The Bus Ride

​Sometimes the smallest encounters leave an imprint that stays for longer than you would expect. A moment becomes a memory, amalgamated from both sweet and bitter experiences.

I love the prairie summers, and getting home on the bus is my favorite part of the day. Sometime in July, 2024, I was all set to enjoy my bus ride. As usual, I preferred taking the seat close to the exit door. Holding my phone in my hand, I became engrossed in scrolling and was so lost in it that I didn’t realise what was going on around me. In the blink of an eye, I felt someone had pulled mobile phone from my hand. My instinctive reaction was the same as it had been when I was a child. Like a five-year-old, I cried out, “Mummy, mummy, please help me!” Interestingly, none of the passengers reacted. That left me with many questions, as well as regrets about how absorbed I had been in my mobile phone. I believed that my phone contacts, pictures, wallet, messages, notes and much more were gone, forever. My body was frozen, and my hand remained positioned exactly as it had been moments earlier. The only difference was that a minute earlier, it had been holding my phone, and now it was holding nothing, yet remained in the same position. In a split second, the young man who had taken my phone stepped back and placed it back into my outstretched hand. I noticed that none of the passengers reacted neither when the phone was taken, nor when it was returned. The driver continued the journey, and the man was gone.

Two years later, I sit back and reflect on the incident. No one reacted when it happened. Are we so occupied with our own lives, that we are unwilling to offer support in any form, not even moral support? That bus ride was one of the most difficult, and as the bus continued along its route, I kept telling myself that nothing had happened. Why was I trying to tell myself of something that wasn’t true! Was that an escape from something which made me feel uncomfortable. Had the guy not grabbed my phone in the first place, I wouldn’t have realised how easily people remain neutral when they are not directly affected. If he hadn’t returned my phone, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to enjoy the bus rides ever after.

My mind often returns to the complexities of his personality. What tempted him to steal? Why did he have a change of heart, when he was only a step away from getting off the bus. Was he conscious of my reaction or was it the cry of “Mummy, mummy” that made him return the phone in the twinkling of an eye?

During this ordeal, I reflected on the behaviour of the people around me on that bus ride. On other days, I simply enjoy looking out of the window, admiring the greenery, the rabbits, and the living skies.

Shehnaz Gujral 

June 2026