A life lesson in a Mumbai bus

After college I moved from Shimla to Mumbai (then called Bombay) to pursue a course in advertising.

Sapno ki nagri Bombay was also the city of my dreams and I was quite excited to live there. This excitement helped me overcome many teething problems. The first one was, of course, commuting, but true to their acronym the BEST buses came to my rescue, though initially, language did come in the way while travelling in these red buses. Standing in packed but organised two-lines in the aisle during the peak hours, the conductor would continuously say, ‘Pudhhe chala, pudhhe chala…’

It was my first lesson in Marathi that I also made into a philosophy of life from there on. ‘Pudhhe chala’ means move forward, get ahead. In the city that never stops, if you don’t move, you’ll be crushed from behind. So, pudhhe chala became my mantra not just in BEST buses and local trains but in life as well.

Vivek Mohan, Shimla