Krishna Bus Tour

Part 7-The Keeper Uppers

A light shone in my face. A gentle voice said, "It's your turn to drive."

I heard myself reply, "OK."

There was a rush of sound as I extracted the Hearos.

***

The only seat in the bus is the driver's seat. Twenty bunks and a bathroom fill the rest of the space. Everyone was asleep except the boy sitting next to me. "Can I get you anything?" he asked.

"No, thank you, I'm fine."

Bus tires roared over pavement as a 63 mph wind whistled at our door. It was midnight.

The boy asked, "Where are we?"

"Arkansas," I said. "Does that mean anything to you? Arkansas?"

"Not particularly."

"I didn't expect it would. Have you ever been outside of England?"

"This is my first time."

Each of the boys were assigned a half-hour shift to chat with the driver on overnight runs. The keeper-uppers are a bus tour safety tradition. This was my favorite part of the day.

I asked my keeper-upper, "What did you like best about Houston?"

"I really liked the Go game. Our team was really into the competition. and then, there was the barbecue. Everyone had grown so close by that last night. We were together only what, five days?"

"A lot of work went into it, to create that moment. The crew, they know what they're doing. They're definitely on their game."

"In England we have a similar group, but it's for new people. Y'know, teaching them how to chant and stuff. Here, they were getting into deeper issues. I wasn't expecting that."

"So you have stuff like this in England?"

"Sort of. In England the groups are much bigger."

"But not the same."

"No, this was more specific ... meant for us. I really appreciated it."

"Do you live near the Manor?"

"Yes. Most of us on this tour are from there. We grew up going to the Manor for festivals and stuff."

Bhaktivedanta Manor is the property donated by George Harrison back in the seventies to be used as a Krishna temple.

"It was nice of George to donate that. What was it like growing up there?"

"I love the place. It's home for me; some of my earliest memories are there. It's beautiful—the cows, the old buildings, the gardens ..."

***

It was easy to stay awake with so much to talk about—the conference they'd just come from, their lives back home, their plans for the future.

One boy wasn't as talkative. I asked what he liked about The Sanga Initiative. He became thoughtful for a long silent spell, then said, "Everything."

Another long silence followed as I gave him a chance to elaborate. But since that was all he had to say on it, I changed the subject.

"What do you do when you're at home?"

Again there was a long silence before he answered. "Study."

After another long silence, the boy asked me, "So ... uh ... have you done anything particularly interesting in your life?"

I didn't want to make him feel awkward by answering quickly. I checked the rear-view mirrors and instrument panel then looked thoughtful before saying, "Not really."

This kept me wide awake, calculating how long to prolong the silence before asking, "How about you?"

He pondered the question for some time before asking, "Uh ... what would you like to hear?"

Eventually he looked at his phone, "Oh, it's been a half hour. Guess I'll go wake the next guy."

"OK, thank you. Good-night."

"Thank you.," he said. "It was interesting."

***********

Gaura Narayan took his shift, "I want to move to England," he said. "I feel like my best friends are from there."

"That was fast. You just met these people."

"Yeah, I know. For some reason I really connect with them."

"They've infested the bus tour. I feel like I'm in an 'arry Potter movie. We've got Hagrid and Hermione and ..."

"I'm ready to move there."

"You know, it's always cold in England, grey and dreary ..."

"But Dad ... friends!"

I couldn't argue with that.

A topic discussed at the conference was, "What's your least favorite service?" That was followed with, "How can you make it your most favorite?" They concluded that even the most menial chores were fun if you did them with friends.

"You've got a point," I said. "You've got your priorities right."

***