Have you ever travelled on a long-distance night bus?
As a seasoned solo traveller, I have always found the experience to be eerie and exhilarating in equal measure. On my last long-distance night bus ride from Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh to Guwahati in Assam earlier this year, I had to spend several hours stuck in the middle of nowhere, without any network connectivity, because of a landslide on the road. The people I met on the bus during that trip and the conversations we had during those hours spent talking, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, and waiting for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to clear the road gave me an unfiltered glimpse into the lived realities of Indians who make similar journeys often — if not every day.
Across India, bus transport is the backbone of mass transit as it offers regular commuters both affordability and convenience — making it accessible for all economic classes. On the online bus ticketing platform RedBus alone, over 3.8 million people bought intercity bus tickets in 2022, with over 64 per cent of travellers boarding the bus after 5 p.m. — marking a distinct preference for night travel among intercity travellers.
'Shab-Parak', or 'The Night-Fliers' — named after the Urdu word for nocturnal flying animals like owls and bats — is a documentary short film by Sabika Syed and Nikhil Mehrotra that explores the often-unseen world of Delhi's night travellers, told through the nightly journey of the DTC bus 0543A.
Every night, the bus runs from Anand Vihar ISBT in East Delhi to Kapashera Border in South-West Delhi, connecting 67 stops between the city's farthest corners as the rest of Delhi sleeps. The film engages with the quiet solitude of the night commute, capturing the passengers’ experiences — from the anticipation of the bus to the long, soothing journey that lulls them to sleep, to the final arrival that brings them closer to their destination.
Amidst the quiet of the city, passengers express their unease about other night-time transport like auto-rickshaws, and Shabbir, the bus driver, speaks of his sense of responsibility and care toward the travellers. Shab-Parak offers us a glimpse into the night bus service as an essential lifeline for a city that never truly sleeps — sustaining both its people and its heartbeat through the darkest hours.
As the film progresses, we hear Shabbir speak about the importance of the essential service drivers like him provide, the connections that they develop with the regular commuters, and the doubt that looms over their future as the authorities look to privatise the bus services.
"We have come into this world, and our life is a journey! We have to work, earn a living, build a family. We are all caught up in this. The journey has to be completed. The day it's over, we will meet our maker."Shabbir, DTC bus driver on the 0543A route between Anand Vihar and Kapashera Border
'Shab-Parak' (The Night-Fliers) is a finalist in the Nagari Short Film Competition 2024 by The Charles Correa Foundation — an annual competition designed to guide and develop films that focus on urban issues, specifically in Indian cities.
Watch and vote for 'Shab-Parak' here.
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