'A Passenger'

As weeks go by, the public transportation system, though recently revamped, is falling back to much familiarity of the past: I am seeing again (though few), mini busses back on the road, painted in Hin's (one of the leading bus companies here in Penang) colour of choice: dark blue. A colour, though worn during my primary years of schooling; I would associate now with matters morbid, as in some parts of my memory, were hearses with/in the same.

Initially the long and saturated busses would cut through parts of the city which were at first without the facility of public transport, directly prolonging my time in reaching the office for about fifteen to twenty minutes (imagine me; oh me, on a day with the nokia phone alarm failing - and fail it does still, on ocassion to smite its owner). Today however, or perhaps since the beginning of this humble and commonplace week, the old-rusting-metal-hulks-held-together-only-by-miracles have resumed their old route habit. During late evening post-work rides, the sounds of these monsters moving somehow still slip in through level seven head-music: sounds of the engine-heart working, sounds of its paint-cracked skin trembling from reckless movement and sharp turns: and it is in this strangely sweet lull that I drift into sleep.

A routine broken: I have no need to walk from my office to Komtar to catch a ride home since the implementation of new system (I used to walk as there were no free shuttle busses operating within the area after 6.30 p.m., or other busses, for that matter). A routine broken: I no longer have breakfast in the form of two marvelous pieces of roti canai, accompanied with dhall (lentil), as I no longer pass through the road where the stall is a walking distance away from - and this I miss. A routine broken: there's nothing quite like the certainty of having a seat on the bus, no matter the time of day, as the stop which I get on is before Komtar; the dreaded place of significant passenger saturation (no more). I get home earlier nowadays; 'home' being within the area where I live, and if I chanced upon bus #1-3, I'd drop off in front of Gurney Plaza and (if there's a whim) haunt the bookshops till late.

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