MTC bus travel - A/C Bus

I travelled by one of MTC's A/C buses yesterday evening. This was a first time for me, though the buses have been in operation for quite some time now.

Raghu and I have been talking about making a trip on this bus from the minute the announcement about the introduction of these buses were made. But since he has not really "found time" to make the trip, we couldn't make that trip.

Last evening, I came out of the Guindy subway and those of you familiar with the terrain there would realise that the subway opens into the bus stop. And when I stepped on to the stop, there was a 21G A/C bus waiting there. For a brief moment, I thought of boarding the bus. Then I thought of the "pact" with Raghu but then also remembered that he would not be making the trip, in spite of his tall claims, especially after his cousin narrated a harrowing experience involving someone vomiting in the bus.

So, I decided to board the bus. But the problem with that route - 21G - from my perspective is that, it takes a left turn near IIT and goes towards Kotturpuram. In effect this means that I would have to get down at Anna University stop itself. But I decided that the main aim was to travel by that bus and so decided in favor of boarding the bus.

Meanwhile the bus driver, who was not privy to all this mental processing (it actually took a much shorter time compared to the time it takes you to read it), started the bus from the stop. As I went towards the bus, I realised that he hadn't closed the door and also that he was actually doing a speed of 1 KmPH. So I was able to easily ask him if the bus stopped at Anna University and he nodded in the affirmative and even asked me to board the bus. His exact words were "umm.. vaanga sir", which was a rarity considering that if you somehow manage to speak to a driver by virtue of your good karma, the response would typically be along the lines "yaeru paa yaeru yaeru".

I boarded the bus and instantly felt the effect of the A/C which was in full blast. The temperature was definitely set at around 18 degrees. Even as I started moving towards the back of the bus, the conductor walked towards me and actually gave me a smile - the second shock in the space of one minute for me since no one has ever really given me a welcome smile inside a bus.

I bought my ticket and sat in the back half of the bus, which by the way is at an elevated level compared to the front portion, which is barely a foot above the road.


When the bus went up the Guindy flyover, I simply didn't feel that the bus was going up a slope. There was an internal speaker system through which some Tamil film music was being played. It didn't sound like radio, but am not sure about it.

Since my stop was actually the next one, I got to travel only around 1.5 Kms. Some 100 metres before the stop, there was an announcement over the speakers about what the next stop was. I got up from my seat with a really heavy heart that the good time was getting over so quickly and got out of the bus.

And to make things worse, in the next couple of minutes a bus headed to Besant Nagar came along and it was a rick-rack; probably one that was procured by the MTC during my school days!