Ah! What comes to your mind when you think of the word “van”? A stuffy, congested and smelly vehicle? Well for me, it’s a joy beyond words. Yeah! Yeah! I know you’re thinking I am crazy? Well, maybe I am but I’ve had numerous interesting experiences on the van that picks and drops me to school and I will share some of those with you all.
You must have seen a van jam-packed with kids in school uniforms zoom past your suave air-conditioned car and wondered how terrible it would be to commute that way. But all vans are not the same. I travel to school in a Suzuki van, which is comfortable and clean, unlike those high roof types. But that’s not what actually makes the experience of traveling in a van great; it’s the unexpected adventures and entertaining company which do so.
But apart from these adventures, even the journey of traveling in a bus comes with small joys. As the vehicle speeds down the main roads, the strong gush of wind gets my heart racing and my hair starts flying. It’s the perfect adrenaline rush in the morning!
And who can really stay in a rotten mood when your fun-loving, mischievous friends are around you? Even the crabby van driver ends up laughing at our misdemeanors and condones them by saying, “koi baat nahin (it’s no issue)”.
A few days back as I and my friends were giggling and chatting in the van, enjoying the cool wind from the rolled down window, a guy on a motor-cycle sped right next to us. He was wearing huge aviator sunglasses and his gelled hair was styled in spikes.
But his attempt to look like a cool dude just made us randomly burst into a laughter. The boy glared at us angrily but we just giggled uncontrollably. Then my friend stuck out her tongue at him (which had turned a greenish-blue colour because she had been endlessly sucking on a lollipop).
Thus the guy got seriously irritated then and hurled an apple at her from a bag which was tucked at the back of his motorcycle. But unfortunately, the fruit bounced off the roof and hit my van driver on the head instead. And then all hell broke loose. The driver and the motor cyclist had a heated argument for a good twenty minutes or so, while we just laughed incessantly from inside our van.
And the liberties we take with the grouchy van driver also make him experience similar bouts of anger. Every day, as we race towards the van after school, munching on unhygienic French fries and sucking on multicoloured gola gandas, he scolds us. But then he then just sighs and says in a resigned tone, “koi baat nai.”
Kids going to school in comfortable air-conditioned cars don’t know the fun they are missing out on. Loud music blaring from expensive woofers can’t ever substitute the camaraderie and adventures of the van.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2011.
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