One Long Drive

Though the Wagon R became a part of our family for quite some time, her service usually limited within 15 km trips. An occasional 110km trip to Kumarakam is something she gets to fight boredom. And except one trip to Thiruvananthapuram, around 300km,we never had a long trip. So I was all excited when we got the permission to take the car to Bangalore, around 500km, and first time crossing state border :)

My parents, being the parents they are, didn't give me permission to take it alone. Got a driver friend, Girish who, though had strict instruction from them not to let me drive, bend it a little bit ;)

We started early morning. The easy route through Palakkad, Hosur was avoided because of the ongoing Mullapperiyaar issue. We wanted to avoid driving through Tamil Nadu, so chose the Kozhikode, Bandipur, Mysore route. Soon we realised it was a mistake...

Kozhikode route is in fact almost 20km less than the Hosur route. But, most of it, except, Waynad and Bandipur when we drive through forest, is through towns. Busy towns with narrow road. And lots of curves and humps. We hardly touched 40kmph those regions. One thing noticed was, everywhere, stray dog nuisance was on rise. They were doing all the nonsense on road and I ended up hitting one, though it was not a bad hit, I hit!

The ride through forest was good. Waynad forest - it was the ghat section and the hair pin curves ( Girish didn't let me ride there :( ). The beauty of the sceneries though was completely taken by the bad quality roads. Poor car was struggling to find enough space to roll its tyres and I was worried whether the deep gutters disturb its suspension / or whether its bottom hit the road and what not...
Bandipur stretch was a different story. It was wide roads, almost good too, but there were humps almost every 200m, mostly for the safety of wild animals. I remember meeting a herd of elephants during one of my night trip in bus, so was hoping (!) to see them then... All we see was elephant dung on the road, not the animal as is :).
Once we left the forest, it was again busy roads. But this time, it was a different story. Both sides of the road were Ragi cultivation. The farmers dry it on road, so that the vehicles will help the grain separate from the plant! But the farmers who spread and collect it makes ride slow. Was not sure whether the highway belongs to them or the vehicles ! One poor sight was the over loaded bull carts. The carts were so heavy that the poor animals were not able to walk straight. And their drivers were hitting them hard to make them move. I felt death may be the only escape for those poor creatures...

Once we were in Mysore border, we wanted to avoid Mysore city and was looking for the cut to Nice road. We asked for direction and ended up where we started! Then a funny auto rickshaw driver helped us. He was saying ' it is ok road, not nice road! And for that you may take right and go straight!'. Once we were in the elevated, supposed to be express way, we realise what he meant. The heavy toll was not justified. Though the road was wide, it was very much un-even. There was almost an inch difference between lines and during overtaking it was causing trouble, made us go slower than we should be. And the pot-holes - it was as bad as Bangalore ring roads! The directions to get out of expressway - it also was confusing. They say only 'Exit to Bangalore' and not which part of Bangalore! We, only guided by intuition exited on the third one and thank God it turned out to the right one!
The drive in Bangalore city limits was another episode. In no time I was wondering whether I made a mistake to get the car here. Pure chaos. Bike here never felt this bad. I was sure I will not be able to move even a meter in this kind of traffic. Anyway after a good 13 hours, we reached home. Not sure, whether I was happier or my driver friend, who sarcastically said, if I need his service again, shouldn’t fail to call him !

Anyway, car is here. Though exhausted, I was back with my wife. All I needed was a hot bath and a nice sleep...

+'s about the trip : The speed governor was not with me, so I could go beyond 60kmph
-'s : I was missing my Love, with her, the trip would have been a totally different story
PS : My wife changes herself between speed governor and Love on trips ;)

I Need A Normal Trip Home !!!

You might have read the last few unintentionally and inconveniently funny trips I had home. This weekend also the story was more or less the same. With a difference - it was not KSRTC or the rain God made it. It was solely me.

Usually I take the 6:30PM bus. Wednesday, because of the long weekend rush I got ticket for 4:30 bus. Unfortunately the 16:30 time on ticket, I read as the usual 6:30 and planned to leave office accordingly. Only at 5, a casual look at the ticket told me the truth - my bus has left Bangalore ! Misery loves company. And my whole team was in action at once. Teammate Unnikkuttan gave me the brilliant idea of taking it from another point, and we can take a shortcut to reach there before the bus, thanks to the traffic blocks of Bangalore.

We hit the road in an instant and I was trying to call the information center numbers given in the ticket to check where the bus is. One eye was on the ticket and the other on my cell. Expectedly, none of the four numbers were reached. Cursed, I look up to see how Unnikkuttan rides. In the excitement of catching bus, I completely forgot his reputation of being fast and furious driver. He was shifting from left to right and back  avoiding potholes, traffic and what not ! That moment I was ready to walk home but to get down from the bike. I didn't want to look chicken, so I kept rooted to the seat and typed 108 and kept the thumb on call button, just in case. So that I can call emergency and tell 'Sir, send an ambulance for us!'.

Within 10 mins, we reached the stop. Unnikkuttan took off the helmet and flashed all 32 admiring his skill! Then I got a call from office saying my bus was through another route ! My going home was necessary. So I decided to go to the interstate bus station, in the other side of the city. Unnikkuttan was thrilled to hear it. Ample opportunity to show his skills ! He flashed 32 again and put the helmet again. I tried to look as sad as possible and told him ' I would love to go there with you, but your skill is very much needed at work. So I will take a bus. Thanks for the ride mate'. He was disappointed and me relieved.

I reached stand around 6:30. I checked a couple of buses and they were full. Thinking of taking the 9PM ordinary bus and was about to leave platform, my angel came. With the footpath aviator and mouthful of pan, he was walking in slow motion with an ear to ear smile. ' You want to go to Thrissur ?'
'Yes' said me.
'Single ?'
'Single, going to be mingled soon'
'No problem. You will get the seat in the 6PM bus.'
'Sir, I want to go tonight and it is already 6:30'
Then the angel told me that the 6PM bus got some starter problem and it is expected to leave anytime. I gave him Rs.500 for a 380 ticket. He accepted it gratefully!

Though I was afraid that the bus may break down in between, it didn't happen. The roads were  more or less empty too. The journey was nice, and I reached Thrissur, before the bus I was originally planned to take. And to my surprise when I was getting down angel gave me Rs.70 back. World is not that bad.

I do hope my Sunday journey back to Bangalore will be without any fun. I need some trips that way...

Another 'Different' Trip To Home

I always like the trips to home.  Many of the times, it will be different than the routine trips, in the wrong way though. The trip last week ( for Onam ) was one like that. One I really wished I didn't had...

Because of the rush, I didn't get tickets in my usual 6:30 Karnataka KSRTC Rajahamsa, I got to get into the Kerala RTC bus. Though it claimed Super Deluxe Air Bus, it was anything but airy ! Both the buses, to and from Thrissur, were poorly maintained. The KL 15 7116, which was the one took me back to Bangalore was pathetic. The seats were untidy, the whole bus was rattling. The overhead luggage shelf was wide enough only to slide a laptop bag in ( for both buses ). There was a hole in the roof above seat no 35, and I enjoyed the cold rain all the night. Worse, the metal lamination sheet under the luggage space was hanging loose and I was afraid anytime it will fall on head.

The trip to Thrissur was ok till we reach Mysore. It started on time ( 4 PM, I liked it ). This was after a long time I took the Mysore road and man, it was nothing less than a trip to hell. No wonder Bangalore Mirror chose it the worst road in the city..

From Mysore, 4 elderly gentlemen boarded the bus, despite there was no seat. I thought of giving my seat to the eldest, but thinking it will keep me standing for good 6 hours and those guys always had a choice of taking the next bus, I decided against it :) After a while they were all restless, and one among them vomited inside the bus !!! The driver and conductor became furious ( naturally ) and asked them to get out to do the needful. He did, got in and after sometime did it again !!! The good part is there was one guy who was sober and cleaned the bus at the station.

There was one interesting thing happened. We were crossing Bandipur forest area, and suddenly the bus stopped. There was a small elephant herd in front of our bus, including a baby. The baby was careless, took his sweet time to cross the road. The mommy elephant was vigilant and looking us with her ears open wide. I was expecting her to charge at us any time !!! I felt we should ban the traffic through the forest entire night, so that at least the nights the animals can claim the forest theirs !

The return journey was at 11PM, and supposed to reach Bangalore by 10AM. But, thanks to the Onam rush and no free platform at Thrissur, the bus started a good 20 minutes late.

The next incident was classic, I never seen anything like that. Again, an old man was the hero. He slept and missed the stop where he had to get down ! He started blaming the conductor, for sleeping and didn't wake him at the stop ! The driver and conductor first started heated argument, but then softened as this guy was adamant that the bus should reverse and drop him back to the stop! Because he knew that, as the forest road closes in the night, no vehicle will come from the other direction. The pace of the journey was drastically reduced because the driver was also trying to convince the old man to get another bus back home. The argument lasted very long, that I slept in between ! I don't know how it ended.

The argument made the bus reaching the forest checkpost late and needed to wait there. Precious time wasted ;) But it gave a peaceful sleep :) We resumed, only to get a flat tyre soon ! In the last five years I took Kerala RTC buses hardly six times, and this was the third time the tyre went flat. Too bad Kerala RTC..

Reaching late to the city made things worse. The Mysore road, being busy at the morning hour made things worse. The 10AM bus at last reached by 0130 PM !!! I reached home 2:30, precious one day was wasted...

Next time, I will go with Rajahamsa. They made take an hour or two extra, because of the slow driving and tea breaks, but that will be the most they do. The buses are comfortable, at least...