Many Firsts - I

This is an interesting story. One that began to keep a promise I’d made to my sunshine long ago.

Uh well, I was finally living away from home with a fair amount of independence and a lot of possibilities, I was earning my own money (Okay I was also broke and indebted to my own Dad but let’s not talk about that just now :P) and now was the time to keep my word. So I decided to utilize my optional holiday making the vday weekend a long one and go to Hyderabad.

That’s not the interesting part; the interesting bit is about how I could not tell my folks that I was making the trip and how everything fell in place.

Cut to 3rd Feb 2010

Sneha and I went to Thiruvanmiyur to book tickets; she was goin to Bangalore the next weekend. I finally managed to get an APSRTC bus ticket from Chennai to Hyd for the 11^th Feb, 8pm. Liberating, the one word which describes my feelings right then; I had never travelled alone, especially without the knowledge of my family. I remember I had to buy a pillow and bucket too so after we celebrated my ticket at Hot Chips, I carried my pillow and bucket back to my flat in a bus.

It felt really funny holding a red bucket and an orange pillow spilling out of it in one hand and my cellphone and handbag in the other. I wanted to call him to share the news but that was not to be, so I ended up tellin everyone else, Bonnie, Bubbles, Vijay :)

Cut to 11^th Feb, the start of the journey

I was at work, hopin that our trainer would wrap up the session quickly so I cud make an early exit to catch my bus. Screw the average!, I thought as I swiped out at almost 5:20 and literally ran out. Picked up a juice and a chip packet on the way, my dinner tonight. Got to the signal at about 5:30pm and not a bus was in sight that could take me to CMBT (Bus Terminus). Post Frantic call to Sujitha asking which bus I should take and how on earth am I to get to CMBT in time, I had no option but to board a crowded T51 to the Thiruvanmiyur Depot where I would find a 23M.

Got to the depot at about 6:15, I was still not panicking. Confident that the bus will not take more than an hour to CMBT. Found a 23M, even managed to get a seat but the bus far from moving. Okay time to worry a lil bit, I google mapped my location to check the distance to the terminus, 45 minutes or so it said. Shit I‘m doomed; how the hell will I get to the station if this bugger doesn’t get moving?? Oh God, what if I miss the bus. I’ll be royally screwed then.

6:22: tappin my feet in tune with silent chants of ‘Move the damn bus, you dufus!!’

6:25: Phone call to Sujitha. She tells me that it’ll take max an hour…try callin someone at the station, tell them to wait for you. ‘Ticket pe koi number nahi hai kya??’

6:27: Text to Sneha…How long will it take yaar? The bus is not moving :(

6:30… arghhh you’re dead Vands!

6:31: Finally!! Quick check on google- 45 min to CMBT.

7ish: I was still in bus, not even halfway there, pretty worried and thoroughly bugged coz the women in the seat next to mine and behind refused to stop chattering loudly in Tamil. Believe me when you have to forcefully listen to a language you don’t understand for such a long time, it tends to get on your nerves. Obviously I cudn’t do anything to put a break on their evening gossip. Besides I had greater worries on my mind…like how am I supposed to get to CMBT and find my platform before my bus leaves.

7:30: The driver was not following the route suggested by google maps and happily giving us a grand tour of Chennai, showing off the traffic at its worst. I peered at the maps on my phone every 5 seconds hoping that the blue dot would move closer to the red…

By 7:45 I had started praying for some respite from the traffic so I can at least have 5 minutes at hand. CMBT came into view in the next ten minutes but the damn driver turned left. I was cursing furiously under my breath by now. But I figured he’d gone inside the terminus to the parking place in front of the gates.

8:02, I bolted out the door as soon as I could manage, what with the jasmine-in-hair women and chappal-clad men pushing their way out with luggage as well. Might I mention that I absolutely cannot stand the smell of jasmine, and I for the life of me cannot fathom as to why someone would deliberately wear it in their hair knowing well that it stinks after it goes stale, which is just about an hour you put it on your hair in the morning.

Once inside I had to locate the platform and I will just tell you that it wasn’t easy. I made it in front of the bus in the next 3 minutes but the platform was empty.

Fuck, it left!!! What the hell do I do now?? Deep breath Vands, maybe this is not the right place, it’s only been 5 minutes. Okay who do I ask around here? More importantly who looks like he would be able to hold a conversation in English? Hmm, uncle over there.

The uncle thankfully confirmed that we were standing at the right platform and the bus hadn’t left, in fact it hadn’t yet arrived and was stuck in traffic. Phew, that was close!! Never am I doin this again in my life. I guess I’ll be able to reach Hyd after all.

The bus in question rolled in by 8:10pm and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I’d only just managed to take my seat after shoving my bag in the overhead storage space that the bus started to move. Thankfully there was no one sitting next to me in the otherwise packed bus, or I would’ve never been able to sleep with some random stranger sitting next to me.

I had already travelled 2.5 hours just to get to the station. I don’t think I was really up for another 13.5 hour bus ride but it wasn’t like I had a choice. The torture began just when I was hoping I wouldn’t have to dodge any calls from back home tonight. The torture aka the in-house DVD player on which the conductor decided to screen some really sad movie at blasting volume. And I had to sit and endure this coz I was sittin in the third seat from the TV L. Half an hour had passed and I still hadn’t figured out the language or the name of the movie. I was wondering whether they screen movies according to the source or the destination of the bus.

I later discovered that I had seen 1 and a half Telugu movies on the bus. It was according to the destination and not source :P.

The bus stopped somewhere for dinner at around 10pm but I did not move an inch. I had eaten half my chips and finished my juice by that time and was tryin to concentrate on anything but the ridiculous movie bellowing in my ears. I dunno how but I somehow managed to get some sleep. We were already in Andhra Pradesh by the time I woke up at around 6 in the morning. Very tired and awfully cold, coz the wind kept blowing at my face, I woke up with a major crick in my neck from hanging my head in sleep with still 3.5 hours to kill.

It was too early to wake Bonnie up; she was goin to come pick me up at the station; so I settled for listening to music. Come 8:30 and I was super restless, partly coz whatever place we’re passing did not look like a city at all, forget a city like Hyd and partly coz I had absolutely no idea where we were. I couldn’t tell Bonnie anything about my location as everything around was written in Telugu, I obviously cudn’t decipher the noodles for the name of some landmark.

At about 9 I finally asked the conductor how long it would take and he was pretty noncommittal in his response. Anyway I had to sit on my frozen butt for another hour and a bit. The bus reached its intended destination at 10:30am, an hour late. I got off and found Bonnie waiting for me with her Activa. Boy was I happy to see her or what. I somehow sat on her Activa after the killer 17 hours in a bus and we drove off to her place.

To be continued...