Meri Dus Lakh Ki Gaddi

Bhubaneswar in the past few years has come out of its dormancy and has shown considerable development in sectors that have placed it as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. With the IT majors and MNCs opening up, the very face of the working class has now changed. Once the ‘hamara Bajaj’ family (with dad driving mom and two kids out in the unfailing trustworthy two wheeler) is now slowly transforming to mom’s shopping in malls ,groceries from retail shops and super busy dad’s driving out to work on compact fuel efficient cars. Lives, though gradually, are catching up on pace and standard of living has come up. Amidst all the beautiful murals on the sidewalks and flyovers, several ancient temples stand a reminiscent memoir to the rich and profound history associated with it. It is one of the cleanest cities of the country and has a reasonably well managed traffic flow, even in peak hours.
However in spite of all these, a proper public transport system here is more or less non existent. Courtesy the urban planning of the fifties, Bhubaneswar has broad and near about mutually perpendicular roads to effectively support a transport system, which could in turn serve a large section of people(primarily belonging to the student class), heading to their regular destinations, and looking for a cheaper mode of transport . I spent a part of my school and college life away from hometown Bhubaneswar and that required me to use the city bus on a regular basis. I ended up totally falling in love with the system. I shared with it a bond that on being apart made me pine for the sense of comfort I once associated with it. Now back here that’s one thing that I actually miss from before.
I appreciate her existence each day I spend away from her (anything non-living automatically becomes a she in my life) here in Bhubaneswar. She saved me a lot of money and a hell lot of unnecessary grrr (translate to a tiny cubs growling). In all this traveling I have had a million