Driver Kaka

Just when the colour of the sun changes from orange to yellow, our bus arrives. Any season of the year, this is the precise time the bus arrives. When the colour of the sun changes from orange to yellow. Every morning, even when people from Chetana's colony had a big fight with our colony, the bus arrived. Nobody ever bothered with his name. We just called him 'driver kaka'. He always had a smile. Even at times of such great tension he smiled. He has never spoken a single word to the 14 of us. We travel by the bus every day to school. But somehow we have the feeling he knows every one of us, by name. Not that he has ever asked. But we have the feeling somehow.

Two weeks since the fight, he has been unusually grim. Very serious. Doesn't smile, but his face does not show any seriousness too. He has a plain expression we are not used to. All these months, this is the first time we see him wear his head gear. A cap similar to the one that abba wears all the time. That has not changed anything else. Not his timings, not the way he drives, not the route he takes. He knows precisely who gets in at which stop and how late each one of them usually are. He knows it. Noor, Jihana and I, we are the first ones to get in. And we are always in time, well within time.

Yesterday evening, he was more tensed than ever. He would try hard not to show it. But we are only too accustomed to his ever smiling face. We could feel it. All the 14 of us did not speak a word. Today morning, the bus was late. The sun had turned yellow long before. He wasn't there. Then, we saw the bus coming from the opposite direction. He spoke for the first time. 'Sorry! I went past...sort of forgot.' Somehow, it is difficult to believe that driver kaka could forget. It was too routine a thing for him, for us. We climbed in anyway. He forced a smile as we climbed in. He went a bit faster today to make up for the lost time. The evening passed as usual. At night as I told abba about the bus getting late, he acted as if he knew it. He was not in a very good mood.

Today morning, again the bus was late... rather it never arrived. Noor and I were waiting. 'Jihana is not keeping well beta, you both go', her father said from the window. That is odd, because we played together yesterday night till 9. She was quite well then. We waited anyway.

Meanwhile, the bus had picked up Rakesh from the next stop, just beyond the bridge that runs over the dry river. We often wave to Rakesh from the bridge. Our heads way outside the window. It was a very tall bridge, and a very old one. On not seeing any of us, Rakesh was a bit surprised. He asked driver kaka whether we hadn't turned up. 'No' they are not coming to school he said. We had to go by an auto-rickshaw that day. At school, this was the topic of discussion. Rakesh and I were wondering why driver kaka had lied. We even decided to ask him, but then as Rakesh said, may be driver kaka is not keeping well. The long bell rang immediately after recess. This meant that we could go home. The last time around, the principal of our school had died, of heart attack. However, this time around, situation looked a lot more serious. There were policemen around the school gates.

Rakesh and I were scared. Noor joined us. We saw driver kaka talk animatedly with a policeman. On Rakesh's insistence we went a little ahead; to eavesdrop. 'I will drop them all home. The whole route takes just 25 minutes. At least these children of them would be safe.'

All of a sudden Rakesh rushed towards them,

'Driver kaka, what happened?'
'Nothing... I will take care!', somehow Rakesh felt safe, actually we all felt safe with driver kaka.
'Police uncle, we will go with driver kaka. Please.'

Driver kaka asked Rakesh to go and ask all of us to stand together. After a few more minutes of discussion, the policeman had to give in.

Driver kaka got the bus into the school gates. We boarded the bus. Once beyond the turn, he drove the bus really fast. When we passed the police chowki, we could see a huge crowd gathered below a tree. They all seemed to be from Chetana's colony. All Hindus. On seeing the bus, a few of them rushed towards the bus. Driver kaka stopped the bus. He got down and told them something. Chetana's brother was one amongst them. He climbed in and asked Chetana to get down. Sangeeta, her best friend also got down. Driver kaka then proceeded. Usually the route would have been through the tree side and crossing the temple would turn left. However, today on seeing the crowd, driver kaka took an early left. This way we would reach our home first; Noor and I.

At our bus stop, we saw a few from our colony standing together. My father was ready for me. As soon as I got down, he went by the driver's window and spoke something. Driver kaka's face went pale. Rakesh looked very tense by the window. But, he would never cry. He was the bravest amongst us. Driver kaka climbed down. My father and him had a very heated argument. Father was shouting at him. I felt bad. I went to stop him when Noor's father interrupted me. Driver kaka was now begging, on his knees. A couple of other uncles from my colony joined them with the Koran and said something. I couldn't understand what. But immediately, driver kaka got up and turned around. He was crying.

He got into the bus. The next stop was Murali's. It was an immediate next stop. As the bus started, I heard Noor's father asking my father, 'You asked him to jump?' My father nodded.

The bus now left. Driver kaka turns behind and, 'Murali, it is not safe around here. I will drop you all at Rakesh's stop.' He then drove like a mad man. Crowds had gathered at many places. Every one tried to stop the bus, but driver kaka wouldn't stop. He drove straight on. We could see the bridge. Beyond that bridge was Rakesh's stop. We could get down there.

Just as the bridge approached, the bus swerved heavily to the left, it crashed through the age old side wall, went head first into the dry river. Driver kaka did not jump.

Disclamer: All incidents and characters mentioned here are purely fictional and bear no reference, except purely co-incidental, to any in real life. Usage of names of any place and dates have been deliberately avoided.