The song It’s a Wonderful World by Frank Sinatra continues to amaze me despite being decades old. Perhaps it remains one of his most enduring songs, delivered in his charming, mature voice.
Sometimes I truly wonder what a wonderful world it is that I am still able to breathe in today.
On Monday, March 16, at around 10.30am, I reached the Lulu Centre/Naim bus stop. The display showed ‘12-Dragon City – 17 minutes’, yet after only two or three minutes of waiting, Bus Route 12 to Dragon City – which should have arrived after 15 more minutes – appeared unexpectedly.
Suddenly, I remembered the two items I had forgotten at the security counter before entering Ramez and so I returned to collect them and then came back to the bus stop. This time, the display read ‘A‑1 – Airport – 3 minutes’, which universally suggests that the A‑1 bus heading towards the airport was arriving in three minutes.
The A‑1 route is a popular one between the airport and Isa Town. There was a list of six to eight other bus arrivals, but none showing ‘A‑1 Isa Town’ – only A‑1 Airport, clearly indicating an airport-bound direction.
However, when the display changed to ‘A‑1 – Airport – 1 minute’, the bus that arrived displayed ‘A‑1 Isa Town’, meaning it was going in the opposite direction. It was confusing and unexpected. I boarded the bus anyway and took a ticket, which was timestamped 11:14:14 for Salmaniya.
Living in this so‑called wonderful world, I felt as if I were too old to understand even simple things. They say that after the age of 60, one starts becoming like a child, not just physically, but mentally as well, and perhaps that is what I am experiencing.
This was not the first time either; last month, a similar incident occurred when a bus going to Salmaniya arrived even though the display indicated that the next arrival should have been a bus heading to the airport.
I wonder if any frequent bus traveller could explain whether ‘A‑1 Airport’ refers to a bus going to the airport or arriving from the airport.
At airports, we are accustomed to two displays – arrivals and departures – but at bus stops, people stand only to board buses heading towards destinations, not to receive arriving ones. Yet, in this wonderful world of today, even such simple understandings seem uncertain.
Muhammad
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