Tag Archive for 'journey'

First Time Travelling In Sleeper Bus

Published on January 17, 2011 in Travel. 0 Comments

I have always preferred train and after yesterday night’s experience I see no reason why I would want to change the preference. Not being able to book a tatkal tickets in Kacheguda-Bangalore Express I had resigned myself to a bus journey. Having a sleeper bus ticket in hand I thought the experience might be better than that of semi-sleeper ones. Alas, it turned out otherwise.

My seat number was U11. There were 12 seats in the bus, so I was pretty much in the last row. Just as the bus started I got out my laptop and started watching a movie. Movie + checking EPL scores + looking at my location on the goolgle map killed about 3 hours of time. By then everybody was asleep and the lights had been put out. I packed up and lay down to sleep.

It’s amazing that when you are occupied by something how you tend to ignore everything else around you. Now that I had nothing to do but close my eyes, I realized how much the bus was tossing me around. The driver makes a turn and I get pushed across the wall of the bus. A speed-breaker and I get tossed up. And whenever the driver braked sharply, I feared I would fall down. Somehow I managed to sleep.

And arriving at the destination at 6 in the morning didn’t help either.

Nice thing I have already booked my tickets for Holi. Journey by train is way better than bus.

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A Forgettable Train Journey

Published on February 3, 2009 in Anu. 0 Comments
Kharagpur's Railway Station

Kharagpur's Railway Station

Well, I had taken a break from kgp for the last week of January and had been to Hyderabad. One of the reason was that I had an eye checkup scheduled for the 30th of January, but then also I did not want to be here for Spring Fest. The days spent at home were the typical ones, mostly sleeping and eating. Finally it was the time to return back home – back to kgp, where I belong.

With the airbag inside the car, and everyone ready, we set off to the station. Dad started a conversation on the new railway coaches that have been introduced recently, the ones which have 9 seats in a group instead of the usual 8. He was narrating his experience and his opinion was that these coaches should be removed and the railways should revert back to the 8 seats per group coaches. I got drawn into a debate suggesting these new coaches are meant to accomodate more passengers, which is good considering the number of people travelling these days. As usual we never reached a conclusion, but he ended saying I will understand the troubles only after facing them.

He couldn’t have been more true. Unfortunately, I was alotted a seat in one of these coaches, and it was then that I realised how crowded the place looked. There was no room to fit the baggage, and the seats somehow appeared over-crowded. People who had come in groups were unhappy as the new seating arrangement meant that they were divided. Everyone was complainig while also trying to get seats exchanged.

As if this was not enough, I was seated amidst 8 retired bongs ! All of them old people, and they started chattering in bangali the moment the train started. There was only one thing left for me to do – plug in my discman, pick up my rubik’s cube and pretend I did not exist !

This almost sums up my whole train journey, except that the next morning a twist was introduced into the play. A small kid, maybe 2 or 3 yrs of age, came by and looked earnestly at my cube. I tried striking up a conversation with him. But he wouldn’t come nearer unless I give him the cube, and he wouldn’t stay if he got the cube. He made those cute convincing faces that kids make to get their work done. I had to part with the cube. Now with the cube gone, I was left with nothing to do and almost 4 hours to spend.

Luckily the train was not late and I got off before I could go mad sitting there all alone by myself. Truly a forgettable trian journey it was, the last one I hope it was from Secunderabad to Kharagpur.

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