Sigh! Travelling is getting increasingly difficult.
For some time, I tried the train-bus route: I would walk to the station - Andheri station that is - then take the train to Bandra, walk down to Bandra bus station, and catch a bus to Sion. For a few days, this routine went well and I was more or less settling in to the point of knowing by face the people who travelled by this route.
However - needless to say - Lalita Pawar-like incidents struck and took my happiness away. Trains began to get scandalously late; at times, they decided to play hide-and-seek with us on the platform. There we would be waiting for the train on Platform no. 4, and bang opposite to us at Platform No. 2, the train would arrive and almost giggle at the slip it gave us all.
If the trains were on time, the buses decided to make up for that: They ended up whiling their time away in traffic outside Bandra bus station and then at a signal a few metres away from Bandra bus station. If they zipped past these two slow-down zones, then the Kala Nagar signal almost always slapped them with a heavy waiting-time fine. That signal takes ages to change colours. Oh you don't believe? You think I am exaggerating because I was sweating in the bus with no fan around? Well, get into a 505 at 7:30 pm from Bandra and come to Sion and then say what you have to. Chances are you'll take back all what you have said.
Anyway, coming back to what I was saying, that signal takes time to understand the concept of quick work. Once the lights on the signal post did realize they had to work, these buses would try to run and then give up; courtesy: the hundred and three or more rickshaws and cars in front of them. I, in turn, would then give up hoping to reach home early and so, would begin my search for another route to Sion.
My search led me to consider taking the bus all the way to Sion from Andheri. But sitting in a bus from start to finish is as thrilling as, say, reading the Fifth Five-Year Plan and the reason it did not take off!
So I hit upon an idea: I broke my journey into two parts: I began to take the 39 from SEEPZ to Kala Nagar and then the 348 or the 448 from Kala Nagar to Sion. Of course, the journey split when I boarded the 39 for the first time. I had no clue where it was heading except that it was to roam somewhere near Doordarshan - Worli. That gave me the impression that it would wander somewhere close to Sion. I asked the conductor and he gave me a look that would have got my degree certificate to disassociate itself with me. Once he was done with making me feel ignorant, he went on to impart an education: "This bus? This goes to Bandra and then Dadar."
"Oh," I said, treading cautiously, lest I provoke another look from him, "Bandra where?"
"Highway." And without pausing to check whether I had indeed 'graduated', he walked away.
I felt like a fool. After all, saying: "Highway" is as good as telling me the bus will stop on the Moon. And the worse part is I did not want to ask any of the passengers at all. Well, you know how men are. They rarely - if at all - ask for directions. At least, I asked the conductor and that was all the asking I was prepared to do that evening. By then, I had decided to get off this bus on the 'highway' and catch another to Sion.
So I sat at the window and took a keen interest in all the stops along the way till I realized the bus was on the highway! The highway was this road that crosses past the one that leads into Vakola from Santacruz railway station. As the bus ran and I let my eyes run along, I noticed the same old Kala Nagar signal and promptly got up and got down. From there, then, I took the 348. The next day, I repeated my adventure but this time I took the 448 from Kala Nagar.
The first three days were sheer bliss: I reached home by 8:15 - the route via Bandra bus station would get me home by 9:00. And just as I thought I had found thee route after all, the 39 started to throw tantrums. The other day, I missed it by a minute and the next bus came a full half an hour later. Yesterday, the 39 I usually take rolled into SEEPZ depot a royal 15 minutes late and left half an hour later. And today, I missed the usual 39 and the next bus rambled in a deplorable 45 minutes later.
Consequently, I reach Kala Nagar by 8:30 these days. And the erratic 348s and 448s see to it I am close to Sion only at around 9:00 - 9:15! At that point in Indian Standard Time, I have no strength to do anything at all. I can't even finish a page of Jane Eyre that I got hold of recently and I don't have the patience to sit through a movie.
At 9:15, I can think of only one thing: Sleep. And that's what I do: I bathe, gulp down dinner, and I crash into bed - all because the BEST and WR refuse to do their job well.
Sigh! Travelling! Can it get more difficult than it already has?!
For some time, I tried the train-bus route: I would walk to the station - Andheri station that is - then take the train to Bandra, walk down to Bandra bus station, and catch a bus to Sion. For a few days, this routine went well and I was more or less settling in to the point of knowing by face the people who travelled by this route.
However - needless to say - Lalita Pawar-like incidents struck and took my happiness away. Trains began to get scandalously late; at times, they decided to play hide-and-seek with us on the platform. There we would be waiting for the train on Platform no. 4, and bang opposite to us at Platform No. 2, the train would arrive and almost giggle at the slip it gave us all.
If the trains were on time, the buses decided to make up for that: They ended up whiling their time away in traffic outside Bandra bus station and then at a signal a few metres away from Bandra bus station. If they zipped past these two slow-down zones, then the Kala Nagar signal almost always slapped them with a heavy waiting-time fine. That signal takes ages to change colours. Oh you don't believe? You think I am exaggerating because I was sweating in the bus with no fan around? Well, get into a 505 at 7:30 pm from Bandra and come to Sion and then say what you have to. Chances are you'll take back all what you have said.
Anyway, coming back to what I was saying, that signal takes time to understand the concept of quick work. Once the lights on the signal post did realize they had to work, these buses would try to run and then give up; courtesy: the hundred and three or more rickshaws and cars in front of them. I, in turn, would then give up hoping to reach home early and so, would begin my search for another route to Sion.
My search led me to consider taking the bus all the way to Sion from Andheri. But sitting in a bus from start to finish is as thrilling as, say, reading the Fifth Five-Year Plan and the reason it did not take off!
So I hit upon an idea: I broke my journey into two parts: I began to take the 39 from SEEPZ to Kala Nagar and then the 348 or the 448 from Kala Nagar to Sion. Of course, the journey split when I boarded the 39 for the first time. I had no clue where it was heading except that it was to roam somewhere near Doordarshan - Worli. That gave me the impression that it would wander somewhere close to Sion. I asked the conductor and he gave me a look that would have got my degree certificate to disassociate itself with me. Once he was done with making me feel ignorant, he went on to impart an education: "This bus? This goes to Bandra and then Dadar."
"Oh," I said, treading cautiously, lest I provoke another look from him, "Bandra where?"
"Highway." And without pausing to check whether I had indeed 'graduated', he walked away.
I felt like a fool. After all, saying: "Highway" is as good as telling me the bus will stop on the Moon. And the worse part is I did not want to ask any of the passengers at all. Well, you know how men are. They rarely - if at all - ask for directions. At least, I asked the conductor and that was all the asking I was prepared to do that evening. By then, I had decided to get off this bus on the 'highway' and catch another to Sion.
So I sat at the window and took a keen interest in all the stops along the way till I realized the bus was on the highway! The highway was this road that crosses past the one that leads into Vakola from Santacruz railway station. As the bus ran and I let my eyes run along, I noticed the same old Kala Nagar signal and promptly got up and got down. From there, then, I took the 348. The next day, I repeated my adventure but this time I took the 448 from Kala Nagar.
The first three days were sheer bliss: I reached home by 8:15 - the route via Bandra bus station would get me home by 9:00. And just as I thought I had found thee route after all, the 39 started to throw tantrums. The other day, I missed it by a minute and the next bus came a full half an hour later. Yesterday, the 39 I usually take rolled into SEEPZ depot a royal 15 minutes late and left half an hour later. And today, I missed the usual 39 and the next bus rambled in a deplorable 45 minutes later.
Consequently, I reach Kala Nagar by 8:30 these days. And the erratic 348s and 448s see to it I am close to Sion only at around 9:00 - 9:15! At that point in Indian Standard Time, I have no strength to do anything at all. I can't even finish a page of Jane Eyre that I got hold of recently and I don't have the patience to sit through a movie.
At 9:15, I can think of only one thing: Sleep. And that's what I do: I bathe, gulp down dinner, and I crash into bed - all because the BEST and WR refuse to do their job well.
Sigh! Travelling! Can it get more difficult than it already has?!
Comments