At 59, when many people might be thinking about slowing down, Dolly Rana is doing the opposite. Every morning in Howrah, West Bengal, she steps onto a bus, ticket bag slung over her shoulder, and calls out stops to passengers. But for Rana, this is not simply a job. It is a promise she made to her father. Her journey is a reminder that some dreams never fade, even when life takes unexpected turns and years go by.
A daughter’s journey to fulfil her father’s dream
Rana’s father had always wanted to own a bus and enter the transport business. After his death, she decided to turn that long-held family dream into reality. In 2017, she took loans and bought a bus of her own. Initially, she hired a driver and conductor and managed the business herself. It was a significant financial commitment, but one she was willing to take for the dream her father had left behind.Then came the pandemic. Like much of the transport sector, Rana’s business was badly affected. When her conductor eventually quit in 2021 and losses continued to mount, she faced a choice: step away from the business or find another way to keep it going. She chose the latter.
At 54, she stepped onto the bus herself
Rana decided to become the conductor herself. There was no elaborate preparation. She simply got on duty and began learning the job as she went. In the beginning, she did not even have a conductor’s bag and collected passengers’ fares in the fold of her sari, she told The Telegraph. The work meant spending long hours on a crowded bus, jumping on and off repeatedly, issuing tickets, dealing with passengers and stepping in when disputes broke out. And she did it in a profession still overwhelmingly associated with men.Rana has said that being a woman in the job is difficult because some people continue to assume that women are weak. Passengers have questioned her and, at times, she has faced harassment. But she has continued to show up every morning. Her route, reported as bus number 57, runs between Belgachia and Howrah. Regular passengers have come to know her simply as “Dolly-di”.
The bus became both her livelihood and her burden
Owning a bus brought its own set of problems. Maintenance costs rose, repairs became increasingly expensive and loan repayments added to the pressure. At the same time, the rise of electric rickshaws affected passenger numbers on parts of her route, cutting into her earnings. For Rana, however, giving up the bus would have meant giving up more than a source of income. It would have meant walking away from the dream that had motivated her in the first place. She eventually sought a new route permit that could help make the business viable again.
One viral story led to a crucial phone call
Her struggles gained wider attention after The Better India first shared her story and video. The attention eventually reached the state transport administration. According to The Better India, the state bus secretary personally contacted Rana and told her that her request for a new route permit had been approved. The new route offered her a better chance of continuing the business without facing the same level of competition from e-rickshaws. The development gave Rana something she had been fighting for all along: a little breathing room to keep her bus running.
At 59, she is still showing up
Rana’s story is striking not simply because she is a woman working as a bus conductor at 59. It is because of the path that brought her there, from a daughter’s determination to fulfil her father’s dream, to taking on debt, surviving a pandemic-induced setback and eventually stepping onto the bus herself when the business needed her most. What began as an effort to honour her father’s wish gradually became a journey of courage, resilience and determination. She does not appear to have set out to become a symbol of anything. She simply wanted to keep a promise. And every morning, when she climbs onto that bus and calls out the next stop, she is still keeping it.
