on second thoughts, the struggle to decipher what it means and the smile that breaks out once you have it figured out … well, I guess it is worth the mistake!
- Love the green..Green and GREEN – the route that our bus takes!! But fellow travelers think that the city route is better since you get to check out lots of babes.. guess I’m growing old!!! – not that I’d prefer checking out babes anyways! ;)
- And yeah! It is beyond my comprehension as to how a village nested in the folds of the Simhachalam hill range can be HOT!!!
- Potters at their wheel – an everyday reminder that this is something I have to learn. Hmmnn.. got to learn enough Telgu to ask them to let me try my hand at it.
- Dads/friends/husbands/kids who come to drop off their dear ones… Kids waving byes to their mommies even after the bus moves on… awwww!! Makes me miss home!!
- Old beady eyed women dragging on their ‘sutta’ – an epitome of bliss!
- The never ending rows of lorries waiting for ore – the drivers caked in dust and soot, snoring under the shade of their vehicles, waiting for their turn.
- The whiff of freshly roasted cashews… makes me forgive and forget the dung and hen coop stenches that we just passed by.
...Counting on more sleepless rides!! :)