Now, back to 12th June 09

As I told you that we were supposed to meet at 7 pm sharp at badhkal chauk, but with Mr. Anshul Jain how can any one be on time. Finally we reached badhkal chauk at 7:20, Rahul and Daksh were waiting for us there and Jatin was supposed to meet us at ISBT Kashmiri gate. Reaching there Anshul saw some one (I won’t take the name) and believe me his eyes were lit up like a 100 watt bulb with his teeth popping out of his mouth. He was so overjoyed as if he had won a chit fund lottery of Rs 10 crore.

We waited at the supposed to be bus stop and eventually after 30 minutes we realized that this is India where stopping at the bus stop is against the pride of the bus drivers. So we moved on to the red light hoping to catch a bus that stops there and finally after 10 minutes we succeeded.

Inside the bus it seemed that this is the only bus that was plying on that route because it barely had space to squeeze ourselves in and along with us we had our ruck sacks weighing not les than 10 kg each, but some how we managed to grab 3 seats. We had just crossed the Faridabad- Delhi border when Daksh got a call and then he was in a dilemma, whether to stay with us or go with his other friends to Shimla. Finally, he made the worst decision of his life of choosing our trip over Shimla (ask him, he’d agree to me).

We reached ISBT at around 9:20 and then the first good thing of the day happened to us, we got an AC bus to Rishikesh. All pumped up we entered the bus and grabbed the seats that were left. Then suddenly a thought struck “Where is Jatin?? Shit, he was to met us at Mc Donald’s” suddenly there was a flurry of phone calls and Jatin was directed to the bus. Finally all set for the trip we bought some mineral water for the rest of the bus journey and expecting an easy and relaxing journey we made our selves comfortable in our push back seats.

All were sitting on their seats when Anshul got a phone call and guess what his denture was again advertising for happydent white brand. Reason: some one whom he had met on badhkal chauk had missed his bus and was coming in our bus. (Sorry no more details)

But as they say happiness is short lived, so was ours. Our bus had not even made an exit from ISBT when it was stopped by police, we came to know that bus driver had a fight with one of the passenger and he waved that passenger off the bus, the passenger in response lodged a complaint against him for physical assault. The bus that was supposed to leave at 10 pm finally left at 12 am.

Those two hours at ISBT were also memorable. We had chhola-kulcha and the yummy aalu ki subzi and roti that Rahul had got. But the best part of the evening was Daksh’s encounter with the traffic policeman. Mr. Daksh Sharma went up to a traffic policeman standing near our stalled bus and with all the politeness in the world asked him – “ uncle ji namaste, uncle ji ye bus kab chalegi ?” he actually had a theory that if you talk politely to the policemen they would be more than happy to help you, but alas our Einstein's theory was proved wrong when the policeman replied bluntly – “ mein ke tanne roadways karamchari laagu su ?” (Do I look like a roadway’s personnel to you?) After that none of us approached any policeman.

Then happened what should have happened long back, Mr.Anshul Jain took out his camera and after a series of photographs a sudden rush of passengers distracted us. The news came that the driver and the passenger had reached a compromise and the bus will leave in a few minutes. Everyone settled back into their seats, the conductor and the driver arrived totally rattled after the incident. As the conductor boarded the bus everyone started asking him about the situation, he tried to calm them down. But as that wasn’t enough, our Mr. Rahul Jain who was handling our finance (we all dutched in advance) stood up and asked what the conductor least expected that that moment – “ bhaiya aapne abhi tak hamari ek ticket nahi di hai , wo kab doge?” , conductor’s cold look made him realize that this was not perhaps the right time so settled right back in his seat.