Emily, Meera and I planned to go home on the 7th of May, 2010. It was for the first time, since I joined as a trainee at Infosys Mysore, three months ago, that I was going home. A friend, Jayaram would book the tickets for Emily and Meera. The two of them would be going on one bus to their hometown in Thodupuzha and me on another to Kannur.
“A very old person will come and sit beside you!” she cursed me, jokingly.
On the day of the journey, we teased our friends in the .NET batch as they were not able to go home. They had an examination on Monday.
In the evening, our friend Jayaram took print outs of our tickets and handed them over to the girls. I was waiting for them near the multiplex in our campus.
I literally felt small when I saw them. Not that they are taller or larger than me; it is the size and the number of their bags that made me feel small. I just had a back pack (borrowed from Deepu) with me. They had a small back pack each and in addition, two to three other bags. Girls!
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| Mysore Sub-Urban Bus Stand |
Anyway, we left the campus and reached Mysore city at around 7:30 pm. Meera had to buy sweets for her family. Then we waited for their bus which was scheduled to arrive at 8.30 pm at the sub-urban bus stand. I wouldn’t call the place a bus stand. It was a shack. Their bus arrived at 8.30 pm, sharp, and they got in to sit at the last seats of the bus. In another 25 minutes they’re bus left and then I had to while away time till 9:45 pm.
I got into a restaurant, Hotel Maharajas, to have my dinner. To my delight, the restaurant had put on the India-Australia T20 World Cup match on TV. So, I had got something to pass time until my bus came. The match wasn’t all that cool, the scoreboard, I mean.
I got out of the restaurant at 9:30 pm as the bus was scheduled to arrive in another 15 minutes. I waited and waited and waited at the bus stop.
Then, I waited for some more and more time.
Out of frustration and confusion, I texted Meera, asking her what was the service start point printed on their ticket. I had to make sure that I was not waiting for the bus at the wrong place. She replied saying it was Satellite Bus Stand, Mysore. I was indeed at the correct place. Then, where the hell was my bus?
Many other buses came and went. None were going to my place. I had to wait even more!
“Are you waiting for the Kannur bus?” I asked a guy at the bus stand who was waiting there for a long time.
“Yes” came the answer. I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one who was stranded and I hadn’t missed the bus.
“You mean the 11:00 pm bus, right?” he asked me.
“What? What do you mean by the 11:00 pm bus?” I asked, shocked.
I told him I was waiting for the 9:45 pm bus (now the time was 10:30 pm!)
He told me that it must have left.
“No ways! The bus can’t have gone”, I thought to myself.
After a while, a bus going to Calicut came. I was in two minds, whether or not to take the bus and go till Calicut from where I could get a bus to Kannur. But, I decided to wait.
At 10:35 pm there came in a Rajahamsa bus with “Payyanur” on its name board. What a relief it was! Nevertheless, the bus was late by 50 minutes!
As the bus came to a halt, there was a queue, at the door, of people who had to enter the bus. I was second in the queue. The first guy was moved out of the queue as the license number he entered in the ticket and the number on his Driving License were not same.
I was allowed to get into the bus after my ticket was checked. I still don’t understand why they check the tickets so strictly. People say that even on aircrafts there isn’t such strict checking! I went to seat number 18 and placed my bag on the overhead carrier and then sat down, dearly hoping that a girl would come and sit beside me.
Many people entered the bus, but none of them were to sit beside me. And enter!
“Yippee...!”
OKHAY ! :D
ReplyDeleteGood narration ..
Interesting...waiting for next post :)
it is already up! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://blitzblackbook.blogspot.com/2011/08/home-sweetest-home-part-ii.html