Thiruvananthapuram: Actor Maniyanpilla Raju has stated that KSRTC has always deceived him. He was responding to Transport Minister KB Ganesh Kumar’s question about his old memories of KSRTC during the launch of the “Orma Express” service.

Both the minister and the actor were on board for the maiden journey of the special service, joined by director Priyadarshan and actor Nandu. During the trip, Raju shared a humorous memory from his younger days.

He recalled how, as a youth, he once followed a girl he liked on his bicycle, only to meet with an unfortunate incident.

Raju further explained that, at that time, a KSRTC conductor insulted him in front of those girls by deflating the tyres of his bicycle and shouting abuses in the Thiruvananthapuram slang. What made it worse was that the incident was reported to his father by another bus conductor who was his neighbour.

“I used to live in Thycaud, close to Model School. During college, I would often walk to classes. An Anglo-Indian family lived near my house, and I had a liking for a girl in that family. She used to board the bus, and I would follow her on my bicycle. One day, while riding, I accidentally hit a man who had a plaster on his leg from the General Hospital. He couldn’t bear the pain and, in front of the girls, grabbed me by the shirt and slapped me. The slap I could have tolerated. But what really stung was what the KSRTC conductor did next. After the man hit me, the conductor deflated both tyres of my bicycle and used abusive words at me in Thiruvanathapuram slang, all while those girls were watching.”

He also added that another conductor, who came on another bus and happened to be his neighbour, later narrated the entire incident to his father. “That’s how KSRTC deceived me,” Raju concluded.