TRAVAILS OF A TRAVELLER....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Hum jo chalne lage… chalne lage hai ye raaste… ‘ – Humming this wonderful tune from Jab We Met, I embark on my rollicking journey to my office. Off late, I have been feeling more and more like Kareena Kapoor… now now now don’t get it wrong… What I mean is I feel more and more like her character Geet from Jab We Met… The reason being that in the movie she always dreamt of missing her train… And I too have been dreaming the same these days.. Only difference being that I dream of missing my BUS..!!

The most vivid memory of my day after I wake up is that of me dashing towards the overflowing road at Koti which unfortunately happens to be a Bus stop…!!! It is not surprising to find the entire road in front of the bus stop crowded with myriad people having myriad ways of ensuring that they catch their bus. Some people are waiting as though they are waiting for an impending enemy and ready to pounce on it. Some like me wait for it as though waiting for girlfriend in a park… As they say in Urdu – “Badi Nazaakat se hum intezaar karte hai…” But then this Nazaakat generally gets lost in the melee and we tend to be part of the marauding enemy more often than not…!!!!

After a Herculean effort, I board the bus. I think that my war is finished but hang-on. A new war has started now. I need to find a seat for myself. Otherwise I would just be crushed by a pummeling and intimidating crowd. But as fate would have it, I am left gasping for breath as I don’t find myself efficient enough to jump through the window or reserve my seat by throwing a handkerchief from the window…!!! Left with no other option, I stand there balancing myself on one leg and perilously hanging from the support-bar as I sense precociously closer to being trampled by a rampaging crowd…!!

Amidst this entire din, I notice two young boys, probably eight years old, trying to cling on to the bus near the foot-board. It amused me no ends when these guys were shouting chants of Jai Telangana…!!! I am pretty sure that they might not have an iota of idea about what they are shouting about but they seemed to be oblivious of it and just did things their way. This is the beauty of childhood. You do things which you like without any inhibitions… I was rudely awoken from my thoughts by an abnormally over-weight and obnoxious idiot who stepped on my foot. Ouch…!!! The fatso didn’t even bother to apologize and stomped away like an elephant trampling everything that dared come his way….!!!!

As I stand there writhing in pain, I notice a clutter of confused engineering students mugging up the program to print numbers of the Fibonacci series…!!! This brought to life the wonderful memories of my engineering life.. The time of exams… The gadbad to revise everything again… Well, I think I should write about the memories of engineering in some other article as I am pretty sure that one page won’t be sufficient to showcase the showbiz of our gang…!!!!!

Just as I feel happy about the sweet memories, the feel-good factor somehow helps me attain a seat…. And I finally assume my seat… I am almost half-way through my journey to office…. The moment I sit down a guy requests me to hold his bag… As I keep it on my lap, another guy comes out of nowhere and requests me to hold his bag as well… In a matter of a few seconds, I have three bags firmly placed on my lap…. !!!!!!

”Saar… Konchem Madhapur vaste cheppandi” - requests the guy sitting next to me. I oblige. Madhapur… This name is rarely used these days… It is now Hitec-City that is used for any place near to this village… Yes, it used to be a village some time back but not anymore…. I still remember my engineering days not long ago when we went to Durgam Cheruvu (Secret Lake) and there was absolutely no traffic…. Now we need to search for ‘Cheruvu’ in the concrete jungle… It has receded drastically over the years… Encroached by the gluttonous real-estate mafia, it is a sorry sight now….!!!!!

I am suddenly jolted as the driver slams a sudden break and the bus comes to a grinding halt… What the heck.!!!! Well, it seems like some stupid moron who in polite terms is referred to as an ‘Auto-driver’ suddenly swerved right and came in front of the bus… Nothing new for a Hyderabadi… We are used to the whims and fancies of these rulers unto themselves….!!!! A barrage of swearing followed in chaste Hyderabadi language… The bus-driver and auto-driver enquiring about each others’ mothers, sisters, etc, etc…!!!!! Finally, after the intervention of some good Samaritans, Bade babu as they say in Hindi movies, going on the road my driver decided to resume the journey…!!!!!

As the bus catches speed on the undulating roads of Jubilee Hills, I too try to catch a short nap…!!! As I wake up from my sleep, I notice that the bags on my lap no longer exist… Probably, the guys may not have thought it prudent to wake me up from my deep slumber…!!!! I glance outside and notice that we are almost nearing Madhapur… I inform the person sitting beside me that the next stop is Madhapur… He thanks me profusely and rushes towards the exit…!!!

A lot of people scramble to get down the bus at Cyber Towers … The bus is almost empty now… I feel like a king in this near-empty bus… I sit lavishly on my seat albeit for a few minutes…. I prepare to disembark from the bus as my stop Kothaguda approaches…. As I step out of the bus, a smile and a frown both appear on my face thinking about my impending journey back home later...!!!!!! Hum jo chalne lage, chalne lage hai ye raaste....!!!!!