My dad had dropped me at the ST stand in vashi, and as soon as I got down from the car, I saw an 'asiad' arrive (Asiads are semi luxury STs or state transport buses) . I climbed into the asiad, which had a lady conductor, who was yelling "Expressway, pune, expressway pune, chala chala chala" (It was a bus going to pune, which would take the expressway route). Usually if you go to pune via the expressway it takes a very short time. When I climbed the bus, it was 12 noon exact. Thinking that I'd be in pune at 1530 hrs latest, I was happy. I had a date with Vrunda at 1700 hrs. As soon as I sat down on a seat, I heard a retching noise. The small girl in front of me, was puking outside the window. Travel sickness. Those with travel sickness puke and others who don't have it feel like puking on seeing them. I got up from that seat and went to another quite some way back. The conductor handed me my ticket and I settled down. As I settled down, I heard the retching again, this time a bit differently. Thinking that the small girl must be really really sick, I started making a music playlist on my mobile so that I could hear songs throughout my journey. I was also thinking about Vrunda, when I heard the retching again, and suddenly realised that its coming from the immediate back seat. There was a small boy there, who was puking. What the hell was happening? Was there a vomiting competition going on?
Ever the optimist, I thought, its good that they are throwing up outside...if it was inside, we would have little puddles of someone's yesterday's l***h. The bus was atleast 10-15 years old I thought with its rattling boards and creaking seats...which is quite normal with these ST buses!!
Unexpectedly, the 'expressway' bus took a detour into the panvel city !! As expected, it got stuck in traffic and it was another half an hour before it reached the panvel bus stand. The bus entered the fuelling station on panvel bus stand and it was around another 25 minutes before we got into the fuel loading bay as there were 5 buses ahead of us !! All passengers were infuriated by this time, obviously !!
Why obviously? Because.....
- The bus had taken the detour into panvel, which was not meant to be...it was an 'expressway' bus....so it had to take the expressway route, which starts before panvel and bypasses all the panvel city traffic, thereby saving travel time !!
- It had entered a fuelling station during a journey. An ST bus does not normally go into fuelling during a journey. This 'activity' also meant wastage of travel time !!
After the fuelling stop, the driver again stopped at the stand for some time (approx 15 minutes). The bus exited the stand through a different route owing to the ongoing road construction. The new route was like a 'village road' and soon all the passengers were being thrown from side to side, up and down and against each others shoulders. My jaw was rattling by the time we had reached the main road again and the boy behind me had a fresh spate of 'waqars'. The time was already 1:30 PM. It had taken a full hour and a half just to exit panvel. By 2 PM we were on the expressway and going smoothly. Luckily the ghats did not have much traffic and we reached the second toll booth by 3 PM. Here the ST made a stop at the 'Kailash Parbat' hotel. Thanks to the coupon system in Kailash Parbat, no one who travels by these buses, gets to eat anything here !!! (The coupon system makes it imperative for people to pay money for their food items, collect coupons and then go to the distribution counter!! The time taken by this process is much more than the time the bus is scheduled to halt!). After the break time was over, the bus conductor started taking a head count. The bus had already pulled out of the parking lot when the conductor completed the head count, and found one head (fellow) missing !!. The driver stopped the bus there itself. A full 5 minutes passed before we saw the missing fellow running towards the bus. The bus conductor reprimanded him... "Kalat naahi kaa ho tumhala? Sangitla 15 minuta tari ardha taasa nantar yeta? Bus jaat hoti ata. Nashib changla hota tumcha." ("Dont you understand? I told you the bus would wait for 15 minutes. The bus was about to leave. It was your good luck that we didnt take off without you!!")
The fellow coolly sat down on his seat without paying the slightest attention to the bus conductor. It was 3:30 PM by this time and pune was atleast an hour away.
The optimist in me reared its head again and said, "Maybe their won't be much traffic in pune city".
So lucky, there wasnt !!!
I reached the pune swargate bus stand at half past 4, the least expected time !!! Half an hour before our date !! I mean, ok I had to rush to grandma's and then get ready, but it could be done !!
My dearest Vrunda was going to pick me up at 5 (In pune, she picks me up, since she's got a two-wheeler !! Its my locational and situational 'majboori' that I cannot do so.). I got ready, and punctual as ever, my Vrunda rang the doorbell at 5 PM sharp !!
We had a lovely date, after such a 'terrible journey'. And of course, in all, I'd say all was'nt well but it ended well !!
