Moods of Transport — Chapter 4
Waiting at the bus stop, I hear a voice familiar to that of my father’s, as he says something all the while looking at the screen and yells the word ‘stupid’ at a device which is supposedly known to be smart, before keeping it back in his pocket. He asks me to put that heavy weight on my shoulders again which is supposed to lighten my burden in the future.
After walking for some time, I see a jail garden, whose magnificence is like a graveyard, decorated with morning dew and noisy as an empty room. If this is how I am to start my day, I shall better start with the see-saw and wipe the dew off it, before climbing up on the slide and getting down its stairs, leaving footmarks all over the slippery surface. Luckily Grandpa is here with Bruno, whom I can bring to play along.
Just then a six wheeler giant car stops- it is same size as the one that was meant to come at the bus stop. I realise that my bus mates have suddenly grown in size and have different uniforms. I hear my partner, who is elder to me, saying that it is his turn to carry the weight now. He asks me to step up and take a seat while he exchanges some money for papers from an old person who is dressed similar to the person sitting on the first bench and controlling the directions. He does not look like the robots from my classroom- not all first benchers are as creative as my peers.
However, I am still clueless as to which class my father will sit in and if he will be allowed without a uniform. But all he gives me is a smile as an answer to my questions, contrary to the practice synonymous to the woman who carries plants, leaves, animals, birds- the practice of expecting different answers from us for the same questions but at the same time disliking our practice of networking when we create answers by replicating the groups of alphabets from one place to another.
I hear a bell ring but it is different from the one that makes us joyful when it’s recess. It is the same man in the uniform asking us to get down, when I just begin to notice that the red is a cue to stop and the green is to go. There are three steps to get down and a jump- I wish we had a similar toy in the garden full of steps and jumps. I see my father pointing to a screen inside a vehicle. I can only jump in this three wheeled vehicle which we board. It has no doors- so I can sit anywhere and be on the window side.
I see a red coloured twinkle far away and some counterparts on my right, faster than those on the left, but eventually meeting at the twinkling spot which looks like a big red bulb.
On turning to the left, I see a giant building which has stairs on both the sides of the surface. We stop at one of them. The front desk robot repeats the same number as the one it is flashing on the small screen in front of him. Unlike the uncle from the giant car, this guy does not give anything in return when my elder colleague gives him the amount of money flashing on the screen.
It is my turn to carry my future as I can see him tired and tensed. I ask him to confirm whether he will be allowed and if he needs to borrow a pen from me when he goes with me inside the palace of learning where the soldiers and ministers plan a better society by wearing blinkers that widen their perspectives. His raised eyebrows tell me that he has his own pen.
Unlike the giant car, these stairs do not have the jump but I can see the stairs moving on their own as we reach the end. Although I want another ride but there is a NO written on my father’s watch. Standing in a queue, I see an uncle has my toy gun hung on his shoulder and a remote which beeps when he touches these humans standing in the queue surpassing him. I ask him where he got the toy gun from and he smiles again.
I remember doing the same thing with the key man of the bat and ball room, when he asked me whether I had lost the ball. My smile to him had me playing with ropes and different sized balls which I could kick as well. I am still confused whether he thought I was good at other games too or was he searching for the ball.
Walking some more steps, I see a shiny floor which could fit all the toys from the garden. But I wonder which is better- running on a floor or on the grass. Making a lot of noise and drawing attention from everyone on the floor, comes a big machine with a lot of people inside and stops in front of us. Before I can count the number of gates it has, I feel a bigger palm between my fingers that takes me into the machine.
It has no windows but huge glasses instead, through which I can see outside. As I stand up on the seat, I am able to look at all the vehicles and can easily make out from their size the number of wheels they have. This big machine is a very fast moving one- so fast that I cannot even make out a single tree properly. It is so enjoyable and so much fun to move at this speed. The gates open and we go towards the shiny floor again. The bigger palm releases my hand and goes up to the eye level. This time the wrist watch gives a signal to hurry up as we climb down; helping the already moving stairs by climbing down the steps to reach the ground.
I see my bicycle in front of us. It has another wheel attached to the back which creates space for more people to sit on the bench. I feel as I am being lifted up and carried towards this instrument when I hear my father speak to someone who is sitting on the front seat, ready to pedal. A tap on his shoulder is a cue to start pedalling.
The place seems familiar and I can see giant cars standing on one side of the road, all same in colour. Standing near one of those, the screwdriver uncle waves at me, brings out a new item from his bag and starts playing with it on my bus. Before I can take the permission to go to him, I am asked to jump from the modified bicycle. Even this guy does not exchange anything for money. The final message on his wrist watch flashes and we rush through a big gate, where we are welcomed by the key man who apologises to my father.
Handing over his baton to the key man, my trip partner exits the gate. I know he will not be allowed without the uniform. It perplexes me because the uniform shop is on this side of the gate.
Meanwhile, the soldier escorts me to the playground which has wooden sports equipment in the shape of chairs and tables. As I enter, I see a lot of scribblings on the small white wall. But my paper folding friend has all the toys, which I saw on way to school, on his table. I go ahead to hold them and ask him if I could have them. He requests me to hold them softly since they are made of paper.
This networking is not approved by the woman holding a big chart in front of us. Luckily, before she can reward us with new friends, the bell rings and she goes out leaving the chart stuck on the board.
How I wish I could tell her before the bell rang that my new toys have different speeds but reach the destination eventually. She comes back only to take the chart and tells me that I have missed an important lesson.
The title of the chart read:
MODES OF TRANSPORT !
Italicized content: highly sarcastic
