B.E.S.T stands for Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport. ‘B’ earlier stood for Bombay but now it is replaced by Brihanmumbai which means ‘Greater Mumbai’. B.E.S.T, many claim, stands true to its acronym “best”. At a time when much public transport stopped their services at times of crisis, BEST buses sailed through efficiently. Mr. Ashok Ganpat Jangum, a mild mannered conductor who has worked with BEST for 35 years evaded all questions rather coyly and refused to talk about his experiences on board. After a lot of nudging he finally spoke of his most memorable experience of that of 26/7 rains in 2005, “My route that day was from V.T to Mahim. Due to flooding we had to change to different routes, but we were not allowed to stop. That night we dropped all passengers safely and reached the depot by 2.30am and left for our homes next day by 6am”. Although 900 buses were damaged that night, the drivers and conductors were praised for their dedication at work B.E.S.T buses have won many awards over the years including award for the best passenger safety record in 1994 and international road safety award for the year 2003.
It is then I realized that the heart of Mumbai’s transport is not just the red inanimate object that carries people around but the brave and lively people who run it. On my way to Grant Road station, I started a conversation with the driver of the bus and he told me that he was a truck driver before. Back then he used to be on road day and night. But now this being a government job it gives him a sense of security. Now he can easily get back home at night.
Santhosh Rahate the conductor of the same bus came up to me and suggested that I read up the official webpage of BEST for more information. He said to me,” There are few people who would have something extraordinary to say to you. But the average life of the conductor starts and ends within a limited route.” He promptly came over to read the notes I was making. He also asked me to correct the spelling of his name. Looking at the surprised expression on my face he said, “Many people assume drivers and conductors to be illiterate. This is not true. I come across many people who treat us like nobody. I meet arrogant, friendly, unconcerned, lost people everyday. We don’t sit and consider their bias. We just go on with our job.” Rahate has been working with BEST since 1998. With around 12 years of experience I assumed he must be quite a face reader, he smiles and says, “Those are additional things. I do Reiki in my past time. With a little over seven years of experience I am now become a grandmaster. I practice as well as teach other people Reiki now.” It took me some time to understand what he was talking about and meanwhile he asked me whether I knew what Reiki was. I nodded. I was dazed. And I thought they were nothing more than drivers or conductors.
It is surprising to know that as of 2010, the BEST runs a total of 4700 buses, ferrying 4.8 million passengers over 365 routes, and has a workforce strength of 38,000, which includes 22,000 bus drivers and conductors (this comes to an average of 11.2 employees per bus) as quoted by the official website of BEST and we know so little about the people we travel with, let alone the drivers and conductors. I met another former conductor and now an officer at the depot, Mr. S.M Deshmukh who came to Mumbai in 1977 from Sangli district. He joined the BEST workforce in 1979. “In ’79 I was working in a mill. I left it and joined BEST in ’79.” I asked whether job security was one of the reasons why he quit. “No, I left because the mill work was very difficult but after joining the BEST I realized that this job is even more difficult,” he jokes. “This is indeed a very tiresome job. But after 31 years in this job I have very little complaints.” Mr. Jangum tells me how all the government officials and the policemen who earned lesser than the BEST workers at some point of time would now earn twice or sometimes thrice their salary. “BEST now recruits people on contract basis. So there can be very little done about the raise in salary as a newcomer would get something about 5000 a month. How much can a person save during inflation? Sometimes it is not even enough to feed a family of four”
They are the same heroes who dropped passengers to safety in the 26/7 rains and who took many victims of the train blasts in 2006 to hospitals. Many of these stories go unaccounted for, or many of these heroes unrewarded but what is even more heart wrenching is that they continue to slave away for a government for peanuts.
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