Saturday, July 19, 2008

When the going got tough...(Time or Money)

My hilarious journey to my hometown.
Saving time is a smarter thing to do than saving money...well this is why i decided to take the flight. After rigourous analysis of various flights and bus fares i finally settled down to choose the flight from Mumbai to Mangalore. I also wanted to explore via this route this time. To my surprise the fare was also comparitively less than the bangalore flight. But I had to cough up the extra 400 rupees for ticket because i took too much time in deciding the flight and the ticket price had gone up by that time. Once again i cursed the flight service providers for not including netbanking to book the tickets (Except Spicejet and Yatra). Used my room mate's card and booked the tickets. I also wrote a mail to greviences service of Air Deccan regarding the same and felt better. I guessed i could save some 2 hours of journey by this new route. Shervil accompanied me almost till airport in the mumbai rain. As expected the flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Whenever you visit your hometown every minute/seconds seems precious. Called up nirdesh and got info on how to reach Mangalore airport in a cheeper and better way. Priya, Nirdesh's wife gave enough information on that. Landed to Bajpe Airport at 8.00PM. Air Deccan/Kingfisher was the only service provider to that place. Came out and asked for taxi fare... 400 rupees!! As guided by priya...i went out to get an auto till bajpe bus stand. Brilliant! not a single auto and the last bus from bajpe to mangalore was gone. Didnt knew it was just the beginning of a test to check my patience. Finally got a guy who dropped me till Bajpe Bus stand and paid him 50 bugs. Got a bus till Koovooru and from koovooru got one more bus to Mangalore bus stand. By this time i was rethinking about my decision of not opting for taxi. But decided to live the moment (Airtel). The old kannada songs calmed me down and i started to recall the moments where we used to sing these ones at the time of antakshari....i wont call childhood memories, coz u need to be GROWN UP...to say that.I was starving by this time but restrained myself to have anything as i had told mom that i will be there by 11 night. 'Jale par Namak'- The last bus from mangalore bus stand to my hometown (Chikmaglur) had left at 8.40!! What the fuck!...all my calculations of saving time were thrown in air. Suddenly my brave decision of Re-boarding a flight seemed pointless. I could have taken a volvo bus to bangalore from mumbai. It felt like i am on an All-karnataka tour. Again tried to divert my thinking and started to recall the name of towns i had to pass through so far. Their tulu-accent kannada was hard to understand. Called up mom and informed it might take 3-4 hours more. (These hours seemed like days). Boarded a bangalore bus and got ticket till Hassan. Reached hassan by 3.00am. Finally i was on my way to chikmaglur.....few buses overtook us. The bus driver's previous vehicle must be none other than a bullock-cart. I was hungry, frustrated, sleepless and angry. My feet touched heaven at 4.00am. Went home and knocked the door. As always mom was awake at that time too!!! Dropped luggage and straight away went to kitchen. Ate stomach full of food, had a chat and slept. At the end, it was not so bad, i had reached home only 4 hours late. But again...ridiculous, i could have easily come by bus and saved some 3k....grrr...
Convinced myself saying atleast i explored a new route.