3 folks and one mission, Kanyakumari, the southern most township of the country.
On the very Friday we were to leave, it became quite clear in the afternoon that it was not going to be an easy ride to Kanyakumari. The rain gods were mad, at 2.00 pm it was so overcast, it seemed we are in the middle of the night, and the city was flooded like I have never seen before. Cut to 6.30 pm, Ashish and I leave the office for our house, to get the bags packed and set off. We meet Saubeer on the main road after 20 minutes. And it’s from here on that we start on the path of the common misery and ordeal that awaited us.
Its raining moderately and we are looking for an auto to take us to Koyembedu bus stand. But where the hell are the autowallas, few that were coming our way wanted a fortune for the trip, and we weren’t exactly a group of prince, so we couldn’t afford it and hence plan B. Plan B was to go to T-nagar bus stand and catch a bus to Koyembedu, oh, that’s simple. So we take an auto to T-nagar, bus stand and enquire about bus to Koyembedu. And to our surprise there is a Volvo Super fucking deluxe AC bus, Man, is this CHENNAI or New York????, but all excitement was just for a fleeting moment. The bus was jam packed, however we somehow sneak in with our luggage. Now there is absolutely no space for a soul. We move, not exactly move, we stand and the bus crawls and I am definitely positive we did overtake three pedestrians. Ok, it wasn’t that bad but the traffic was really horrible. We were progressing at a snail pace and the driver at his wish kept on picking up passengers in the bus. He was actually very generous when it came to females or married women. None of them on the road were left disappointed, all of them were in the bus. So the load factor kept on increasing and the AC bus turned into a stinking enclosure with hardly an inch to move.
I was in an awkward position with my luggage in one hand and the other hand tightly holding onto the bars in the bus, and there is this elderly gentleman falling on to me. He was facing the other side, and I was tall enough to have a look at his bald head. I really feel sorry for my left hand which was molested as it was royally pressed against the old gentleman’s backside (read a%#). It seemed like an eternity, the bus kept on moving but never felt like reaching Koyembedu. And this is exactly when I made a statement to Saubeer “It can’t get worse than this”. To my dismay, there was someone up there, who was hell-bent on proving me wrong not once but so many times during the next 24 hours. The bus was cruising through the waters on the road and suddenly there is this jolt and water came bursting into the bus. Yes you are right, into the bus.
Ashish was lucky, he was standing on sort of a podium, and was wearing floaters too. Unlucky as we were, me and Saubeer, our shoes were completely drenched and I could feel water inside my shoes, the socks were completely wet. So much so for the Volvo AC bus. Now that wasn’t the end of it. The bus was stuck in the jam and was heading nowhere, so we decided to get off in between around a km and half from the bus stand.
Water water everywhere, not a small piece of land to walk. We are on the road and Mr Ashish wikimapia Bansal guides us that the bus stand is on the other side of the road. We are crossing the road, and there is this divider 2-3 feet high, we climb it with the bags in our hands, and we start walking on it, thinking it’s not a bad idea to walk on, as everything else seemed to be immersed in water. Also, it wasn’t a cake walk, there were bushes and trees planted in between the divider, so what we had to do was to walk right on the edge of it. My adidas shoes do have a funny kinda sole, it makes a screeching noise while walking when wet but what I was more concerned with was it tends to skid a lot on wet surface. I was failing to keep pace with Ashish and Saubeer who seemed to have mastered the skill. Hence I decided to walk a bit fast, though still cautiously. Also, the huge trucks and buses zooming past us from both sides, weren’t really helping the cause. As all good things come to an end, so did this walk. We get down and enquire and realize that we need to go left now, and what do we see there, no surprises… water water and more water.
The whole journey looked doomed to me now, there was no way on the earth that we are walking through this shit. You really have to trade your ego to cross the road wading through the knee length level water. However, we gear up to the task, fold our jeans, remember our gods and then we start thinking, in that order. There is this bus crossing the road and Ashish almost convinces us to board the bus just to cross the road and then again back to our feet. However, me and Saubeer are a bit apprehensive. We are good rule abiding Chennai citizens, we don’t travel without paying for the ticketsJ. So ultimately, we decide on the more doable option, an auto. Luckily, we get it right on the very first go, a rarity, and we hop into it.
The three of us in the auto with feet tucked up in order to avoid any further water damage, we resembled kangaroos. Finally, as we were destined to, after an eventful journey, we reach Koyembedu bus stand. By this time I was totally disoriented, and the little excitement if that was there, wasn’t reflecting. Luckily, the other two chaps still seemed in good spirits, they started doing rounds and enquiring about buses to Kanyakumari or Madurai. As fate would have it, there was a bus to Kanyakumari, but it left sometime back. Meets expectations, I would say. After checking the bus fares and a thorough competitor analysis, these guys narrow it down to a travel agent and we get three tickets to ourselves for Madurai. And, hence the trip was on.
After a Volvo AC bus for one bus stand to another within a city to dingy deluxe bus from one city to another, it couldn’t have been more ironical. And no surprises again, we get the best seats in the house, at the very end. Come on, atleast one thing…for the love of god, atleast one thing should go right, but no. Reluctantly, we take it. Somebody up there was really mad at us. Me and Saubeer sit together, I take the window seat and Ashish takes up the one on the other side.
Oh btw, in all the hassle, the three of us didn’t even have our dinner. We are sitting in the bus and waiting for it to move. But everything in life doesn’t come easy, be patient. Not because you should, because you don’t have any other option. At last the bus starts and so does the melodrama, which we were so afraid of. It’s an inherent risk that comes along with any bus journey in the Tam land. The Tamil cinema. It was miracle in itself, we were witnessing a tamil movie, which was ages ahead, which was way better than matrix in the action sequences, Spielberg couldn’t have directed it so well, damn Brad Pitt, this guy was the dude of all the dudes. Only small problem was, hell, we aren’t interested in watching it. But it seemed the bus was carrying a set of passengers with a hearing problem, and the speakers were blasting all the way. Long live the guy who was responsible for the pirated DVD, we didn’t have to suffer long and it got stuck.
It’s around 11.15 pm and it’s been more than an hour and we have hardly covered 500 meters, the bus is stuck in the jam, it’s excruciatingly painful to see the bus crawl centimeters. But things were to get worse. The bus goes hits a hole in the road, shakes a bit, tilts on the left hand side and the engine shuts. The driver tries to start the engine, but it seems we weren’t the only one deprived of luck. Things were only getting worse since I made the legendary statement, “things can’t get worse than this”. Now, we are in the middle of the road stuck in the jam and the bus aint moving. Wow.
After getting rid of all the hope that the bus is going to start soon, we come out of the bus after sometime. Hungry as we were, we did scout for any shops nearby, but that really wasn’t one of our best days. I try to convince the other guys that it would be a nice idea to head home now instead of Kanyakumari as it’s already too late. Saubeer somewhat agreed to it, but the traveler and explorer in Ashish didn’t give up. So I gave up, and agonizingly waited and waited and waited. We witness the jam clear up and all the buses make their way through the road, except ours, which is still somewhat struggling to come into action.
I was just hoping that the bus never starts, we are reimbursed our money and we head home. Wishful thinking! But on that day anything I said or thought had to be proved wrong, somebody was royally pissed off with me. Its 2.00 am and the bus starts, wow. It’s the nail in the coffin, the journey begins once again. Guess what now, the jam that cleared up while our bus was stuck, but now is again right in place, just as to bless our journey going forth. We take another 45 minutes to hit a clean road, a highway. The bus must have hit a speed of 60-70 kms per hour. And I swear it didn’t take me more than a minute to doze off. We had already seen too much for a day and we wished that tomorrow would be new day.
The next day is bright and sunny, in contrast to the weather in Chennai, when we left. Good it was that it did dry up our wet socks overnight, which were hanging by on the rear of the front seat. The bus stops somewhere for snacks and Ashish gets down to get us some breakfast. Me and Saubeer had a good excuse of not getting down, we didn’t want to put on the shoes. It was good for Ashish too, he had the wonderful opportunity to have his favourite drink in peace, Naariyal Paani. We had vadas and pakodas for breakfast, and it was so oily that after eating if I run hands through my hair and comb it. I would be a perfect mumma’s boy. But, empty stomach since the last night, we found it quite delectable. After a few hours the bus stops again and Ashish’s fetish for Naariyal pani continues. We ask him to get some namkeen for us, he hunts for it and goes far off. The bus starts and heads off, without a few passengers. Saubeer starts yelling stop stop and I join in too. It only stops after a 100 meters. We see the passengers running to the bus in a hurry but the last of the passengers is walking nonchalantly down to the bus, who else, but Mr Ashish.
After a long journey, which made me feel as if I celebrated my last birthday on the bus itself, we reach Madurai. It’s around 1.00 pm. We head off to the bus stand to catch a bus to Kanyakumari. We take tickets for the 1.30 pm bus, we look around for some decent eatery to have lunch, oh, but we have left the thing called ‘luck’ back home. So we act fast and get ourselves a few apples and two bread cakes, chocolate and vanilla flavours. We board the bus, and we realize we have been duped by the guy who sold us the tickets. Anyway, the seats aren’t much comfortable, no pushback, but the weather turns to be our perfect saviour. It was overcast, with a cool breeze flowing around.
It was one of the healthiest lunch we had in sometime. We somehow manage to wash the apples through the bus window. After, two apples each, we felt complete. We savour the cakes later on and I am already thinking about dinner now. One sumptuous meal is all I am thinking of, its been 24 hrs we haven’t had a proper meal. These guys already planning to roam around Kanyakumari a bit and then have dinner. The first half of this bus journey goes off pretty well, and then ticks in the agonizing wait. Its around 7.30 pm, the bus comes to a dead end one stop before Kanyakumari and we change buses again. We don’t pay the conductor as we already have a bus ticket till Kanyakumari. Our happiness sees no limit, when we see those little Kanyakumari milestones pass by. Finally, on your feet, Ladies and Gentleman, we reach Kanyakumari.
