“I joined KSRTC when he was studying in Class 7. He used to accompany his father when the latter dropped and picked me up after duty.  Even then the boy was fascinated by the driving seat and steering. A couple of times, he even stealthy went and sat on the driver’s seat of parked buses. When he grew up he used to drive a lot of vehicles. His favourite is the jeep. Years later, I’m very happy that he got his long-cherished job,” a beaming Yamuna told TNIE.

And it was Yamuna who noticed the vacancy and asked her son to apply for the driver’s vacancy nearly four months back. “He was anxious about the written test, but he passed both the written and practical tests comfortably. For the last four months, he was eagerly waiting for a call from the KSRTC each day,” Yamuna said.

Sreerag, 27, too said he had the passion for driving from a tender age itself, a reason that he attributes to frequent travelling in the KSRTC bus along with his mother. He was working as a temporary driver with the Forest Department before joining KSRTC last week. And he had one request to the authorities — to let him work with his mother on the first day of duty. The authorities had no hesitation and deployed the mother-son duo as the crew of the bus operating in the busy city route.