An evening of mixed feelings started off this way:
On this day itself, I was on my way home from office. I alighted at Jln Toa Payoh to wait for bus service 966. It was 7.45pm and I started waiting for the bus togehter with other commuters.
Minute after minute. Other bus services came and went. The clock ticked. I was listening to song after song on my iphone and well, I realised quite a number of songs had been played and the bus still had not come. Looked at my watch. 8.10. No sign of the bus. Checked the iphone app for the bus. 3 mins. Ok. I waited.
3 mins later, and still no sign of the bus. Looked at the app again. Suddenly it jumped to 14 minutes. So, what had happened? I was beginning to get frustrated. And at the same time, confused. What happened to the bus service? But well, I still waited, not very patiently, and I went about doing my stuff on my phone.
It is 8.30. No sign. Looked at the iphone app again. 1 min to the arrival. I am pretty sure there would be a "Arr" icon showing up on the app if the bus were to arrive. I waited for that whole one minute. No. It jumped back to 12 min. So what exactly was happening to the bus service?
Gotten quite fed up. And more buses came and went. 3 of every other bus services came and went. That's the period of time I waited. And counting. More people showed up at my bus stop, apparently waiting for the same bus as me. I paced up and down the bus stop, with impatient looks on my face, keep opening up the app to hope for some miracle that 12 could just jump to 1. And well, cursing and swearing on my mind and preparing my script so that I know i could lash out to the bus driver later. And facebooking to vent my frustrations.
8.42. The bus finally came. As expected, it was packed. Oh my god. I suddenly had the desperation to dash up the bus because I did not want to be left behind, got squeezed out of the bus, and wait another 52 minutes (the exact time i waited for this bus) for the next.
So luckily I was on the bus. Well to my surprise, an uncle was already talking to the bus driver. And there goes the chain of complaints the bus driver vented out. On the whole drive from Jln Toa Payoh to Bukit Panjang, where the passenger alighted.
That was when I realised, there seemed to be a problem in the organisation that all of us are into - the employee system. Employees always have 2 problems: probem with their colleagues, and problem with their boss. For this bus driver, both.. and the third one: problem with his job. He is a Singaporean, but he was earning meagre pay, just barely enough to support his family. The reason why the bus was so "slow" is because some of his colleagues pulled stunts at the last minute. Causing less trips. Well. As soon as I understood that reason, in my mind I forgave the driver. Because it was not his fault.
As I reached home, I sent in a letter to SMRT. Under feedback. Regarding my experience today.
This experience is still lurking in my mind right now. I started to feel for the driver. You see, employees will never be happy. Be it high paying, low paying, high responsibility, no responsibility, field of your interest or not, whatever. Why? Because when you are inside, the moment you realise you are to DO THE SAME SHIT OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR 30 YEARS, trust me, no one will dare to dream of that. That was why the other colleagues that realised this went into self-denial and avoidance by pulling such stunts.
As the passenger and the bus driver are chatting, I saw the image of alot of people around me. from my friends, to my parents, to my cousins and relatives. Aren't they inside this rat race also? Where they could not get out of this working world? Seriously who wants to be shouldered with burdens, responsibilities that have nothing to do with your life? And when you see them like that, slogging their guts out just to sustain a lifestyle, Do you imagine yourself inside this scenario as well? If you haven't, pls do so, because you have to get mentally prepared for it. 30 years straight. I'm not bluffing you.
So well guys, or whoever came across this by chance or whatsoever, if you realise you are in a similar situation as this bus driver, please do something about it, or you will end up complaining for the rest of your life.