Provincial Buses are 24/7




I play a big part in our country's public transportation community. I am an everyday figure in our Metro Rail Transit, an avid supporter of provincial bus lines, a jeepney connoiseur, a tricycle veteran, a taxi fan, a tenured commuter. Do not get me wrong, I have also wanted to have a car of my own. But commuting has its own perks, believe me.


I started this affair with public transportion when I worked somewhere along Ayala Avenue, Makati City. I travel everyday from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Makati and back. Of course, I have planned to get a place of my own to spare me the hassle of it all, but as more and more tickets are being piled in my suitcase, I realized that it is not what I want. You see, commuting has its own perks.


But, of course, there is the thing about the rain, or typhoons, or hurricanes, or earthquakes, or a deluge, but these are not everyday situations. I think of them as those peanuts which are supposed to be lost in your McFlurry Oreos. For instance, just yesterday, I had to go to a Taft Avenue bus station to get a ride home, despite the bitter fact that all it takes me to do that was a couple of cartwheels after SM Megamall to hail one. You see, the clouds of Shaw Boulevard was pouring droplets of rain as big as cats and dogs, and my Fibrella just went berserk because of the wind. (The X-Men fan in me cursed Ororo and her temper.) So I crossed the street through MRT and was saved from the rain, also because there are buses going to Taft already waiting there in the shed. So there I was headed to Taft, doubling my usual travel time, where I can comfortably board one of those provincial buses to take me home.


I have been a prominent figure of the daily public transportation system for a almost 4 years now. Commuting is a part of my routine. I commute when I go out on gimmicks, and sleeping over at a friend's place after a night-out has never been an option for me. Provincial buses are a 24/7 thing.


One of my favorite bus escapades were those rides which took off somewhere in the Bicol region. These buses are a little community in their own right, where people have pillows and blankets, sound asleep in their rather cramped seats. seeing them is an ennobling experience: the elderly couple sharing a meal of menudo and rice, with two little children waiting for their turns to be spoon-fed, and Lola is very careful in case the ride gets bumpy.


People ask me if I ever get tired, my usual answer is, "No, it's just an hour or so away only." What I never tell these people is that I use this spare time to think, to reflect. Sometimes, I get inspired to write a poem. Or essays. Or maybe mull over a book. I used to read novels on my way but later I discovered the thrill of reading your mind. I have also read somewhere that if you are mad at somebody, it is rather healthy to just think about how you want to get even with them. Ergo, I have tortured and wrecked the lives of a lot of people already in these bus rides.
Not only do I kill people in these bus rides, but I also enriched quite a number of lives, including my own of course, in these affairs. I made mental notes about telling a friend about this new shampoo that might revive her hair or about a certain Sbarro pasta that I'll have my mom try. What with the Lotto jackpot billboard, I was able to buy the latest BMW topdown car and found myself cruising the streets of New York City.


Commuting has its perks, I'm telling you. The spare time you have for yourself while travelling is all yours to meditate or just let those thoughts fly. As for my case, I let my meditations fly and have me catch them later in a sheet of paper. In these hour-long bus rides, in these fifteen-minute jeepney rides, my Muses find me, whispering in my ears amidst the proverbial hustle and bustle of traffic.


Maybe my Muses reside in these public means of transportation, and maybe what I should have said earlier was "public transportation plays a very big part in me." As perky as the car could get, as bumpy as the road could be, that's how the wind shall blow through the window next to my seat.

Rav De Castro
expressions
02:42