Scientists are not born genius!

They acquire knowledge from things around them. All those theories and principles people speak did not come from thin air as such. Great minds had spent time on simple things and discovered great things.

I, as a software techie spend almost one sixth of my twenty four hour in bus commuting to office which is situated terribly outside the city limits. And commuting back home from Office consumes minimum of two hours. Tired and drained after work I run to the bus bay to get myself settled in a comfortable seat for the next two hour journey.

You know what? Getting into the bus is not a big deal, but getting a comfortable seat is a big deal. I’ve listed a few findings using which you can help yourself find a comfortable seat.

Assuming that all corporate buses have the seating like XXX on one side and XX on the other side, I hereby propose the following theories.

1. The window seats tend to get occupied first on both 2 seaters and 3 seaters except on rainy days
2. The back seats get filled largely than the seats in the front.
3. 2 Seaters are more comfortable when they are occupied by two thin persons.
4. Only 2 persons feel comfortable sitting in a 3 seater.
5. When the 3 seaters are getting occupied, first the window seats, then the ones in the aisle.
6. The probability of the third seat in the 3 seater getting filled is minimum, when it is already occupied by two persons in which one is male and the other one is female and the middle seat is free.
7. Stranger males and females never sit beside each other in a two seater, unless they have no other option to choose the one.
8. A female will always give a thought to occupy the middle seat in a 3 seater when it is already occupied by two males. So if she has not other go, she gets an aisle seat.
9. A male will never give a thought to occupy the middle seat in a 3 seater when it is already occupied by two females. But he has to give a thought on what the two ladies will think. So if he has not other go, he gets an aisle seat.
10. ‘Love birds’ always tend to occupy a 2 seater and towards the back, so that nobody can hear the koo-chi-koo talks.
11. Pretty girls are always engaged in mobile conversation throughout the journey.
12. Girls open their hair, release the band then tie it again, before getting down.
13. Long hour journey is always accompanied by iPods, mp3 players, mobile players, Portable Media Players etc.
14. The two hour bus journey will pass like a two minute bus journey when accompanied by a friend who you meet after a very long time.
15. We wish to sit beside the girl on whom we have crush. When you are in a 2 seater, you always expect the girl on whom you have crush will occupy the seat beside you, when people board the bus in a particular stopping and one by one fill the seats.
16. People like to sit near the window which is under our control. The opening and closing, adjusting knob of the glass slide etc should be near our seat. If it spans to the next seat behind ours or in front of ours, those seats are occupied last.
17. You tend to look at other’s mobile screen who is sitting in the seat next to yours when they message or make a call. This mostly happens when you are sitting in the aisle seat and the person who is sitting one row behind you in the aisle will have a clear view of yours
18. Many guys hesitate to ask a girl “If someone is coming?” so that the empty seat beside her can be occupied, when she is sitting alone in a 2 seater.
19. During rainy days, people close the glass slide fully, without leaving a small gap. This increases the humidity inside the bus and causes suffocation. But they cannot be blamed; rain drops find its way even through the small gap.
20. You always want to sit in the same seat daily whenever you board the bus. If someone is sitting in your place, you feel disappointed.
21. Our mind works like 100 core processor, when you get into the bus and scan the bus to find a comfortable seat, even though the bus is half empty.

Other things which are worth mentioning here is as below which is contributed by my friend Rengarajan. I too wanted to mention this but these thoughts didn’t strike me at that time. These points have been adopted from the comment section!! Thanks a lot for the contribution!! 🙂

22. Some of the guys reserve seats for their friends.. So that creates more disappointment especially when we come late and find few seats..

23. Although we use the same bus for many months and travel with pretty much the same people throughout the days, most of the people doesn’t know each other. Conversations will be within small closed groups. (Exactly!!! Many people are known to us just by their looks and not by name or in person!!)

24. Most of the girls sit with their legs completely folded and over the seats.. like sitting at home! They eat something on the bus.. almost always..(hehe guys too at times. Not only girls!!)

25. Some people will talk office stuff while in the bus.. like do this, do that… or taking a call from onsite or so..(Yea they do talk like open this file, login to the remote machine. the value of DEF_INIT is NULL, so set it in the second loop. Send out the meeting request. I’ll do the SLA report tomorrow and all stuffs 😀 )

26. Most of the people talk about real estate, new gadgets (mobile phones..) or vehicles or switching companies!

27. Several days, we can find a few new people.. when its a pretty girl, we wish that girl should come regularly..! (100 % true!! :D)

But, choosing seats are very important according to me.. as IT professionals in Chennai work long hours and travel long too! So.. this Bus journey which is taking a major part of the day is used by most of the people in several different ways. Like, thinking about the pending tasks, planning for the days to come, reading newspapers or magazines, for some of the people, it is the time when they call their families if they are living alone.. For some, its the best ever time to sleep!

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll try to add more if I observe anything new.  There are many more things which I would have missed. You can add it here!!

That’s the Kally’s law of bus journeys!!