Steer Clear Of Boredom

Turns out, buses make for great reading nooks.

It is exactly 9.58 am as the Banashankari bus depot comes into view – well, sort of. Columns of buses envelop the depot so there is not much else visible. As I slither through the buses stacked against each other, Krishna Bhavan appears: the darshini housed within the depot. Here, I begin what I imagine will be a long wait for Sahana Srikanth, the curator of Bengaluru Bus Reads. I pay for a watermelon juice – whose slip stays unused in my jeans – when Sahana rushes in. She stays focused on the bus lanes in the depot, spots the V500A, and charges towards it. The sound of each machine layers on to create a sharp din. We get into the bus headed towards Hebbal, to get off at Silk Board Bus Stand, where she tells me we will meet the rest of the crowd, about 12 people who’ve signed up for the fifth chapter of the Bus Reads. The Banashankari TTMC is the first of two stops on this day-long adventure.

Route & roll

Bengaluru Bus Reads meets once every two weeks. The weekly break Sahana takes is to “explore other art spaces in the city.” With just the two of us on this first stretch, Sahana describes her “really long commute to work,” when she discovered from the @FriendsOfBMTC page that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation had introduced a new bus between Banashankari and Sarjapur. This was the long, chaotic stretch that mapped the journey between home and office. When she took that first bus, she discovered that “it’s a bit chaotic and intimidating,” but decided to just go for it anyway.

“I get very restless,” she says, “especially on the bus. So I started reading, listening to music, and all that,” which is when she discovered that she was able to read on the bus without the ups-and-downs of motion sickness. As a regular event curator already, she cooked up the idea of Bengaluru Bus Reads and decided to give it a go. Started in November 2025, the Reads have seen seven chapters so far with a variety of events offered to attendees each session. Here, Sahana’s brought in friends but has met many people, some of these through twitter but the rest by chance.

Wheely wheely fun

There’s an Udupi Bhavan at Silk Board and we stop here to wait for the ones who are yet to join. Four people are here already, some regulars peppered in with a couple of new faces. What follows next is a regular meet-and-greet, most people residents of HSR Layout and many not originally from Bangalore. We’re all armed with books in our arsenals, ready to run into the V500D that is just ready to depart, sitting elephant-like in the middle of the road. The conductor – a woman – looks pleased. “They’re always happy to see a crowd,” Sahana says. Weekends see most of these AC buses somewhat empty.

There are only two people sitting up front. We trudge towards the back of the bus and settle in immediately. The traffic on this Saturday afternoon is sparse, and the bus speeds ahead. Sahana looks at the time and wonders if it’s too less. A 45-minute duration is standard, but Bengaluru’s traffic makes liars out of us all. One time they even ended up in the traffic for about two hours, which “became tiring after a while.” Before we retreat to silence, Sahana reminds us to “wear earphones in case of motion sickness,” it helps her stay distracted and focus on the book.

Tearing through time

After ten minutes of chatter, everyone settles into their books – bodies rounding into themselves. The books are aplenty. From Field Guide to Typography, to Ocean Vuong and John Berger, across the flighty world of Ali Hazlewood, and finally, to Manu Pillai and Shashi Tharoor, the range is a marker of the crowd the Bus Reads usually attracts. Sparsh Patlan, a regular face at Bus Reads, describes regularly hosting her own events at home – movie nights and board game sessions, because “all of us need a human connection.” The group is full of more such folks, event curators and organisers, each one focused on building spaces for themselves. As conversations mushroom amongst the silence, Sahana flutters around to make sure everyone is okay, reminding us all when it’s time to move, when we can stay put and relax.

The 500D is also headed to Hebbal, where we get off at the Benniganahalli metro station. Excellent Coffee, a small kiosk in the metro station offers us respite as we take in the chaotic hum of the Tin Factory Bus Stop. Benniganahalli is in East Bangalore, far from the Banashankari I encountered earlier in the day. We’ve looped through the city in the bus, and are now headed to Cubbon Park on the metro. After this, we will look at the Paper Gardens: Art, Botany, and Empire exhibit in the Museum of Art and Photography, and another at Venkatappa Art Gallery. Here, Sahana acts as guide and host. The session concludes with one last group huddle, everyone sharing book names and one-line descriptions about the title that has held them for the day.

The details: Bengaluru Bus Reads is held every two weeks, with boarding points usually around the Silk Board Area. Join their WhatsApp Community or follow them on Instagram for regular updates.

Drishti Rakhra is the Senior Editor at LURU.