Our transport services have a distinct class character. Airports have all the basic conveniences and luxuries for its passengers. Facilities like the wash room look luxurious, clean and neat with attendants keeping it clean, in case the passengers don't. Some of the airports look like a shopping mall, full of shops of goods of national and international brands.

Passengers who fly by air have probably spent the highest amount (subsidised) to travel from point A to point B. They are moneyed people; society treats them as achievers and makes them feel important too.

Their safety, is paramount to the State and in that there is an irony. To enter the airport there is a queue, you can enter if you have a valid ticket and a photo identity. There is a security person to check or there is a technology that can check it and sometimes both these methods are put to use. Then move to the check-in counters or the kiosks. Modern technology is making us self-sufficient, you get your ticket printer, you put baggage slips and you put it on the belt as a check-in luggage. Next you have to be in line for security, take out whatever could be potentially hazardous or dangerous, display it, get your-self checked and then the first step is over. Later you are in another queue to board and get checked again. Prove yourself as a good citizen again and again. But you don’t feel that the State is suspicious of you, you feel that the State is protecting you! The ambiance is designed to make you feel important and powerful and that clouds the feeling that every passenger is a suspect, can be harmful, may even be a threat to national security!!

Passengers also feel that they are important, they walk around with an air of importance, speaking in English, portraying a sense that if they don't travel the world economy might get adversely affected. There are other indicators of generating this feeling, the place being neat and clean, smelling good, with lots of air and light.

Then there are passengers traveling from point C to D by state transport Bus. Ticket prices are reasonable, women get more subsidy than the men. The bus stand is open to sky, passengers enjoy all the seasons while at the bus stand. As per the seasons outside, they walk into the bus drenched, full of sweaters or sweating. The shops are basic, related to travelling and not assuming that passengers are out here for shopping. It is an art to listen and comprehend the announcements. Queries are asked with no formality and answered with few crisp words. There is noise and hustle in local dialect. Individual acumen is required to find your bus and a seat. Anyone can walk into the premises of Bus stand, everyone is assumed to be a passenger. No gates, just walk in, get a ticket if not booked earlier and get into the bus.

The conveniences at the Bus Stand is as basic as it gets. Some of the metropolis may have a better – read clean and neat Bus stand but typically very crowded, uneven flooring, with litter around, there are cats and dogs that look settled forever, vendors shouting to sell their goods, trying to find different ways to shout to attract customers, Passengers look tired, carrying luggage on shoulders and in their hands, rushing around to find the fastest and earliest Bus to their destination.

Airports and bus stands are built by Government with public money. Evidently, there are more passengers travelling by Bus than by Planes. The passenger flow is higher, quicker in the Bus stand. In other words, passenger traffic per built-up area, per unit time is probably higher at bus stands.

But why are busy stands not clean, and provide the basic conveniences to a traveller?

Why are the budgets so disproportionately skewed?

Do passengers travelling by plane generate more revenue? Give more tax? More importantly, can this be a criterion for government policies and decisions?

Or is it just that we are culturally inclined to serve the rich and powerful? As a society, do we unconsciously think that the rich deserve the treatment available at Airports and that the “common people” should not expect such treatment? When was the last time we saw in a Hindi film, the protagonist travelling by a state transport Bus?

We live in a country where these two worlds exist. Not just that but most of their lives they do not venture into each other’s worlds. The spaces are guarded, not by walls or gates but by the gates and walls in our mind. Bus stands have become invisible to the rich and Airports are out of the view of the common person of India.

Airports are marked with bill boards displaying ‘best’ Airport in so and so category. There is a competition amongst Airports to provide the best of facilities so that their passengers experience least of the inconvenience. Flights getting delayed, food served is not of good quality, announcements being noisy are complaints which sometimes get space in media too.

People who travel by Bus stands feel it is “normal” to be treated with disdain. Rarely do you see them demanding better facilities, since they are used to being not heard. There is no ingrained understanding that being a citizen of this country they can demand basic amenities from their government. They accept their class and accept the norms that are woven around it. This to me, is a serious comment on all of us, as a society.

Passengers travelling by plane or by bus, both have a role in this vibrant society, they are individual citizens of this country and need to be treated with dignity and respect. As a citizen, and as an individual we all carry the same dignity. It is not related to our professions or our wealth. Airports are boosting the self-esteem of their passengers while the Bus stands are crushing it, no Government can be allowed to do that.

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