A day in the life of bus driver
The alarm rings. It is six o’clock. Maniam gets up wearily. It is the start of another day ferrying school kids to and from school.
At six-thirty, after a hurried bath, Maniam starts his old 22-seater bus and moves off. He goes along a regular route picking up children to send to various schools. By seven, all the regular children, except one who is ill, is on the bus. Maniam drives carefully through the busy roads.
He stops at four different schools, dropping off some children at each. He plans his drive carefully so as to reach the last school by seven-thirty. Otherwise some children will be late for school and he gets the blame.
At seven-thirty two, his bus is empty and the roads are magically less congested. Most of the children are in the classrooms. Maniam stops by at a stall to have his breakfast.
Come eleven-thirty, he picks up other school children for the afternoon session. By twelve-thirty he has sent all the children to the schools safely.
At one o’clock he collects his first batch of children from a school. Then he proceeds to three other schools to collect the others. After collecting the children he sends them home.
Maniam has lunch at home and takes a nap. At three o’clock he cleans up the bus.
At six in the evening, Maniam goes on his last round of collecting the children from the schools. He safely sends them home by seven thirty. Then Maniam goes home, takes a bath, has dinner and watches television for a while before retiring to bed. Thus end yet another day in the life of a bus driver.
