The most annoying sound in the worldMay 23, 2005
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| Saying that the bus took two and a half hours to get to Chidambaram rather understates the trip, but I didn't want to make the last entry too long. The bus conductor showed me to the front of the bus so I could rest my bag on the gearbox and sit next to it, right behind the driver. I hadn't yet read that LP recommends earplugs on bus journeys because of the obnoxiously loud Hindi music that they often play, and my bus was one of those. The poor sound system had been turned up to 12 it's entire life and the music coming through the speakers was so distorted that the lyrics sounded occasionally english. I'm sure the bus driver knew the songs so well he didn't need to hear the music anymore. My earplugs were packed at the top of my bag so I put them in. The Hindi music's attempt at my sanity and my eardrums was well outdone by the horn. Our driver's favourite horn was attached inside the bus, at his feet, directed more at himself and his passengers than the traffic. It was a bus ride so cheap they had to give you a migrane in order to offer value for money. At 7:30pm it was dark outside. We were racing through the outskirts of a small town down a winding road with bearly enough seal to allow us to overtake another bus. Nonetheless our driver was attempting to overtake, and the other bus driver was attempting to stay in front. The slum houses met the road only a few metres on either side of our buses. It took about five minutes for us to get past him, and there were barely 30 seconds during that time that our driver was not using his favourite horn. About 500m later we pulled over to let some people off and the other bus passed us. |
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