A Bus ride through Bangalore on a Sunday morning

Alright.. Before you go through the title and mentally label this as an impossible feat to achieve! I would like to add that I had an identical opinion about this, only to be dumbstruck with joy a while later. So here it goes..

It was about a week ago, I was supposed to give an entrance exam on a Sunday (sigh) and my exam centre was located in the other corner of the city (oh yeah, I’m always lucky with that!) So yeah, my mother woke me up early in the morning and for the next half hour I whined about my life, the heavens and the examination board. As I continued to mutter curses under my breath, I was booted out of my house and into the bus about an hour early! (my mom has an uncanny knack of dealing with wimpy kids like me!)

As the bus began to move, I noticed there were hardly any people and the bus looked exceptionally clean, another bizarre thing I saw was, a happy bus conductor (we Bangaloreans regard it as a myth!) as I observed he continued to hum a popular Kannada track and went about his job, chatting occasionally with people and helping them with directions. As expected on an early morning during weekends, the roads were traffic free and our bus eased through effortlessly. The cold wind rushed through my face and by now I was thoroughly enjoying the calm and blissful atmosphere around me. I looked outside my window, to see a deserted but a lovely Bangalore, no shops except the petty ones and the street vendors were open, the malls looked like they never existed.. There were a few people here and there probably out to savour the morning beauty. The best part was that, my city looked greener than ever, the sunlight painting the surroundings in shades of gold and yellow. As I sat there transfixed listening to myriads of sounds of the nature with a slight intervention of hustle and bustle of the city, piecing together in a perfect symphony. I wondered that this might have been the Bangalore as it was, two decades ago.. in all its alluring glory.

Soon the bus halted and I was shaken out of my reverie and took one last glimpse out the window (of the bus and my thoughts) I realized that I have an exam waiting to torment me, but somehow I was at peace and oblivious to that, my mind captivated by what I call the ‘The Bloom of Dawn’.

Photography credits: Naazneen Ahmed