BEST bus drivers are one of the most maligned lots in this city. But during my daily travel to and from office, I have seen them drive very carefully battling city's potholed roads, heavy traffic, and unruly pedestrians at the same. I am not saying there are no bad apples but the entire cart is surely not full of rotten fruits.

Take yesterday for instance. We were just one signal short of reaching the highway when I noticed a car parked right in the middle of the road. The driver had stepped out of the vehicle and was inspecting its front side. A rickshaw had stopped close by and its driver too joined the car owner. It did not take a genius to figure out that the car must have been practically tailgating the rickshaw and bumped against it when it stopped suddenly. As we watched, the rickshaw driver got into his vehicle and drove a little distance ahead while the car owner kept inspecting his car. Then he seemed to have changed his mind and dashed after the rickshaw. The signal ahead had gone green in the meantime and every car in sight was honking at its loudest.

But the owner was unperturbed. He came back to his car with the rickshaw driver and inspected it some more. The two of them discussed something. The rickshaw driver went away again. The driver dashed again after him.

The driver of our bus, who had earlier watched this whole drama unfold with great patience and some amusement now joined the chorus of honking. He turned to me 'Can you believe this guy? I have half a mind to bang his car and go ahead' he said with a smile. If he had done that, I wouldn't have blamed him.

With me so far? Okay, read on. The car owner, on coming back, showed no signs of moving his car out of the way and the bus driver, losing his cool, opened the automatic doors. That was the only way he would have been able to make himself heard. He shouted at the top of his lungs at the car owner to get his car to the side of the road. I guess that finally brought the jerk tearing out of his own private world consisting of him, his car and the rickshaw driver.

He got into his car and moved it to the side of the road. I am sure he must have gotten down again to inspect it. I wonder if the car was new or was the driver driving on Mumbai's streets for the first time.

Our bus got moving again but the signal had gone red. It was 5 minutes before it turned green again. And you know what 5 minutes mean in this mad city. Remember that song from 'Taxi No. 9211'? It says 'Yeh Mumbai hai....yaha time ka matlab hai paisa' :-)