The fact that the Kadamba Bus Corp is not senior citizen friendly was brought to my notice drastically in the last two days.
Recently I was waiting for the Aldona bus at the bus stand. There was an old lady waiting as well. She wanted to go to Carona to pick up her ration. She is almost blind, and can hardly walk. The bus arrived, the door opened. I asked the driver if it was going to Carona as the sign was in Hindi and I cannot read Hindi. He told me it was communicated to her so she started moving towards the door. But there was a patch of mud right near the door. She got stuck in the mud. I had to remove her chappals and she put her leg in the mud to board the bus. She was not pleased.
The driver and conductor just watched. Then when she was paying the ticket the conductor started shouting at her back when she questioned him why the ticket was Rs 8. The next day, I had alighted from the Kadamba Bus in Aldona, and an old lady came hobbling by shouting “is it going to Calvim?” I had to bang on the sides of the bus to get it to stop as it was pulling away. The driver told me it was going to Carona (those unreadable signs again) The lady wanted to go to Carona so she hurried up and once AGAIN I had to assist her up the step. The driver was getting irritated as she was having a real hard time boarding the bus. He told her she should consider other transport because if she fell and had an accident they would get into trouble.
What have the authorities learnt about these incidents;.hundreds of which are happening every day.
A few suggestions to the bus owners: 1) the signs on the Kadamba bus should be in English as well as Hindi/Marathi so everyone can read them. 2) A step should be added to every Kadamba Bus to facilitate the elderly boarding the bus easily.
3) The Kadamba Bus staff should be sent for training to teach them some manners and empathy to their fellow men and women
4) The government should stop sponsoring Kadamba Bus Corp (lakhs of rupees everyday ) instead of being kind to the seniors (for providing them their bread and butter ) they are extremely boorish.
I too am a Senior Citizen, and proud of it!
