Our School-Car !!!!!

My first school van(technically, car) was a white, ambassador car, with a huge luggage rack on the top. I used to call the driver, 'driver-uncle'. The car was completely packed with kids aging from 3 yrs to 15 yrs. Every morning and evening, driver-uncle had to count our heads, to make sure that noone is missing. It has happened so many times, when our driver-uncle realised, that a kid is missing, when he is about to take his school-bag,out!. As far as I remember there were 20-25 kids in a single trip to school. We were packed in a separate, fool-proof way, so that minimum suffocation happens to smaller ones. There were 3 layers of kids, in our car:

 

[1]First layer, standing on the seat, would be shorter, kindergarten kids, whose head wont brush the top.

[2]Second layer, would be the bigger kids from 13-15 yrs, and

[3]On their lap would be the third layer of kids whose age group comes anywhere in b/w 6-12.(they neither sat nor stood completely!!!!) 

 

Most of the time, when driver-uncle slams breaks, these standing-layer of kindergarten kids, would fall forward, thus smashing  into the sitting-layer and our whole architecture would go hay-wire. This would often result in hits, bumps and very very often, in loud long wails. I can say the terrible sufferer of this architecture were the standing-layer,on the seat! They would start whimpering as soon as the car reaches their home, to collect them, in the morning. Most of the time, their tears & mucus (yea...it did!!!) would fall into the sitting-layer's heads. Now the third-layer(supposed to sit on sitting layer's lap) would get squeezed by the sitting layer's legs and their own legs. I remember one kid, who fell down and really got stuck under the seat.

 

As everywhere, bureaucracy existed in our school-car, too. The sitting layer were the manipulating politicians, who used standing layer for their own advantage. Those BIG kids would ask those smaller ones to be their 'chamcha', promising them good comfortable seats. They would ask them to bring roses, sweets, color bands or anything else that catch their eye and in return promise them 'seats'.(but those promises were never kept!). In fact a small but completely self-dependent society existed in out school-car. Except for the rare occasions of complaints from the smaller ones' moms, our society wasn't disturbed. 

 

I started as one among standing-layer and then promoted to the third layer(who could neither sit nor stand) and finally into the sitting layer.I cried my heart out when I was in standing-layer, and finally after 8 yrs when I reached "sitting age", I took advantage of my position. Small kids were scared of me. They called me "monster-deedi". I had a weird kind of satisfaction, by ruling over them, by punishing small-rowdies by not giving them seat, etc.

 

Most of them must have cursed me, then. Now, when I think about those poor kids, I feel very bad. But then I realize , wasn't I also a kid then??

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