A different journey experience
Few years back in one summer, my family went to native as daughter had vacations. I was alone in Bangalore. As my leaves were not approved, I did not book tickets. I was seeing air fares were very high and if you don’t book in advance, it would be too much costly. Once my leaves approved, I decided to take bus for Ahmedabad. I checked with various bus operators and find one bus starting in the evening around 7 pm from Bangalore and reaching Ahmedabad in around 25 hours. It was a long journey. As It was slipper bus, I was alone, I thought it would be fine for me.
Photo by Aldrin Rachman Pradana on Unsplash
This was going to be my longest bus journey. I did not have any idea how it would be. It was Thursday and one of school friend used to stay in Ahmedabad and used to go to our native every alternate weekend. I asked him to book ticket for me also for night 10 pm from Ahmedabad. So, my plan was that I would reach Ahmedabad at around 7 pm, would have my dinner and then get into the bus along with my friend for my native.
I started from home around 5.30 pm and reached the bus stop around 6.30 pm. It started on time and crossing Bangalore it took around 1.5 hours. So, till around 8 pm I was in Bangalore only. After coming out from city, around 10 pm bus stopped at some restaurant. We had dinner there and again started.
Next day morning, reached Pune somewhere around 9 am. There I got refreshed and had breakfast at some restaurant. Then started again. On Pune Mumbai highways there was huge jam. Some vehicle got broke down and there was along queue of vehicles waiting to move. I thought maybe it will take some 20-25 mins and it will clear. But destiny had something else for us that day.
This jam took around 3.5 hours to clear. So, we reached Mumbai around 4 pm. Then after crossing Mumbai, had lunch at restaurant. The time to reached Ahmedabad was around 7 pm but due to this jam we were running late. I informed my friend that I will be late, but I did not know that I will be so late. Still, I kept asking him to wait for me. He was also trying to hold the bus for some time, it beyond one point he also could not do anything.
Finally, the bus left. I could not reach Ahmedabad on time. Finally, we could reach Ahmedabad by 12.30 in night. I got down the bus and was on call with my friend. The Bus was ahead few stops ahead of me. I thought I would catch it by following it. I took one and asked him to follow. This auto driver also understood that I was kind of in hurry and asked for some good money. I agreed this and started following the bus.
After following the bus for some time, I realized it would be stupidity to follow this way and I had to let it go. I asked him to drop me to some place where buses stop. I paid him a heavy amount as it was more than the bus fare from Ahmedabad to my native. It was around 1.30 am. Now there was no direct bus available to my native that time. I had to do break journey only.
After standing for some time, I got a bus for Udaipur. I got into the bus but there was no seat available. The only place was available was near driver there was some bench kind of. I sat there for next 4.5 hours. Morning 6 am, I reached Udaipur and immediately got but for my native Bhilwara.
I reached Bhilwara around 10 am. This was really a tiring journey. I this journey, I saw traffic jam for 3.5 hours, running behind and chasing bus in auto, sitting on bench for 4.5 hours and then finally a bumpy journey in state roadways bus to my native. I could never forget this journey and decided not to do this such adventure again.