Was in Kochi to write a few exams. And I wouldn't mind doing this every now and then. Say two or three exams at a time. Only during rains. It's really worth it.
At home everyone leaves you alone: "She's studying, leave her alone." You are pampered: "You hungry? You want anything to eat? I'll drop you to the college in the morning." If the exam wasn't all that great, it's still ok: "You will pass, won't you? That's enough." Now it is very important that you don't do the exam-writing too often. I mean, none of this happens when you are writing exams all the while. No one drops you anywhere, you better be studying because that is all you have to do, and you better score well -- just manage to scrape through and you have had it for life. So, now you try it. :)
And I would write exams only during rains. Any other time, it would be criminal to waste three hours. But when it rains, sitting in a grand old college, looking out the grand old windows at the lazy misty rain falling on the grand old tree is rather dream like. Oh yes, and answer a few questions too :)
Well anyway, the first time I stepped into a city bus this time, I realised that I had actually been missing those bus rides! Women in the front, men at the back. Even in the most crowded of buses -- in which you have people standing on your feet and hanging on your hair -- the conductor will still shout out "Move in, there's enough space there to play football". Heheh! I immediately have this vision of people actually trying to play a game of football and making a complete mess of it.
Oh that reminds me. A few years ago, someone came up with the brainwave that city buses caused so many accidents because the driver, instead of concentrating on the road, flirted with the women or tried showing off. So promptly there came a new rule that women shall use the back door and occupy that part of the bus. But that didn't quite work. The habit of all those years just couldn't be broken. So they reverted to the old system, but this time made it mandatory that all buses have these bars across the front so that no one could stand anywhere near the driver. Even that rule didn't get much far. In those rush hours, when the conductor lectured about the game of football one could be playing, women and children just squeezed past the barricades. I am yet to see any statistics proving that the rule made a difference in the accident rates.
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Well I can imgine the bus rides and how cleaners or 'kilis' scare away pedestrians and other vehicles with 'pallakdi'. But was the rule women using back doors started after an accident (bus plunging to a pit) that killed many women and children?. I remember Scared men raised a hell against the rule.
Oh even Karnataka has this women in front and men in back rule. I remember in my early days in Chennai, I used to run to the front side even if the bus was practically empty! Bala used to find it hajaar amusing. And yeah even in Bangalore they put up these bars to separate the driver from the women. Don't think that has reduced the number of accidents though. And Sav, after G, you are the most enthusiastic exam writer I have known. I am somehow not proud of it though ;-)
Didn't know that about Kochi buses, that women were asked to get in from the back at some point. Well, it MCP Kerala we're talking about, so it's not surprising.
hmph, what the hell are the women supposed to do if the freakin driver gets distracted?! Yeah, blame the women. Well, if someone as educated as the Anna University VC Vishwanthan subscribes to the same view, and imposes a dress code in colleges, there's not much to be said about the plight of women.
It took a few thousand years to get here; it's gonna take another few thousand years of civilisation for women to stop being discriminated against.
All I can manage now is "Hmph!"
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