Bangalore City Bus: My travel experience

I always liked traveling in the Bangalore city buses. They used to be called BTS ( Bangalore Transport Service). I started traveling from sixth grade from koramangala to my primary school located at Wilson Garden. Mine was the last stop at Koramangala, that meant only few passengers would travel until the last bus stop. During those days, we knew most of the conductors &drivers. One of my friend's uncle was a conductor and he looked like late kannada cinema comedian Narasimharaju. Few bus routes like 171, 163(A),166 connected Koramangala to the outside world. 171 was the most popular and busiest route because it connected the Bangalore City's main bus terminal(Kempegowda Bus Terminus). This apart, there were few long bus routes from the rural areas to the city market area. It was very common to find the Koramangala's rich &famous kids travelling in the buses, side by side with other kids.
I gained more bus travel experience when I went to high school in Jayanagar 4th Block. I had to change buses in Wilson Garden till the BTS introduced a direct route from koramangala to Jay.4th block. Wilson Garden police station stop used to be like a transit center for koramangala kids because most of the educational instutions were located in basavanagudi & jayanagar areas. Boarding koramangala bound buses at Wilson Garden stop was always a challenge. The buses would be already full and the drivers would pull up 50-100 meters ahead of the assigned stop, just to avoid additional passengers. We would chase down the bus all the way and get in. Also bus travel served as a perfect place for networking and we made lot of friends in other schools.
My bus travel continued through my pre-university and degree education. However, sometimes I used to borrow my brother's moped too!. During my degree education, I had flexibility of choosing either the rural or the regular routes. The rural buses ferried lot of villagers while the regular routes had city crowd and some nice looking girls!. Inspite of this attractions, we were forced to take mofussil buses because of the faster commute times. By now, Koramangala had added a lot of residents and businesses. So naturally there were more people in the buses and off course new bus routes were introduced. Bus travel gradually tapered off once I started working. Due to my job requirements and the flexibility with the two wheeler, I gave up full fledged city bus travel. However, whenever possible I've used the city bus to get around in Bangalore. All these years ( even now) I hear Bangalore residents complaining about poor bus facilities in terms of schedules, seating capacities, etc. No doubt, the state run organization is not run like a business, it definetly is a life line for millions of people. Unlike other cities, majority of the Bangalore's middle income group do not travel by bus. Instead of simply blaming the traffic jams, if at least few people switch to bus travel, not only will they save some money but also help reduce the pollution around.