The Ladies Seat

Aug 14th 2008
Location: Kempegowda Bus Station aboard KSRTC Airavath (Bangalore to Goa)
Time: About 8 in the evening
Drenched in cold rain water, A trolley bag in right hand & a handbag in the left. Exhausted, tired & on the way to my first journey ALONE to Goa!

“Excuse me, I think you are on the wrong seat. This is a ladies seat!”. A sleepy, drenched man, in his early 30s looks up sheepishly at me from his half-covered blanket.

“No ma’am. You seem to be seriously mistaken. Neither is this a ladies seat, nor am I on the wrong seat!”

“Hey, that can’t be. I ASKED for a ladies seat!” He pointed me towards the conductor.

I stormed towards the front side of the bus. This was my first ever trip to Goa from Bangalore & I was travelling alone ! Since it was a long weekend, the tickets had been very difficult to get & a cousin bro had somehow managed to get me a ticket on this special bus. I’d paid twice the price of the actual ticket to get on this bus. The bus was already late by an hour or so, it’d been raining cats & dogs since the evening & getting to Majestic had been quite an experience in itself & I was too exhausted & angry to tolerate any more crap for the day.

I flashed my ticket to the conductor-“ Mera Ladies seat hain aur ek aadmi wahan pe baitha hain!”.I raised my voice to show my frustration.
”Madam, calm down. We’ll sort the matter.” He assured me. He had one long look at the ticket -“Madam, bus mein ladies seat toh sirf seat no.7 aur 8 hain. Aapka toh general seat hain! Abhi aap jaa ke apne seat mein baith jaaiye. The bus is about to start.”

I was shocked! How could this happen?How the hell was I going to travel to Goa , all alone, sitting next to a stranger, A man????This is NOT happening to me! I had clearly told my cousin that I wanted a ladies seat & only a ladies seat. I'm going to get my seats exchanged. I was so lost in my thinking that I didn't realize when the bus started moving & I got back to the hard reality. A long look around the bus made it clear, getting seats exchanged was going to be out of question. The bus was packed with people. I cursed my fate & slowly walked back to my seat with my luggage. All kinds of thoughts were crossing my mind. I was scared. I promised to myself- I'm going to stay awake all night!

By the time I'd reached my seat, the sleepy, drenched man (my co-passenger) was wide awake & out of his blanket. That's the first time I saw his face properly. He was a guy in his mid thirties. He looked descent but then I didn't want to take any chances with strangers. I was new to the city. It had been barely a month! I didn't know the local language.How can you trust anyone just like that? He gave me a faint smile as I approached my seat. "Hey, I don't mind exchanging the seat if your friend wants to sit next to you.Don't worry & be comfortable!". I didn't smile back.

"I don't have a friend and I guess I have no choice but to sit here!", I said with a frown. I dialed my mom's number & poured out everything to her.She told me to calm down & that everything would be fine. But at that time those words hardly made any difference. I kept the phone & was just trying to settle down when my co-passenger suddenly spoke up again-"Goenkar?". I nodded. "Hanvuy bi ( I too am a Goan)".

Those two words made quite a difference. I gave out a sigh of relief. Thank God, at least he is someone from my hometown, someone who speaks my language. He introduced himself. Goa is a small place & its not too tough to find some common link. His cousin happened to be my senior at college.He started a conversation to break the ice. He was an engineer, working with an MNC in Blore. As our conversation went ahead, I realized that he wasn't all that bad as I'd thought in the first place. I don't know what it was, but it didn't take much time for me to start feeling comfortable in his company & I didn't think twice before discussing some personal things. He loved talking, just like me & we both were engrossed in our talks. I forgot for a moment about the struggle I had to go through to reach the bus-station, the irritating rains which had drenched me & my luggage, the bus which had been an hour late & most important of all, that we were total strangers! We had so many things to discuss like we were some old lost pals who had met after an eternity! The journey was turning out to be fun!

Sixteen hours had passed by just like that and the journey had come to an end.The bus reached Margao bus stop. I got down, we exchanged numbers & promised to call each other up & meet often in Blore but I think we both knew somewhere deep below, that once we'd get busy in our own personal lives, staying in touch would be just impossible. That was the last I saw of him. We did message for a few months, there used to be occasional calls, which reduced with time.

How often do you come across a stranger with whom you share some things, you'd even hesitate to discuss with your friends? When you forget all the rules our elders told us about not talking to strangers.. I didn't sleep the whole night, as I'd thought. Only now, the reason was different. The Ladies Seat had made all the difference!