Rajshree

• NAME : Rajshree
• AGE : 26
• PROFESSION : Corporate Employee
• ETHNICITY : Bengali
• LOCATION : V9 Bus from Tollygaunge to Bengal Unitech Part.

This really pretty girl dressed completely in black was sitting calmly in a bus putting dark red nail polish on with so much grace, composure and poise that I could not stop staring at her. She was completely concentrated on painting her nails. I gathered up all my courage and sacrificing my relatively comfortable standing point, I approached her. I asked her if I could take her picture. She nodded yes without even looking up from painting her nails. I took her picture and waited for her to finish. I would have loved to record her voice but the radio in the bus was blaring at the highest possible volume. Here are snippets of our conversation.

Me : Do you do this often ? Like paint nails in the bus.

Girl : Yes. I do spend an awful lot of time on these buses.

Me : How long ?

Girl: Atleast 3 hours each day, one and a half hours for each trip to office. Sometimes I wish I had a car. I could do more personal things while traveling to office.

ME : Tell me something that you like or not like about these bus journeys ?

Girl : Well these A.C. buses are fancy but they do not have reserved seats for the handicapped or the senior citizens. And it is very difficult to stand in these buses since they move so fast. I have noticed that no one gets up to offer their seats to the elderly anymore. But I do. I don't know why ? Just do,

At this point the bus applied the brakes a bit too forcibly and I realized that it prudent now to hold on to something instead of  breaking pretty girls's and my neck by falling on them face flat, while talking with them.