One fine day finally, I decided to have this much awaited vocation & so I with a friend decided that we shall go to this place together.
We went to the bus terminal via auto-rickshaw, and as we reached, we realized it was the wrong one, so we had to take in another auto-rickshaw to reach the other one. Spending double the cost, we managed to made it to the.terminal, where we were to catch bus, that would take us on this little vocation. We had already found our bus & we had boarded already, adjusting & comforting with the window seat, & the one next to it in the middle of the bus, which still had people pouring in and was in the process of being boarded & soon ready to leave, that almost took approximately forty-five minutes.
We had nothing to do, so we decided to capture some moments by clicking some pictures. The bus-stand and its surroundings where our bus was parked, the wall that had a slogan or two & something etched to it that was untraceable, the cloudy Skyline, the twisted multiple wires rolled & hung, falling from a pole reaching out to a adjoining wall, the birds that took a flight in groups far away & the passengers in a varied contrasts of lifestyles that followed, in there own peculiar way,
The whole five-hour journey in the process, followed a series of episodes.
We all were a bunch of low-middle, middle & a middle-upper class - classy or with no class, all under one roof without any racial discrimination, ethnicity, creed or colour on a double pair of wheels to be precise - seldom boarding-in & off, halting & on the move.
As its said" You cant take out the character out of a person" - what & how one was was completely ones choice,or with no choice in vulnerability or being untouched, surrounded by a thought that 'the belief that matter has no objective existence" or "excessively concerned with material possessions." No matter what & how we presumed ourselves & others and how we were being assumed & judged by a set of perceptions, imagining things beyond limits or finite & small.
A fat guy in black t-shirt, two kids (must have been in there 20's), the tech-savvy geeks with there headphones on plugged into the ears & the other one operating a laptop, the i-pod, smartphone friendly ones bundled onto a set of there own doing, throughout the journey.A guy who was lost in himself with a self obsessed notion & motion.
At a point somewhere in between the half journey, the policemen came in for a security check asking couple of people about there luggage and belongings, with there wide open eyes staring & hunting here and there, a couple of inquiries that went by, and to our surprise, they checked out this fat guy in black t-shirt, making him stand. I was least bothered, as he was at the back corner seat of the bus, & there was no point looking back staring to thee.
My friend, who had been peeping out of the window for a while now, started talking about his experience of the places known to him & his experience likewise, excited to the core, telling me about there names & stories behind (like an enthusiast essay contestant or an excited child, who wanted to speak-out & share/talk about his excitement & curiosity). However in the running bus it was little hard to understand half of the things, but I managed understanding the muted whispers & the audible ones. Now, he every time had something to tell, he would bring his mouth close to my ear & speak
The journeys make you feel hungry & thirsty, so we decided to munch a pack of cream-biscuits (the ones with lesser cream, though) that was further followed by a packet of chips, and soon realizing that we had forgot to carry the cold drinks along, but we had the mineral water bottle with us, that we had bought on our way. The next thing on the menu was this 'home-made food" (chapatis & salted-spicy potatoes along with pickles which were unwrapped from a properly foiled & rolled packing and "there was absolutely nothing like it".
There was this a dad-son duo(probably) - gentleman (aged 50 somewhere) & son (in his 25-30), behind me & a couple on the opposite row(seat) in there 40's, who had no clue why they were having the conversation with each other. I guess all they needed was a talk & it took me a while to realize that it was not the music on the stereo that played in the bus by the driver, but it was this gentleman, who had been playing & listening to this loud music (put on the speaker of his phone & his wife told him, 'why don't you put something more religious then the usual Bollywood numbers (songs)'.
Well later when the bus stopped for people to have something to "eat, drink and pee", where-in, I noticed, the same lady passed by me, in her attempt to get down of the bus to have some snacks with a religious number played on her cell phone finally (she seemed to have managed to take the phone in here custody now). Anyone & everyone who went off the bus, seem to have boarded the bus by now & the lady with the phone was back on the bus too since I could hear the religious song being played again, it might have been, that they might have either got a new cell phone which they had never ever used before, or it was there son's phone that was given to them for the journey.
Where are you from, what you do, what business are you into, whats your job profile, why did you come here and where were you traveling back too), what's your son's job profile, whether he was married or not, does he has his own flat, do you have your own house?, the other person was busy replying to all the queries being asked by this other man, with half of the contradicted ones that he had managed to reply earlier and what he told now, as if he was persistently being pestered with so many questions, but still enjoying answering back to keep up the talk that seemed no less than a conversation for a matrimonial alliance or a business venture. Both of them might have dozed by now, since there was no further conversation.
Later few of the seats got vacant, since much on-boarders had stepped out & have reached to there destinations or were on there way.
This guy kept saying to this man, please come and sit with me, but the other one gave an excuse - no i cant i have my son with me, and he needs my shoulder to sleep. There was this sudden silence & much peace around.after these father-son duo along with this this guy got down at there destined locations, much before ours. & for one moment I thought, at least a hand-shake or a bye would have been a courteous gesture among those two men who parted there ways.
On way back!
The Rickshaw-Wallah(Rickshaw-Puller) took us to the Bus terminal! We boarded the Bus again! Melting down in the summery heat! Were hoping for some rain, and let the sunshine go away via magic wand- miracle! Glad we were happy to see the hawkers selling water bottles, ice-creams, and various other items outside-inside the bus! You know how it is, when you are boarding or getting off the bus, they will come in from everywhere - in a series, one after another!
Glad! we bought the Ice-Cream, were not very glad to have it, since it tasted awful, but felt nice & the not so branded mineral water bottle sold to us was not that chilled, nevertheless, it was a mere necessity of the hour..
Listening on to some good music, & talk in between, lying down with our heads back or resting on your arms to the front, we had been taking these jumpy naps of the rides & getting up and then back to where we left it. Wondering what other people would be thinking, seeing sleepy people, in odd positions despite all the jerks now & then & displacing there postures from there fixed positions to inches here & there. I never liked someone seeing me sleep in odd ways, but then, who was bothered.
A punjabi young couple or bro-sister with a kid boarded the bus little later from somewhere in between. This was going to be interesting - the girl kept on feeding the kid with a milk bottle continuously & later with water, banana, chips and everything else. both of seemed quite busy throughout the journey taking care of the little kid, the poor kid, as if he was being fed forcefully,since he was crying at the intervals. I still remember the name of the kid, though never saw his face properly(though I tried looking back), but that's bad manner's you never know, if people would think I was eyeing on them. The girl looked like one, bold, pretty & broad minded one, that I had assumed from her loud pitch talks and straight forward and no-worrying attitude, on the other hand the guy was a cut-surd that I had figured out by now from the way he communicated & carried himself. They got down before the destination. The last time I heard there voice was when he called someone on the phone 'saying we would be there in some time'.
There was nothing much to our excitement left now, so we decided to have bread with butter & jam, that we had carried along, and had almost finished having a cold drink.
A realization - that we were never returned with the extra money that we had given to the bus conductor for the ticket, to which he said he will do the needful later, since he had no change for the ticket.
It’s always with me, must be with others too, that once you witness such experiences through these destined journeys, you feel attached to everything else, may it be the place,people & almost anything, and feel little sad while leaving it, and at the same time, you are excited with a relief to have returned back to your home sweet home. With thoughts of going travelling back again soon or later. it was like me and my friend had these fond memories to talk about to our family & relatives, friends & children (if we do have them in our lives).
We kept wishing that it rained,or at least it was clouded since it was all heated-up, and it wasn't a AC bus-coach, In hope to land in a much blessed weather and to our surprise we were glad to have witnessed some showers of drizzle as we un-boarded.
We again had to take an auto-rickshaw to reach home, & after much quarreling with these auto-rickshaw people, we finally did got one. It took a little more then the actual time to reach though, since he took a long route.
This was our small destination in-route journey & glad it happened, and it had been quite well - a memory to cherish forever, moments that had left their impressions & footprints onto minds and hearts - a never forgetting experience, in hope to have many more alike.- Anonymous,25,Male,(India)
