This is a story from Vaisakh who traveled in KSRTC Super Deluxe Air bus belongs to Guruvayoor depot from Bangalore to Thrissur.
I am writing some thing about my journey to Trichur on 30th October. We have started from satellite bus station, Bangalore at 2.10 (Bagalore-Guruvayoor Super deluxe airbus) to Guruvayoor through Mysore. The driver was an old guy not driving fast as our Kerala drivers do (but compared to Rajahamsa drivers, lot better). We have taken 3.45 hours to reach Mysore. Then we start running through the forest area. I was sitting in the front row and it was properly audible that the talk between driver and conductor. Driver told the conductor that we didn’t check the tyre. The conductor said its ok we can check that after reaching Thrrisur.
We were already late and we entered Kerala. Fron Gudaloor they have taken some 10-15 people. When reaching vazhikadavu the back tyre got punctured. Luckly we didnt get this on the forest. It was in vazhikadavu, near the petrol pump. The driver had taken the bus to the petrol pump. So some light was there.
Now the story begins. The time was 10Pm.
The conductor was so lazy and irresponsible. The driver told him that the stepiny is on the top, so we can call the nearest depot (16 km nilambur). Conductor went inside the bus and started searching for some thing. After some ten minutes he came out with one book that contains the phone numbers of depots. He was very slow in his movements. He tried calling the number and was not getting. He tried only once and was simply standing there and asked to check whether any other vehicle going.
After some time the driver told him to call again. He got the call and informed the authorities. The depot people told him that, they will call back. But he didnt get a call. That conductor was not taking any initiative to solve the issue. It was only a puncture and he can get a local guy to do this as this happened in a small town. Driver seems to be interested to do it by themselves and this big boss was not interested. He was telling that, this is not our asset. Top people has to take decision when puncture happens(funny ksrtc).
In the mean time one local guy has come there, he was a driver of another bus and told them that he is ready to help. But the conductor was not at all ready and he was waiting for the depot people to call. After some time again the driver called depot (driver was taking some responsibility and he was ready to replace the tyre by himself but this conducter……..).
I got angry and called the control room and told the issue. So they asked to give the phone to conductor. Then he told the condition. I think he got some thing hot from the control room. Now he suddenly told we can replace the tyre. The local guys also helped (actually local guys did the replacement) Almost an hour we wasted for the talk. With in 15-20 min the tyre got replaced. The conductor gave some 200 rupees to the local people. He asked more and the conductor was not ready to give. Then those guys took 5-10 rs from all passengers. We were ok to give 10 rs because if this is not happened we got messed up there the whole night.
At 11.40 we started from there. One we reached Perintalmanna, the driver told this issue to another driver.so that driver said its shame that u people replaced the tyre. We should not do that (what a useless guy this is) any way frinally we reached thrissur at 3.00 am instead of 12.15
On the whole trip the conductor was talking about the 200 Rupees, ridiculous guy.
Vaisakh M L
Bangalore
