IBA Crowded Shuttle and The Students

Phase One: The Warm-up

To the buzzing of alarm, you wake up and with a butt face welcome another hectic day. The initial stage of an IBA Hostelite after waking up is like an Olympic marathon. They have to run towards the bathroom first, then hurry towards the mess, and finally, race towards the crowded shuttle. And it is the finishing line of phase one, you can breathe now.

You have to make it to the bus on time, it does not wait an extra second. And if you do not, trust me, you are not going to like the Rickshaw ride. After taking the local Ferrari: your makeup is gone, your hair is messed up, and your clothes, forget it, you never ironed them. Next, when the crowded shuttle reaches the boy’s hostel most of the seats are already taken. And half of the population has to stand in the mid-way, it is like a warm-up exercise for the day ahead. However, morning scenes are quite better than the scenes of the 4 pm shuttle back from the city campus. Everybody has to suffer IBA shuttles, but there should be sympathy cards for having to take the 4 pm shuttle after a tiring day.

Inside the crowded shuttle

IBA’s 4 pm crowded shuttle would be the only place where sitting in somebody’s lap would be socially acceptable. Because the bus is all packed like sardines and you do not even have the room to stand in the mid-way. And those managing to stand are, often, the ones having their last classes on the 11th or 12th floor of Aman Tower, where they do not get the lift at this hour of the day. They have to take the stairs to the ground floor usually and if somebody is wearing heels, she is dead!

Over the last semester, these people have trained themselves to fight for their rights to stand (in case they don’t get to sit). Now they amaze us with their agility skills. They manage to push and jostle in the jam-packed bus and make some space to stand. They hold their sweaty hands on the metal railings and are unable to move their heads from the fear of colliding with the heads of others. While those sitting in the seats besides standing buddies wish to erode to their skeletons or cut off their limbs to have some space to avoid bags kicking their faces. A claustrophobic would pass out in such an unbearable atmosphere with searing heat.

Students coping with the way.

The crowded shuttle is like a school to most of them. They imagine every possible dream looking out of the window and unblinkingly staring at the heavy traffic on the roads of Karachi. The exhausted ones fall asleep with their heads hanging in the air and moving with the moves of the shuttle. The air contains diverse fragrances which add up. As a result, the smell of mingled perfumes fills nostrils causing everyone to nauseate. Even in this suffocating atmosphere, a few fellows cannot resist turning around and talking to their friends making others uncomfortable. Yet, it makes no difference to some. They switch on their speakers and sing along with the music: humming and then raising their volumes as if jerked into showing enthusiasm, bringing all the sleeping beauties back to life.

At the end of the crowded shuttle

To sum up, IBA’s crowded shuttle service is troublesome. It is too uncomfortable to take the pin-packed shuttle after helter-skelter of classes throughout the day. So, keeping in account the weather of Karachi, the students need two shuttles at a time. The weather is getting hotter each day and the distance between City Campus and hostels is considerably long. Therefore, students cannot keep going this way. Hence, the institute needs to allocate an extra shuttle. It would be a saving grace for the beaten-to-death students.