Generally, I avoid travelling by bus to long destinations. Thanks to the callousness of Indian Railways, I am compelled to travel to Nagerkoil from Coimbatore by bus, as the promised express train is yet to be operated, reasons known only to M/s Lallu and Velu.
I will come straight to the story. Last Monday, I booked a ticket to Chennai from Coimbatore and a return ticket by KPN bus service. The confusions started immediately as the bus took off at 8PM. The seats allotted were different from the numbers printed on the seats. A third rate movie was being screened and the DVD often got stuck and after halfway, the screening was stopped. The passengers were grumbling about some bugs or mosquitoes annoying them, and I too had a miserable time beating them. Actually any ordinary bus would have reached Salem by 11Pm, but we were stopped at a petrol bunk for’refreshments’ at 1 O clock, and when I enquired about the place, I was informed that we were 3 km before Salem. The bus often stopped at many places and we could see the driver and conductor quarelling between themselves, about a problem in’Air lock’.
We were supposed to reach Chennai by 7 Am, but at that time we were some 200 kms yet to reach the destination. The great rain that was to slash Tamil Nadu was just beginning to shower, and we were in the middle of a great traffic jam at the outskirts of Tindivanam. The bus crawled and crawled and when we reached Chennai it was 10-30Am. The passengers who were to reach their offices by 10 were literally crying, and my appointment was also at 10 AM.
The next day, my bad luck, I had no other way to return Coimbatore except using my return ticket by KPN. My friend who offered to drop me at the Koyampedu bus terminal started the car early by 7-15 at Nandanam, because of the rains and traffic jam and my bus was to start at 9-30 PM. After 2 hours, we reached the terminal crawling inch by inch in the heavy traffic. After parking in the lot after many confusions, we came to know that the private bus terminal is 1.5 km from this parking lot. Ok, we will run, we decided. After running in knee deep stagnated water amidst all types of vehicles, when we reached the booking office at the platform exactly at 9-30, we were informed that the bus is yet to arrive. And will you believe the bus took off only at 11Pm, after the passengers began to protest and shout.
Again the bus began to crawl amidst heavy traffic of lorries, and it was not the usual Tambaram via route. Ok, they may be taking some shortcuts, I thought. Only afterwards, I found they have taken a route via Vellore. When the sun was rising, the bus was standing in the midst of a very long queue of vehicles and the place was Dharmapuri, which had remote connections with the usual Chennai-Coimbatore route. It took 3 hours to clear the traffic snarl and when the bus reached Salem it was 9-30 AM. The bus was loaded with women and children and the anxious cellphones were ringing from their relatives who were waiting at the other side. The morning chores, brushing, toilets, everything skipped, the passengers were grumbling as a whole daytime was wasted. The crew stopped at a roadside restaurant for their breakfast and again started the bus and took different routes, through villages and narrow roads, instead of the National Highway. The 3 hour journey from Salem again took 5 hours and when we reached Coimbatore it was 2 Pm.
The normal journey for this route is 7 hours by train and 10-12 hours by road. But for some obvious reasons known only to the bus operators and tax officials, these people use different and long winding routes to reach their destinations. When I thought all this happened only because of the rains and my bad luck, I came to know that the next day’s journey also took the same duration . And the irony is the Government buses in which travellers fear to tread reach their destinations by time, these premium ticket operators have little responsibility and care for their customer’s punctuality etc.
And my New Year’s decision is travel by Train, even if you have to stand for the whole journey, or take any other bus service except this.