Route No.2M - A Dumb Bond

Dedicated to all the Members of Route No. 2M.

Route No. 2M plying from Noida Sector 125 to Rohini is a 1.5 hrs journey from the company to our homes. When I joined the bus after a long stint away from the same, it was a quite affair. Nokia Express 5310 and a headphone were the companions aboard and it was all about me and my thoughts.

I noticed people around me, some used to gossip, some sleeping and some looking out from the window, don’t know finding what. I called this phenomenon GSP - G(Gossip), S(sleeping) and P(Peeping) syndrome.

One day a new member joined our bus. He was/is a smiley, white and tall guy, a typical Punju with a slight Punjabi ascent in English. As is said about Punju's, they love to smile and live to eat, he couldn’t very well adjust to the GSP syndrome. He used to look, notice the GSP group and wonder where to start.

He caught up with a small group of members who together started a popular game "Dumb Charades". The group started enacting movies, deciding the rules of game and invariably making a lot of noise.

The GSP group was amused to see the enthusiasm after a 9 hours long work and wondered the reason for the stored energy. I happen to notice them play one day where a member was enacting the movie "Rakhwale". He raised one finger upwards and a thumb down, which I understood means one word and Hindi. He identified a unique way to describe the movie, a gun fighter who is placed on the India & Pakistan border and is protecting the country. No body could bring out the typical Hindi word he was expecting so he went for a sound's like which was more interesting to see and interpret.

He highlighted all of us as in family relations which is commonly known as "Gharwale" and a person shouted Rakhwale. I could see the frustration of the enactor and different thoughts of the interpreters. Some were right on target to understand, others gave weird answers.

Though I had never till then attempted to play it, but it invariably made me think of how would I do it if I were to enact or interpret? It made me realize though the dictionary meaning of the word dumb is “lacking intelligence or good judgment”, but it needs quite intelligent and logical method of enacting actions to act like a dumb. But, it also brought in me the depressing feeling of thinking about people who cannot speak and can only express themselves through actions.

Slowly many members of the GSP group started interpreting in their minds, and their eyes would be hooked towards the person who was enacting. Now most of the members have moved out of the GSP syndrome and actively participate, either enacting or interpreting. I got pulled to the group, when I successfully interpreted one word, Urdu movie. Since then, am involved in the fun and somehow feel the same energy after a 9 hours day, which I was earlier amused on.

Everyday, each one of us wait for the time when we would be together again in the bus, some idle moments in the day are spent googling for movie names and trying to find the most difficult movie name possible. Members also try to enact a simple movie in a more interesting way to make other annoyed and eventually happy. Members have especially changed their bus routes, try to come by bus and some of them getting down early, frown on the arrival of their stops as they are crucially placed in interpreting the movie. Few members in the group have been identified for their quite interesting skills. Introducing a few here

Mr. Expert: Who has an expert/critical opinion on the interpretation
Tadipar: Who don’t give a valid movie or give simple movies
Encyclopedia: Well know interpreter of typical Hindi/Urdu words
Dictionary: A content full of Hindi movies names dating back to 1920's
Latest Dictionary: She knows the latest movie names as a zap.

This game today has created a unique bond - "A dumb Bond" among the members of the bus whom we scantily know as a person, but we do know what they are good at in dumbing!!!!