"Oshodi!!!, Oshodi-Oke!!!, Ikeja!!!, Ketu-Ojota-PalmGrove-Onipan!!!!", any bus-stop enter with your 100 Naira change oooo!!!!
Seemingly energized bus conductors dinned the air at the Sabo bus-stop early in the morning on my way to work which, by the way, was at Ikeja where i was on Industrial training.
Diverse works of life - School Children, workers-most esp. bankers( tell by their dressing, suits with approved color of shirts) and the most dreaded fish- hawkers(that ish stinks),all impatiently waiting for buses to convey us to our respective destinations. The very impatient ones opted for okada(Bike) and rode off to wherever while the others appeared to be on their marks. "Ikeja!!!! Ikeja!!!!...." and like a gun shot to an athletes ears on a race track, there was chaos in getting into the bus and next i know, the bus, loaded with sweaty, rumpled, Fish -stinking passengers, eventually ferried more than usual and the conductor, hanging on the bus, made life even more unbearable for the poor dude is sitting close to door.
Another round of chaos and 15 minutes later, i finally got in a bus."God, my phone???, where's my Phone???", we all fixed our eyes on this guy as he continued yelling,"Bros abeg let me use your phone to flash my number!!!", he called out to the brother sitting next to him. Seconds later, he was dialling his phone while the driver and his conductor, the former driving recklessly and the latter just busy collecting the transport fare, was obviously uninterested. "Hello!!!", the coarse voice at the other end echoed, "who be this???", "where are you ??, thats my phone you using", the guy on the bus pleads on,"haaa, don't do that...." he continues, and then static, he tries dialing again but the phone's switched off.
Apparently, his phone was gently removed from his pocket while rushing to get on the bus and during his phone conversation, offered to drop his Sim card at a location, which in my own view, based on told experience, is lenient enough.
That story turned stale as i looked around me - a young lady dozing off, a school boy comfortably seated on his sister's lap, the banker beside me was reading a sports magazine, while a woman close to the window reached inside her bra to pay for a sachet of pure water. Fish smell filled the air but no one on the bus seem to care. I thirsted for water, so i reached out of the window and luckily, saw a hawker selling bottled water on standby and as my vocal chords where about to call out to him, i couldn't help but notice the vehemence as he stuck his index finger in his nose and picked away. I obviously withdrew my head and braced myself for the remaining 30min journey, thanks to the traffic and frequent stops.
"Allen ave!" "O wa oo", as often replied, i had reached my stop. I trotted to the office, trying to sign in before 8am. Approaching the hallway, every one present take furtive glances at me, then my olfactory nerve signals me that the Givenchy neo perfume i was wearing when i left my house had been forcefully replaced by the fish stench now vividly oozing in the hallway.
Oh my days!, my chance with the pretty front desk chic has been reduced to 36%. At 8:05, obviously exhausted, i sank in my chair and looked on the bright side,at least, i had just survived yet another normal Lagos Morning!.
Seemingly energized bus conductors dinned the air at the Sabo bus-stop early in the morning on my way to work which, by the way, was at Ikeja where i was on Industrial training.
Diverse works of life - School Children, workers-most esp. bankers( tell by their dressing, suits with approved color of shirts) and the most dreaded fish- hawkers(that ish stinks),all impatiently waiting for buses to convey us to our respective destinations. The very impatient ones opted for okada(Bike) and rode off to wherever while the others appeared to be on their marks. "Ikeja!!!! Ikeja!!!!...." and like a gun shot to an athletes ears on a race track, there was chaos in getting into the bus and next i know, the bus, loaded with sweaty, rumpled, Fish -stinking passengers, eventually ferried more than usual and the conductor, hanging on the bus, made life even more unbearable for the poor dude is sitting close to door.
Another round of chaos and 15 minutes later, i finally got in a bus."God, my phone???, where's my Phone???", we all fixed our eyes on this guy as he continued yelling,"Bros abeg let me use your phone to flash my number!!!", he called out to the brother sitting next to him. Seconds later, he was dialling his phone while the driver and his conductor, the former driving recklessly and the latter just busy collecting the transport fare, was obviously uninterested. "Hello!!!", the coarse voice at the other end echoed, "who be this???", "where are you ??, thats my phone you using", the guy on the bus pleads on,"haaa, don't do that...." he continues, and then static, he tries dialing again but the phone's switched off.
Apparently, his phone was gently removed from his pocket while rushing to get on the bus and during his phone conversation, offered to drop his Sim card at a location, which in my own view, based on told experience, is lenient enough.
That story turned stale as i looked around me - a young lady dozing off, a school boy comfortably seated on his sister's lap, the banker beside me was reading a sports magazine, while a woman close to the window reached inside her bra to pay for a sachet of pure water. Fish smell filled the air but no one on the bus seem to care. I thirsted for water, so i reached out of the window and luckily, saw a hawker selling bottled water on standby and as my vocal chords where about to call out to him, i couldn't help but notice the vehemence as he stuck his index finger in his nose and picked away. I obviously withdrew my head and braced myself for the remaining 30min journey, thanks to the traffic and frequent stops.
"Allen ave!" "O wa oo", as often replied, i had reached my stop. I trotted to the office, trying to sign in before 8am. Approaching the hallway, every one present take furtive glances at me, then my olfactory nerve signals me that the Givenchy neo perfume i was wearing when i left my house had been forcefully replaced by the fish stench now vividly oozing in the hallway.
Oh my days!, my chance with the pretty front desk chic has been reduced to 36%. At 8:05, obviously exhausted, i sank in my chair and looked on the bright side,at least, i had just survived yet another normal Lagos Morning!.
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