Traveling by Bus in Delhi

Mumbai: Local Train :: Delhi: DTC Bus. DTC stands for Delhi Transport Corporation, the bus service which is operated by the Government of Delhi. It claims to be the world’s largest bus service which is operated on clean fuel.

Anyhow, that’s not the point I want to make. I regularly used DTC in my 11^th and 12^th standard to commute to and from my school. Even in my first semester of college, I had to rely on DTC. It was then a long break when I started using the bus service regularly again. This is when I noticed the difference.

The initial regular traveling years were from 1998 to 2000-2001. And it is now 2008. When one travels the same route every day at the same time, one sees the same set of people, the same conductor and driver and the same amount of traffic etc. Initially, people who traveled together felt connected with one other. We use to smile at each other, although people might have never talked to each other. Even if someone had not made it, everyone ensured that the bus is held for few minutes to wait for the person who has not made it. Some people had made their groups and use to chat generally in life and even had their seats fixed. It was the same scene and I use to really like it.

But now, this is all gone now. No one just bothers for anyone else. Although, I meet the same people every morning, no one seems to recognize each other or feel connected. I was little taken aback by this attitude especially in Delhi, which is known to be generally an extrovert city.

I thought and finally came blamed to one thing which everyone uses these days (I am not sure if that is the real reason but could not think anything better also :D) – the cellphones/ mobile phones/ MP3 Players/ iPods of the world. Everyone is chatting over the phone, or busy listening to music on their MP3 player or iPod or radio in the phones. I also do the same and realized how cut off I am getting from the world around me.

As Nokia claims to be “Connecting People”, I am not very sure about it ;)