"These seats are so damn uncomfortable", my friend remarked as soon as we sat on the last few remaining seats in the AC bus of Himachal Roadways.
Last minute plans don't leave you a lot of room for options. Both of us had to make it to Delhi today and we didn't care what bus we would get. Used to the luxury of traveling in the pristine Volvo's on weekends, a small voice echoed inside me egging to wait for the next Volvo rather than embark on what we correctly expected to be a long journey.
On the face of it, the seats looked ok...obviously, I wasn't expecting the suspension of the bus to be even close to that of the B7R Volvo. But desperation, alas!!! I was disappointed by the fact that there was no power point on the ride, the battery of my laptop has been fully drained and I wasn't in a mood to fall asleep any time soon...
Being seated close to the rear of the bus, we were fearing the bone crunching jumps on NH-1. But we were also delighted to find that the last seat was totally vacant...this made for a perfect bed for at least one of us...All throughout, I struggled to find myself a sweet spot where I could seat myself in peace and doze off but landed up turning sides every two minutes...My friend kept on cursing the damn driver for putting the AC on chill mode and for driving so rashly that the bus kept on jumping...I was eager to get back home where I could lay in my comfy bed and have a satisfactory sleep. But when you are going down the hill, you really are on a roll...the bus driver drove so slowly that I seemed it would take ages to get back...Not a single thing went our way the entire journey.
Finally, when we did see the illuminations and lights at ISBT Delhi @ 4 in the morning, you could not even imagine the kind of delight both of us experienced - I said to my friend, finally the torturous journey ends...we bid each other good night as we headed our own ways and swore never to board HP tourism buses again...
Content with my decision and rubbing my sleep deprived eyes, I started boarding the flight of stairs on the overhead bridge to make it to the other side of the ever so busy Ring Road.
Life has its own ways of teaching you lessons, more often that not, it feels like a slap on your face...I couldn't have even thought of the sight in front of me...tens and tens of people laying on the floor, sleeping peacefully, covered in torn blankets - not feeling the heat of the early summer; been disturbed by scores of people who would rush to cross the roads like me making a lot of noise in the process. Most of them sharing the narrow lane of tiles that would give you an ache in your heel if you walked on it, leave alone sleeping...the picture became grimmer when I gazed from top of the bridge across the road. One could just see the entire fields and the footpaths covered with many more souls like I had seen moments ago.
My mind became numb, completely devoid of any thoughts...I felt like eating my words - all that cursing and complaining about how uncomfortable the seats back in the bus were came back to haunt me...all along the 40 minute auto ride from ISBT to back home, I tried contemplating on how used to worldly comforts that one becomes - including myself...this rat race, this tryst, this struggle so that we can improve our lifestyles...I am not against that...after all, it is all about aiming to achieve the next level...and then the next one and so on...but deep down inside, I felt that I should never forgot my roots, I should never become so detached, so apathetic to others not as fortunate as I am, and be thankful to those who have provided me this luxury...
Its been 14 hours since I had reached home last night...but that sleep continues to elude me...I had been wanting to talk to someone about this since then...probably, the fact that I have got this out of my system will ensure that the much needed sleep will ensue...but more than that, I sincerely hope and expect that this change of thought and attitude will remain with me forever...just in case, even if I get close to forgetting it, I have you to remind me of that.
I hope that you too have a goodnight's sleep.
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