As previously mentioned in Of teas and Pregnant Women, I have to travel to Edinburgh to work everyday. Not only is it a pain on days with bad weather, but it constantly keeps reminding me of that fact that I'm growing old. The reason I say this is because I used to see my Dad and some of his friends travelling from Mysore to Bangalore and back for work everyday for years together. They were all atleast 40 when they were doing this, and back then I used to think this is what life becomes when you grow old and start looking after a family. Huh, now this is some reality check!!
Scotland has always been known for its beautiful, warm and sunny weather. I actually mean the worst possible contradictory adjectives to what I just described. I've had my fair share of this during the winter, which is quite expected and frankly, impossible to dodge. But last week was one of the weirdest days which was made worse by the "over cautious and security concerned" people.
As it turned out, I left work a few minutes early as I could see that it was drizzling and quite windy. As I reached Haymarket, the usual stop where I board my bus, I saw that there were hundreds of people there. Apparently the Haymarket train station was also shut due to strong winds. Strong probably isn't the right word to describe it. There were winds blowing at around 100mph and could literally push a heavy duty like me off my feet. To make this weather more lovable, it started raining quite heavily and all of us were waiting for a bus to come with no roof over our heads. After an agonizing 45 min wait came a bus which didn't stop as it was full. No surprises there. So I decided to take a local bus and head to the main bus station.
I finally reached there and all the events from now resembled a overhyped Hollywood movie. The main bus station had been evacuated and there were numerous security personnel guarding the entrances with barricades. For a moment I actually thought that some hostage scenario was taking place inside as all those macho, grumpy security guys were screaming and asking people to move away from the doors and the walls of the bus station. The bus station is not only quite small but actually looks like a mall from outside.
Right, even the Waverly train station was closed and there were about 2000 people stranded on the roads in that torturous weather. All the shops are closed as well and all the ATMs were out of cash. Just like in Die hard 4 or any of those action movies when the networks are totally compromised. Amidst this, I met a desi guy who was very keen on getting back to Glasgow and asked if I was ready to split a taxi with him. It would come upto 40 quid per head and so I asked him to find some more people to pool in. Meanwhile, surprisingly enough the people were no getting restless and were patiently waiting hurling a few curses in between. It was about an hour and a half before they decided to resume the bus services from outside the station.Meanwhile, as me and the desi guy were discussing on the taxi scenario, a South Indian uncle overheard us and said he too wanted to hop on, but the only problem was he had 4 other people with him, with 2 "half-tickets", just like he described. Most of the taxis were not running as well and so while the desi guy was now trying to a hire a 7 seater, the uncle was like, we can put the kids on our laps and somehow go. What an Idea Sirji. But the only problem was there were no Ambassadors here and it was not India, and more than that uncle didn't even have a license with him. He was surely someone who had come to visit his son or daughter here and this was evident from his formal pant upto his chest, spanking new white Nike running shoes and a monkey cap worn like a skully. Meanwhile, a black guy wearing a typical NY cap and ultra low waist jeans and holding his belt buckle with his right hand comes up to me and says "Ma maaan, cudch aa hop on as well?" I directed him to the event coordinator, desi guy.
Finally I saw a bus taking a slow turn and told these guys that I'll probably go by bus itself. But the problem was about 60 odd seats were up for grabs and there were about 2k people fighting for it. Some wise Samaritan requested everyone to let people with kids board first and then the oldies. Luckily there weren't much of them and I somehow muscled my way into the bus, elbowing a couple of drunks on the way.
The bus finally took off and I reached home about 3 hours later. The winds were really affecting the balance of the bus and a 1 hr journey turned into a 2.5 hr one. This incident just showed one thing that there was more emphasis on processes and protocols rather than taking action. If the personnel had actually invested more efforts in getting the transportation services running rather than just asking people to calm down, this would have been much better. Its been almost a week since this happened and the winds are still scoring a FCD for their consistency and show no signs of abating.
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