Bangalore – Mangalore: The Unforgettable Journey – A 12-hour Ordeal…
By Neville D’Cunha, Bangalore
Mangalore: It was October 19 2006, a day etched in my memory for many years to come. I almost gave up hope of coming down to my home town Mangalore from Bangalore for Diwali on this fateful day.
It all began with major companies announcing Friday and Monday as holidays on account of Diwali and Ramzan. Coupled with the usual Saturday and Sunday off in most IT and ITES companies, this meant a very long weekend which is usually unheard of.
I began planning my journey well in advance as during long weekends it is almost impossible to get tickets in private buses. The advantage of travelling by private operators is that, they pick you and drop you almost until your doorstep. With a negative response from my bus agent, I then scurried off to a KSRTC online counter where I managed to get a ticket in an Airavat bus. I was delighted to get my ticket as all of my hopes of getting a ticket had been slim.
I left home in Bangalore at around 8.45 pm and then starting scuttling for an auto. Finally one agreed to take me in, but he said you need to pay me double the amount and if that was not enough, he said I can only drop you till Corporation which is about 3 kms from Majestic.
I refused and then decided to take the BMTC bus. I reached the bus depot. There were crowds of people waiting for the local bus and the only immediate goal of everyone which was shared by me was to secure a seat in the local bus as the buses tend to get very crowded.
It was apparent that most of these people had looked for autos and then surrendered to the ever vicious BMTC. After a long wait one bus did come along and before it stopped people began jumping into the bus. I remembered the scene where in Africa people were fighting to get into a lame vehicle which could faintly be called a truck.
Like the refugees I too stumbled along and managed to get the prized seat. I heaved a sigh of relief. Little did I know what lay in store for me and the thousands of people trying to get out of this city.
The bus finally started not to mention only after the bus driver and conductor had a royal dinner which took about 20 minutes. The grumbling of the passengers was welcomed by deaf ears by the conductor. The initial part of the travel to Majestic was smooth. Only after we entered Richmond Road the traffic jam began.
The buses were moving at a very slow pace until it reached Corporation and then it came to a complete standstill just like hundreds of vehicles ahead. I asked a fellow passenger, how far Majestic was from Corporation and he said around 3 kms and he also passed an unwelcome suggestion that “You cannot walk that distance.” I asked him, where he had to go and he said, Malleshwaram which was about 5 kms from Majestic. My bus was supposed to start at 11 pm and it was only 10.20 pm. He consoled me saying, it is just a small jam and it will clear in 5 minutes.
Looking back now I realised what a wonderful thing I did by not listening to him because I would still be in Bangalore .After a full 20 minutes, the bus still had not moved an inch, I asked him, "Eeeega yenu"..."Bareeee aidu nimisha saar"(only five minutes, will clear).
One person who was witness to the entire conversation came up to me and said, "That person has to go to Malleshwaram and even if he misses the bus, he can walk to Malleshwaram, I don’t think you have that liberty, you need the bus badly. Start walking...You might get your bus".
I thanked the person for his million dollar advice and just smiled at the other person who just sulked away. With a heavy bag on one shoulder and laptop on another the walk seemed too treacherous. I was thinking twice when I saw hundreds of people clutching their bags and walking towards Majestic. I joined them and the journey went on and on, with the bus stand not in sight. I had to have a fast paced walk, lest there would be a stampede because if I stop for a second, the people behind me who were scuttling at breakneck speeds would collide with me making me a part of history.
I walked, walked and walked. At one point I just gave up hope. My body gave up and legs could not take it anymore. I was not a fitness freak and this adventure really highlighted my plight. Five minutes for the bus to start and the bus stop not in sight. I was sweating profusely and was thinking of my next point of action. Just then I saw the magical Majestic KSRTC bus depot.
Filled with hope I just tagged on with the other people running into the bus stand and happy that the ordeal had just ended. Little did I know, it had just begun. When I entered into the bus depot, it was nothing short of an ocean of people. People were everywhere and it then struck me what government meant by overpopulation.
I realized our think-tank should give a serious thought to this problem. Our country is really overpopulated. There were just two minutes for my bus to start and then I started my war to reach the ‘1A’ platform where my bus was supposed to start. I can never forget this part of the entire journey where it was nothing short of an astronomous effort to reach my platform.
When I finally reached ‘1A’ platform, it was just a minute past 11 pm. I saw one Volvo bus among other luxury buses and ran along and enquired with the conductor if it was the 11 pm bus. He said, it was the 9 pm bus. Ooooops! Another anti climax. I asked him when my bus would arrive. He said “Devarige gottu” (God alone knows). Only after a while I realized how true he was. I met a few of my old classmates which was a delight.
One thing I need to mention, only during these festival times, since everyone wants to come back home, it turns out to be a kind of a reunion. I saw many of my batchmates whom I never saw or was aware of their existence after engineering until I met them there. One person said his bus is at 9.30 pm and it has still not arrived.
Finally our bus came along at a full 12.45 pm one hour forty five minutes behind schedule. There was no blame game as everyone knew the reality that it was the traffic jams which had created this havoc.
The bus finally started at 1.30 am. When my bus came in, I saw a group of passengers clapping and embracing each other. This was nothing short of a victory and they were rightfully celebrating the arrival of their bus. The usual black spots in the Bangalore Mangalore journey are the horrible roads. Now this is a separate story in itself.
The Shirady Ghat section which is enroute to Mangalore cannot be called a road. It is a rocky surface with few patches of bitumen here and there and craters. They cannot be called potholes. Only the term crater makes justice to the pits. I feel sorry for the bus operators, who even after paying a hefty tax amount they need to suffer with these roads.
I have faced numerous occasions where the buses have been stuck in Shirady ghats for more that 6 hours. The truck drivers seeing the jam, just stop their vehicles and go off to sleep which compounds the problem.
Once I did see my bus driver keep a bucket with water ready and the moment he passed a stationary truck with the driver asleep, he would splash water at them and move along, This is a sight to watch. With government unheeding to repair the roads, we have no other choice but bear the sin of selecting so called responsible leaders.
Coming back to my story, one passenger said that the Volvo buses come through Mysore as the roads are good and it is less taxing for the passengers and our bus did just that. I was asleep the moment the bus left Bangalore and was awake somewhere near Mangalore. The fatigue had taken the toll on me. The bus finally managed to reach Mangalore at 11 am. When I got down, I ended up having a conversation with the driver and he mentioned that he left the bus depot to enter Majestic at 7 pm and could get a parking bay on at 12.30 am.
He had been driving for more that 12 hours and I could offer nothing but sympathy.
Looking back at my journey, this was nothing short of an adventure. I would relive these memories for a very long time. I was just in time to say ‘Happy Diwali Mangalore.’
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