Madam boards the bus

'Stop the bus!' One spring afternoon a small voice shouts 'Stop the bus!' and 'a tiny hand was raised commandingly'. When the conductor reaches out to help her up, Valli says: 'I can get on by myself. You don't have to help me.'

'Madam'. The conductor is 'a jolly sort, fond of joking'. He calls her 'my fine madam' and asks everyone to 'make way for madam'. The six or seven passengers laugh. Valli feels shy and hurries to a seat.

A shining new bus. It is white with green stripes; the bars shine 'like silver'; there is a clock and soft seats. 'Valli devoured everything with her eyes.' A canvas blind blocks her window, so she stands on the seat to see the canal, palm trees, distant mountains, the blue sky and 'green, green, green' fields.

'There's nobody here who's a child.' An elderly man tells her kindly to sit down. She answers haughtily: 'There's nobody here who's a child. I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else.' When the conductor calls her a grown-up madam, she shoots him an angry look: 'I am not a madam. Please remember that.' She wants to be treated as grown-up, not teased.

The elderly woman. A woman sits beside her: big holes in her ear lobes, ugly earrings, chewing betel nut. Valli finds her 'repulsive' and answers 'curtly' (shortly). To the questions 'Is it proper…? What's the street?', she says: 'I can take care of myself.'