The Journeys, Part I

Thanks to my dad, i started exploring India at a very young age. He has been kind enough to take me too a host of places. Although i have believed that more than the destination, what matters is the journeys. There have been quite a few journeys in my life. Today, for some reason i want to write about some of my journeys. I am not a critique but i would like to list down my favorite journeys in descending order i.e. the best would come at last. Hope you enjoy it.


BOKARO - HYDERABAD
The trip happened after my 1st year when i was returning from Bokaro to Hyderabad. The reason why it was special because throughout the journey i never felt in control even once. The God/bad luck/devil whoever it was kept telling me 'I win', 'I win' throughout the journey. I left from Bokaro on 9Th October for Hyderabad. I remember the date cause two days later was my birthday. The journey plan was to go to reach Vishakapatnam and then catch a bus to Hyderabad. Easy isn't. Not even close!

The journey was planned two days b4 so got a wait list ticket. I was sure the tickets would get confirmed as the wait list was less than 10. Two days, the ticket got a RAC, didn't get confirmed. In a RAC ticket two people have to share a berth. My partner turned to be man with stinking feet. I was more than happy to leave the whole berth to himself. Forget sleeping, i chose to stand/sit whole night near the door. Finally, when train reached Vishakapatnam the clock was screaming 7:30 in the evening. I forgot to mention the train was late by almost three hours.

The best part starts now. I reached the bus stand, stood in a queue for the tickets. With some difficulty i was able to communicate what i want. The time of departure was closing by and i realized, i am not aware of the bus no. and ticket revealed nothing. The ticket was in a W language. The search begun, 45 min to departure, i asked a conducter standing by, 10min of conversation with him, animated body language, raised voices but the barrier of language was a big mountain to overcome. 30 min left and i started approaching shopkeepers, travellers, sweepers, anyone who would know even a bit of hindi or english. Sanskrit would have also done but it didn't strike me at that point of time. My eyes kept on scanning the tickets over and over again. Where is the god damn number. Looking at the buses coming and going to understand the mechanism of thier operations.

After a while, everything was getting blur, except for a new face, a number plate of a coming bus, the ticket and the watch. Will i be able to ever know which was the bus? 5 min left and among all the buses at the stand one of the bus was my destination. What should I do? I wondered. Can I stand at the exit and stop all the buses. Should i go and book a room in the hotel. In my thoughts i gave up the idea of catching the bus. I was planning what should be my plan next. Tring Tring and i recieve a call. Call from a friend who was a Hyderabad localite. The instant feeling was to ignore the call but nothing better to do, i took the call. He wished me happy birthday and asked me about my whereabouts and whether i will be in Hyderabad on my birthday. There was a mysterious smile on my face. I promised him that tomorrow morning I will reach Hyderabad and give him the biggest party of his life.

Yes, I reached Hyderabad next morning and I found out the bus. How? Well i am quite sure you would have worked that out by now.

The next journey in the next post. Gotta Go!!!