This incident occurred few months back when I was in Bonn. I had written it down but not posted it.
Today had a very nice experience here in Bonn. I was travelling with a bus back home from my course. In a very narrow lane the bus cut in too close to a cycle rider. As the bus driver drove on, the cycle rider chased him at full speed shouting something at him. I heard him say, "Haben Sie Führerschein?" Which translates to "kya aapke paas license hai?" In many such cases I have seen people resort to "tu-tadak". The bus driver stopped the bus and apologised profusely to the cycle rider. He explained that he had not seen the rider and he is extremely sorry for that. Wow! what a civility! Wish we had more such people in the world. As opposed to this, once, I had a bus driver shout at me in Bonn itself. We were travelling with a family pass which allows two adults, 3 children and a bike on the bus if it is not too crowded. it was night time and the bike could have been allowed. The driver did not know the rules nor did he know English. He did not allow us the bike and my husband had to ride the bike home. It was very upsetting. But in any case we wrote a complaining mail to the SWB for which we received a reply promptly. They apologised profusely and asked us to continue using the services. They stood by us and promised to have a word with the said driver and warn him too. This professional handling of a not so pleasant experience makes me wonder why can not everyone be so. Is it actually so difficult to apologise?
