virudhaarthi..

I have a lot in mind when it comes to differences between the way of life in India and USA...I thought of starting with the mundane day-to-day stuff... Metro Line / Bus So the algorithm here works like this. You find out the bus number, stop to get down at. Whereas in India you had all the power, voice and guts to fight with the conductor for change i.e expecting the conductor to give you change for a 100 Rupee note when the ticket costs just 5 bucks...here in US, you manage to get up an hour early before your travel, decently go to the nearest Bank, wait in the line till the teller calls you up and very politely hand over a 10$ note and ask for 1s and quarters!!!Why?Coz in Metro line its 1.5 bucks whether you have to get down at next stop or last stop and you insert the bills into the machine and the machine not going to give you any change so if you were dumb enough to get in with a 20$ note then bam!! off you go with 20$ for a 1.5$ ticket.... Now that we got the ticket out of our way, lets see the boarding part. If one has ever travelled by BEST in Mumbai and managed to get into a 92 or 501 then they would know the rush. Most often it happens that the ticket is bought by pass of hands.....you are standing on the foot board, the conductor is standing near the driver but human chain as they say....skillfully the ticket is bought just before your stop comes... :) In US, as every passenger gets into the bus, the driver patiently waits for each one to put their bills in the machine. Imagine if the BEST drivers had to do that...not less than 15 people get into the bus at every stop and if he had to wait for everyone to get their tickets and then start the bus then we would never cross a stop!! When I hear the automated announcement of arriving stops here in the buses, I miss the thunder voiced conductors back in Mumbai...from whereever did they get that kind of volume to shout out the stops :) One noteworthy thing about the facilities in the buses here is their respect for physically challenged. Everyone comes together to make them comfortable while travelling.