Adyar to Minerva Circle...

If you have read some of my earlier posts , and also guessed that (or know that) the wierd nouns in the title are places in Chennai and Bangalore , then you probably know that its about one of my inter city trips which always turn out to be eventful .

This time around I was beaten to the coveted train tickets by many other people with similar intentions of travel and for the first time in Chennai I was forced to explore the possibility of a private bus. There are several reasons why private bus travel is not a preferred mode for me .
First , it costs almost double of the train ticket ; second , there is usually no sleeper, there are only semi sleepers ... which actually mean that the seats recline halfway down , but for mean the sleep always turns out to be "semi" so I can't really blame the bus , it does warn me. Third, you are usually put in close proximity with someone who if fun to talk , the journey is really worth the trouble or else it becomes a real nightmare ( like the time I travelled from mangalore to bangalore and ended up behind a puky lady who would n't close the windows and literally froze me).

Getting back to the present , I always used to wonder how it would be to sit next to a woman and travel. For one thing , I really can't trust myself to make any sensible conversation when I am actually trying to ... hehe . On this day , I was about to find out . The boarding place of the bus was just opposite my house in Chennai and I had managed to pack(read dump) almost all of my stuff and get there on time . My seat number was 20 and I deposited my huge bag with the clothes under the seat and the smaller backpack on the seat . I noticed that right next to me sat a lady and she was reading some book. I settled down to a very uncomfortable journey and to make matters worse , after some time another girl came and sat on my left ! The seating was 2 + 1 , so the second lady was in the neighbouring row. My discomfiture was only increasing and I turned to my trusty nokia 2300 to keep me occupied for the time being . The radio was playing some silly tamil songs , the type where the music is totally dependant on the lyrics .I closed my eyes and was thinking how I would spend the next few hours avoiding looking at or speaking to my neighbours. As a matter of habit I don't speak much to anyone other than my friends , and even that is very less . And when the other person is a woman , its all the more difficult for me to get chattery and it usually takes me many occasions before I can be comfortable .

I continued reflecting on such things when I thought what if I need not be that way , why let such silly reasons make me change the way I behave. And so I opened my eyes and started looking out the windows on either side. We were going past my daily route to office via the famous "Nandanam signal" and onto "Venkatnarayana Road". The familiarity made me more comfortable . I had a look at the book my neighbour was holding and thinking that a safe way to make an opening was "Hi , which book are reading ? " but I ended up saying "Excuse me, do you have anything to read besides that". She smiled and said "No , this is the only one I have, you can read it if you want". Thats when I noticed that the book was a Sidney Sheldon. I was allergic to Sidney Sheldon books ... they are equivalent to the masala bollywood films , though not as bad. I said " I don't think I ll be able to read the entire novel, seems too big" which was pretty obvious , but sometimes its better to state the obvious than not say anything at all ( Like in all those team meetings where people beat around the bush to just say something for sometime).
Realising that I was about to end the conversation prematurely , I ventured with " I would like to have a look at the back cover ..." and read through the story. I don't remember the title , but the story about some psychoanalyst doctor , one of whose patients had committed murder and was about to have this guy framed , or murdered . Not really exciting I thought and said " The print is not very small , I think this can be read in 3 - 4 hours". It was improvisation, so don't blame me for pointless talk. Anyway a conversation can't go on with one person talking. I think thats the time when she took over . We started off talking about work , and then places of origin ,incidents at work , roommates , dogs , friends , family and I even learnt a bit about server maintenance and spread some gyaan about VC++ . The time the bus started off must have 9 45 pm and we started talking at around 10 15 i think and this went on until 5 minutes to 12 .

Finally at the around midnight, I started feeling drowsy and we decided to call it quits and I dozed off lightly . Dozing off in the initial phase was fun , but after some time , it got colder and the fine channels of air coming through were maing life difficult . To make matters worse , I knew that I had a shawl in my travel bag under my seat and my legs were tightly packed under the seat of the guy in front. I assumed I wouldn't be able to take it out and decided to somehow get through the night. After some more time ,it became really unbearable and I somehow managed to extricate my feet and get the life jacket ( in this case my shawl) out and looking at my watch found that it was already 4 am. After an hour of fitful sleep , the lights came on and the bus guy started shouting out stop names for the benefit of alighting passengers. My neighbour was up and she said "its terribly cold at this time" . I could n't agree more with her .
I enquired whether the bus would go via Richmond circle so that I could travel home easier. I found out that she wanted go to a place on the way to my place and I suggested we could take an auto and somewhat reduce each other's fee by going together. So we got down at a place called "Minerva circle" and were immediately accosted by 2 autodrivers speaking in tamil. She didn't know tamil so I spoke for both of us. The auto guy was asking "Yenga ponum saar, vanga" ( where do you want to go sir , come with me) . On telling him her destination , he said " Oh , neenga Madivala le yeringirindha rombo easy , straight road"(you should have got down at Madivala itself , from there it s really easy , a straight road) . I was pleasantly surprised to discover such a good natured auto guy who would n't giving out a trade secret for free. But this was shortlived , immediately he quoted an atrocious price which would have got from Chennai to Bangalore by train! Because of my dad , who is Bangalorean to the core , I knew the approximate rate from there to my place , so we decided that its better to go by bus than give these guys our hard earned money. We stood at the bus stand shivering for some time , and she asked me , "Don't you have a jacket or something ?" . I knew I had the shawl in my bag and knew it would look ridiculous , but thought "Whats the big diff ?" and put it own to trap some much needed body warmth from escaping into the morning chill. The time was still between 5 30 to 6 and we waited for a few minutes before an enterprising auto guy came right upto us tempting us like the devil saying that theres no bus at that time. But she said she knew better , so we waited for some more time. And I gave in to the temptation first and dragged her into . It was pretty reasonable , before 6 am , 1 1/2 of the meter charge , first her destination , then mine. And so we set off with bags and all through the chilly morning air. Through this short journey I was wondering how I would get her mail id or some form of communication.(I remembered a friend's similar plight on Chennai - Blore day trip by train in an ac car) . I finally decided to be proactive and offered my card and that was the end of it. Finally we reached her place and after good byes I headed home with really fond memories which I think are worth preserving in a blog and in my mind.

At the end of the journey I was wondering whether I had missed a lot of such opportunities to make friends like this all my life. It was true and I knew that it was something worth changing for the better. And also also it is better to try out new things at least once in a while , it gives you a chance to grow with each new experience.

-railmani