Thoughts, in a lot of ways are like the highway routes which connect to one another at some point of time.Incidentally this week has been full of journey's.First it was chennai and then to the temple town of Madurai for a U.K friend's wedding.It is a mere coincidence as i write this piece on one of the "most eventful bus journey" i've had.My return trip from Madurai was booked on airavata, supposedly one of the better luxury buses that exist.It costed around 450 Rs for which one gets to experience good pushback seats, a fully airconditioned bus with blankets provided to feel warm for those who aren't fortunate enough to be accompanied by hot girls and a complimentary water bottle that the customers can avail. With the roads leading to bangalore not upto the mark i realised travelling in the best bus might not be all that luxurious eventually.
It was past midnight when the driver stopped for a break and as it took off i lost sleep with my heads bouncing as the bus traversed through the even more depleted roads ahead.I started cribbing about my bus rides which very seldom have been good.As i went on a reverie, strangely my mind went back to the previous bus journey,an eventful journey in november from Mt.Abu to Jodhpur.I sat in the same seat(seat.no39) on the second last row - aisle seat on the right hand side!I wouldn't stop laughing thinking about the Jodhpur trip as the old man next to me continued to stertor right into my ears at a few good decibels .My immediate thoughts were about Mals (Malavika),tina (Sonatina),Karishma,Hayan and Divya.I vaguely remembered a few moments of that ride from Abu to the Blue city.
In the entire trip the only time when we didn't have tickets was from Abu to Jodhpur.After an eventful jeep ride from Dilwara temples to the city center, thanks to the driver's(Bhavani alias Nandi) antics, myself,mals and karishma went looking for tickets to Jodhpur which was hard to get by whilst tina,hayan and divya ordered some gujarati thali.Eventually we managed to get 6 "deluxe" bus tickets in the only available bus for the day.The ride to Jodhpur was memorable in more than one ways completely in contrast to the Baroda-Mt.Abu journey but had a few similarities with the airavata one.Little did we know the "deluxe" bus would be so terrific.It was sans push back seats,levers,suspension and even windows in that cold winter.Tina sat next to me and i remember both of us having a good laugh as i exclaimed "Oouch..!" when i parked my butt on one of the "push-back" levers only to realise later that they had been made non-functional throughout.
The bumpy ride was on as everyone's head almost hit the top.Mals and Karishma sat next to each other to my left.Later, i guess karishma decided to have an entire seat in front of me and her long legs hit mals at most times.Barring Hayan who had a gift to doze off anywhere i presume the rest had a bit of a nightmare.And to add to the fun midway a gay couple left Divya a touch dazed.I vividly remember one guy sitting on the other's lap as they downed some drinks during the break.The whole bus was asleep as it halted for a break during mid-night.I felt hungry since i hadn't had sandwich along with the rest when we kicked off.It was dark and silent and i couldn't reach for the sandwich conscious of awakening my fellow passengers due the rumbling noise from the plastic bags.I finally managed to get hold of it after 5min search.The whole night was spent finding a suitable position to fall asleep trying to avoid the chill (thanks to the windowless bus) and the levers from poking me again on the back.And everytime i thought i had a comfortable one ,was greeted by a set of humps all thanks to the the bus without suspension.Towards the end when i did manage to get some sleep we'd arrived at Jodhpur!
As we got down the bus early morning we had chai(more than one) on a road side stall enroute to the guest house and had a great time sharing our thoughts on our overnight trip.The best part of the overnight trip was everyone enjoyed it thoroughly,which could have beeen otherwise if we'd made a fuss about it.The first sight of jodhpur was filth all around.We were greeted by Shakti Singh who owned the guest house.As we sat on the terrace facing Merangarh fort (a remarkable sight) i must say all of us were impressed by Mr.Singh's hospitality.Not only did he get us masala chai(again!) & breakfast,but also made sure we had a good time,explaining about the fort and Jodhpur in general(this was around 5-6 a.m) and organised the auto trip for the entire day.
That to adapt to conditions at times,enjoy the moment and share them is what travel can teach you.It was great fun nevertheless.
1 comment:
Oh man! that was some bus ride! will be in my memory book for sure... i'd like to ride on that bus in my after-life.. since we all know exactly what it felt like! ;)
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