Bangalore to Pune

I love travelling. Ever since I was  little kid I have dreamt of backpacking around the world. Part of this curiosity was instigated by the authors whose books paint a very fascinating picture of life in those distant lands. Be it the Riverdale of Archies, or the forests and other adventure spots of Matthew Riley, I want to explore them all. And this is why whenever I get a chance to travel, I grab it with both hands. Last weekend, I had to travel to Maharashtra. Since I was alone, I decided to observe my travel and try to make it a fascinating read. What follows is an account of the same-my first account as a travel writer.

I decided to go by bus. Booking for the same was made a day before. I had booked a sleeper berth, for the 800-odd kilometer journey can become quite tiring if one is sitting for more than 14 hours. I had booked an upper berth., and it came with its own set of advantage and disadvantage. The advantage was that I could enjoy the sun and soak in the scenery from the passing views. The disadvantage was that I could not sit up straight as my head would have touched the top. All these issues are countered when one takes the lower berth. While I felt I could sit up comfortably, the lack of a glass window would have made it difficult for me to distinguish between dawn and dusk. Anyways, we were supposed to leave at 1430 hours but because of certain reasons, we left at 1515 hours. As it was not the peak hours, we were able to leave the city pretty soon and were at the highway within one hour. That was one of the reasons for me choosing to take an afternoon bus. The first stop was at around 1800 hours. We stopped for refreshments at one of the roadside eateries. What I feel is that the drivers of tourist buses have some sort of tie-up with the eateries where they stop for refreshments. They must be getting some concession or some incentive. Why else would they go to the same place again and again ? We started off again after about 30 minutes. Now, the sun was beginning to set. All our berths had a TV connected to them. The operator played two movies in succession-“It’s Entertainment” and “Bhagam Bhag”. These flicks continued till 2230 hours, when we stopped for dinner. Again, a routine place with the name “Seven Loves Restaurant”. Sounds cheesy, I know!

Barring the above mentioned views, the only other sight dominantly intermittent in the entire journey was the presence of toll gates and check posts. As we eased into the night, I took some moments out to thank the people who made this journey as comfortable as possible-the engineers, the bus operators, the internet guys. I am pretty sure that in the coming years, the journeys to-be will be made more comfortable by the efforts of these people and many others.

My destination arrived at 0500 hours. And with its arrival began another adventure.