Living in the US is not easy as it seems to be. Especially when you don’t have a driving license and have a husband who lives 400 miles away. Hence I am reduced to taking a cab, a train, a bus and then a gracious pickup in the husband’s car to reach his place almost every weekend. And as unbelievable as it might sound to an average city-dweller-and-heavily-dependent-on-public-transport-for-daily-business Indian like me, you have to time everything! You can’t just miss a train or a bus here, for the next one is only a couple of hours later. And they all have excruciating smart phone apps to remind you that you have a train to catch in 15 minutes and the next one won’t be coming until two hours later. I had asked a lift till the train station from a person who is genetically programmed to be late in everything. So with ten minutes to go for the train, he still hadn’t finished his work.
So I ran with my heart in my mouth, called a cab and
panicked so much that the taxi driver got panicky herself. When I reached, the
train was already entering the station. I didn’t bother to buy the ticket and
caught the train just in time. Later I paid $3 extra for buying the ticket from
the ticket collector in the train.
The train reached Chicago three minutes late sparing me
exactly 8 minutes to catch my bus. After five minutes of half running I finally
breathed when I reached the bus station.
After asking a few people when I reached my platform it
started snowing. Scared as I was of missing the bus, I stood there and didn’t
move to the shade a little far away. I could tell others were thinking the same
too, because nobody moved.
But then three minutes turned thirty minutes, thirty
minutes became sixty minutes; my teeth started clanking but the bus never
turned up. Numerous phone calls by various people didn’t help either. The customer
service agent didn’t have any info about the bus, and all the officials serving
our station suddenly vanished.
Finally when it was time for the next train to reach Chicago, I got seriously frustrated. I mean all my efforts had already gone wasted! I decided to take a coffee as I was freezing.
As luck would have it, the bus decided to show up just
then. I had to run again to catch it! And the bus driver’s words to me was – “Honey,
you gotta come on time. I was about to strike you off as no show!”
I mean, seriously? So much for living in the world’s
largest economy!
I was already pissed from being cold and waiting, the bus
driver’s comment was the only provocation I needed. And turned out, it was all
the others needed too.
So ultimately, the bus company made a full refund of
our money and a bus full of people rode the bus for 5 hours free!
But was the money worth the torturous wait in the cold?
No. Would I ride the bus again? Yes. Because I don’t have a choice. Because public
transport sucks in America.
So what’s my big lesson? Get the driving license faaaasssttt.
Love
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Riot of Random
