I saw in Citizen Matters that I could volunteer for Bus Day this month:
So I’ve registered myself….let’s see what I am asked to do, and what happens! It’s going to be interesting, and I am rather tickled by the concept that "celebrities" cannot take the bus without assistance!
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The infuriating hit and run Porsche case in Pune, is still on people’s minds, and now another case of hit an run, this time in Mumbai’s Worli, hit headlines, raising serious questions about road safety. Mihir Shah, son of a Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader, is accused of hitting a couple on a scooter and dragging the wife on the bonnet of the car instead of stopping the car, resulting in her death. He has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. Victim’s husband, on a video, said that if the driver of the vehicle had stopped the car, his…
Last month, news reports emerged of ticketed passengers stranded at Chennai Central railway station. They carried bonafide tickets for seats on a train bound for Howrah, but discovered that unauthorised travellers had occupied their coaches; it is said that people began to board the train even as the railcars were entering the platform so that the sleeper coaches were full by the time they made a stop at the station. According to a report in The Hindu, ticketless passengers had not only overrun the reserved coaches but also blocked walkways with their luggage, making it impossible for those who had…
Update: Today I got a call from Girija of BMTC (phone no. 2295 2522) who asked me where (of four locations, including Silk Board, and Electronics City) I’d like to be. Then she told me that East End was also one of the locations, and I have volunteered for that, for the evening shift.
The other two locations were Mekhri Circle and Majestic.
080411 update: Late yesterday, I got an SMS from mobile no. 98865 19061, as follows:
“Please contact Mr Nithin Hegde at 77609 91012 regarding any clarification about bus day tmrw. Pls inform him you are a non-bmtc volunteer. Regards/bmtc team”.
Just now, I called the number and spoke to Mr Nithin Hegde, who asked me how I had got his number, who gave it to me (I explained)…and he said “Namge enu gotthilla” (I don’t know anything)….I’ve been calling the mobile no from which the message came, and I am not able to get through.
I’m probably going to East End by 5pm, see what I can do….
I am wondering what happened after 5PM.Request you to continue the post with your Bus Day experience as volunteer. Thanks
Another update: I did go and spend until 6.30pm there; as far as I could see, no VIP or other notable seemed to come to East End! But it was nice to watch the cross-section of people who DO use the buses regularly, and then I walked to Ranga Shankara to see a play.