Pupils learn to keep busy on the bus after school

Dubai: Trapped in buses for extended hours as a result of traffic congestion, pupils have formed their own weekly lists of activities to keep themselves busy.

Gulf News has learnt that the favourite topics in particular among girls range from movies and fashion to their latest ‘crushes' and ‘looks'.

Boys on the other hand had formed ‘groups' named after their favourite cartoon character like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Hardy Boys.

There are also those who prefer keeping a hawk's eye on motorists and the number of accidents that they come across on the Dubai-Sharjah road.

“Four other pupils and I in the bus keep a logbook of the number of accidents that we have come across on the road. Some days the number goes up to 14 accidents. Most of the accidents are caused by motorists trying to change lanes,'' said Vineet a grade 7 pupil.

“There have been a number of occasions when we had even planned to place a call to the emergency number 999 to report an accident. I pass my time observing motorists and the manner in which they try to overtake each other,'' he added.

Calling themselves ‘Ninja Turtles,' the group of four pupils from Grade 6 to Grade 8 make sure that they get the prime seats in the bus. These seats are reserved for them by the younger pupils who in return are provided a ‘protection cover' by the four ‘Ninja Turtles'.

“We make sure that the younger children are not harmed by others in the bus or in their class or by pupils from other schools at the bus stop. We spend a lot of time in the bus now-a-days so we keep mock fights inside the bus. The bus conductor gets angry but after sometime he just keeps quiet,'' said Donald, a Grade 7 pupil.

Rita, a five-year-old's mother, was shocked when her daughter asked her whether she kisses daddy. “I was not prepared at all to answer that question. On further enquiries, my daughter told me that she heard one of the older girls in her bus talking about a ‘kissing scene' that was shown in a movie, she said.

Speaking to Gulf News, her daughter Dipika said: “I get bored in the bus so I stand where the ‘big girls' are seated. I know that babies came from mother's stomach. The ‘big girls' in the bus laughed at me when I told them that babies come from heaven. Sometimes I also get to flip through a fashion magazine which I borrow from the ‘big girls' in the bus.''

There are also those children who try to complete their home-work while on their way home from school.

“We get more free time in the evening. The long hours that we spend on the road really drain us, but then there are days when we really have fun in the bus,'' said Malika, a Grade 9 pupil.