Watching her swiftly shuttle between buses, hollering tomake sure that the bus in front of hers exits on time, leaves one’s jaw hanginga foot above the ground. The other bus conductors admire her and are alsointimidated by her. Jacinta Alfonso is the first woman bus conductor on thePanjim-Dona Paula route. “She is gutsy and I would not dare mess with her,”says one of the conductors at the Panjim bus stand.
As she sipped tea, sitting inside the bus during her5-minute tea break at 10 am in the morning, she revealed, “My husband was ahired driver for other buses and we barely could make ends meet with the salaryhe earned. With a loan from a friend, we bought a second-hand bus.” That wasten years ago. Jacinta and her husband made enough money from their own bus andthey bought a brand new bus with the help of government subsidy two years ago.
The day for them starts at 8 am when they make the firsttrip from Dona Paula to Panjim. They return home at 10 pm and work on Sundaysunless important work pulls them away from the grind. “We make a good team, myhusband and I. He drives the bus, while ‘chase’ the bus before ours,” she saysbefore alighting and hopping into the bus ahead of hers. She will ride on thebus till it reaches the market, constantly exhorting it on. At the market, shegets into her own bus and eggs people in.
Being a female conductor, we were curious about whetherJacinta encounters men who misbehave. “Yes, drunkards are a common story andthere have been instances when Indian tourists have tried to misbehave with me,but I know how to handle them,” she says. A blank slate when she started, shelearnt the tricks of the trade on the job. Jacinta has a son who is in class 9,and who is taken care of by her mother. Before buying the bus Jacinta used tosell fish. “My parents were fisher folk and even now, I sell fish one day in a month,”she reveals before signing off with a wave and continuing to collect the farefrom the passengers.
