There is a big difference between bus and train journeys now and a decade plus ago. It is the mobile phones (just mobile moving forward). No let me correct that….it is the people with mobiles. A decade ago, the big nuisance would be people talking loudly or worst-case loud snoring if the passenger next to you happen to sleep. I don’t include the crying of babies since these journeys are uncomfortable for them due to crowd, ambience, and noise levels. They can’t help and adults don’t help them either. A decade ago, without mobiles, over long journeys pretty much most of the passengers doze off since there is nothing else to do. But the situation has changed now, thanks to the mobiles. The challenge now is not people talking to each other, it is what they do with the mobiles. Initially I had a tough time adjusting to this nuisance. I tried headphones but I can’t wear it more than an hour. One can close the eyes, but it isn’t easy to shut off the ears 😔 Hard to get to meditative state in a bus or train. Over a period of time I attained a Zen state, don’t fight to shut off your senses, rather let go of the resistance and go with the flow. Enable all the senses 😀 Look around and listen in to what people do, talk, and watch. People forget that they are in a public space and discuss personal stuff forgetting the environment they are in. Relationship issues, personal rivalry, bribing, company secrets, prejudices, hatred, and the list go on. Discretion and privacy fly out of the window.

People who keep to themselves reciting slokas and prayers looking at the screen – either the image of their god or prayer book. They recite in library voice. These are good and nice people. There are few who remove their footwear and tap their cheeks with their hands if the bus passes a temple or church. Best I have seen is those on two wheelers – they halt their bikes, without getting off the bike they remove their footwear quickly, tap their cheeks and say their prayers if they pass a temple. All these done in few seconds – if you blink you will miss it. Don’t mistake me…I am not calling this out for fun. I feel sad for them. Either their work pressure doesn’t give them the time to say their prayers to god or it is the force of habit with no thought.

On contrast to above ones, there are few who will play the songs about god loudly as if they are doing a public service to others. They seem surprised when some other passenger asks them to stop playing or put on the earphones!! How can you not listen to this type of look!!

Swiping insta reels at a breakneck speed. They make the decision to like or not within seconds. The coordination between the eyes, the brain, and the ‘like-trigger finger’ is faster than the Phantom (old jungle saying: Phantom moves faster than lightning).

There are those who think just because they are on earphones or not on speaker phone others are not disturbed. They forget they are talking into the mouthpiece, and the decibel level varies based on context and their emotional state!! If their voice is lower than the library voice, then it is high probability their boy or girl friend is on the other end. Just by listening you can get to know so much information:

• What vegetables and meat they buy and eat
• What they plan to do that evening or over the weekend (you are tempted to jump in and give suggestions or join in!!)
• Relationship challenges (few times I have seen people crying on the phone)
• Good uncles and bad uncles; Property disputes
• Bringing up children and teenagers
• Seasonal ones: School and college admission, fees, donation to be paid, do you know anyone who can get a seat, etc.
• Boss and manager challenges. What stands out: the bosses don’t know a thing
• Company talks: What stands out: Invariably the top management doesn’t know what they are doing
• Party politics. What stands out: It is scary to see how much people are attached to parties and leaders
• As the train leaves the station, calls to update they have left the station or boarded
• As the destination nears, update every 5 mts where they are and reminder to pick them up; Discussion will continue many a times on what they would like to have for dinner/lunch/breakfast

Parents play the videos loudly to feed the babies and children. There is no way you can reason out with those parents. They will use the child as their defense shield. See, we are helpless type of look. Exceptions I can understand. But while the child is watching the video on a tablet, parents will be watching downloaded OTT movies. I need to point out good parents too – who engage their children actively reading books together or playing a game during the journey. Something to learn from them.

Above ones I would put them in harmless category. Also, it gives a perspective and understanding that problems and challenges are more or less same in every family. Then there are others that throw you off balance. During the college admission season, I (not just me, other passengers too) came across a conversation where this person talked about the amount of bribe to be paid (in lakhs) to so and so and how he is going about getting the amount in place, by when it has to be paid, etc. Then there is this company executive in discussion with his report on pending bill payments (few crores) and how to lie to the vendor and move around funds to buy some time. There is a class difference though – lakhs in Shatabdi and crores in Vande Bharath. All trains are not same, isn’t it? 😀

In one of the Vande Bharath rides, a passenger was on his mobile ripping through the person on the other end. The gist of the story is the person on the other end was supposed to be at work. But the owner this side found out he wasn’t. No boss, no work!! What started as initial anger soon escalated to animated conversation with the pressure mounting. The person at the other end wasn’t helping, he was adding fuel to the fire. Both took cool-off period in between to restart the shouting game. He got up multiple times to go to the open area near the restroom since the seat was not enough for his animated hands to move around. The person at the other side got fired from job multiple times (don’t think of coming to work tomorrow!!). Passenger sitting next to him and I were watching the whole episode with curiosity that went on for few hours. Anger meter went up…decibel level went up…his BP shot up. He was walking like a caged animal. I and the other passenger walked to the open area and hit upon a conversation.

         Me: Kaipulla romba kobama kilambittaru pola?

        Him: Innikku eththanai thala urulapotho, therilaye!!

That Vadivelu moment!! We had a good laugh both at the situation and Vadivelu’s classics!!

Another time, a family, father, mother and their boy were seated behind me. Parents were on the phone. Boy got bored and started pestering the mom for the mobile. After some resistance (read the book, my son!!), mother gave in. Boy was happily playing the video game. Now the mother got upset seeing the husband happy on the mobile. Conversation went like this.

Mother: Look at your son, he is always on the phone

Father: He is your son too…

Mother: He is not reading books at all. It is all because of you…you don’t spend time with him

Father: Let him play sometime, you read the book in the meantime

Mother: See, you are always lenient with him. You control him now

Father: Son, give the phone to mommy. Read the book

Son: No pa. (They go back and forth, and father gives up)

Words get thicker between the parents with each blaming the other (deploying self-censorship not to startle the readers with all shocking details of the nasty words). It reached a point where the mother was in tears and father out of control. Both gave the phones to the son. The story ended with son got 2 mobiles to play with and parents engaged the silent treatment weapon till the end of the journey. The thought that was going on in my head was how this situation would have been pre-mobile era 🤔

One can write a separate blog on ringtones. Ringtones cover every religion, god, godmen, composers, singers, pop/rock/rap/blues/techno/…/. Goes from min and max sound. Only a few know there is something called silent or vibrate mode. I am not even going to get into mobile alarms, you will wake up every 5mts to different sounds, let’s leave it at that.

Like any other technology, smartphones are boon or bane depending on how we use it. I do observe decreased attention span with those who spend more hours on smartphone – or should I say more time looking at screens – TV, tablets, phones – only the screen size varies. The ability to get into focus is taking a hit – read few pages of book or focus on work or creative task at hand without interruption, without picking up the phone. That is for another blog.

So, don’t get flustered with mobile nuisance next time when you take a bus or train journey. Just keep your ears open. Eyes too, if you are fine with taking a peek on neighbor’s screen 😄