A journey to remember....!!! (Part 2)

"10:45 pm and no sign of any Ultra deluxe bus for Hubli, It was certainly a bad idea. Why I had to be such an idiot?". These were the word running my mind. It was almost half an hour since Vikash left.

"Hubli... Hubli....!", a feeble voice between the sound of roaring bus engines diverted my thoughts. I almost ran towards the voice praying, "An Ultra deluxe....!! An Ultra deluxe...!!". But I think, that was not my day.

I had definitely traveled in the express buses many times during my college days, which we used to call "LAL DABBA" (Red Box). But I had never found a LAL DABBA so beautiful. If I were a poet, I would have definitely written poems describing the beauty of the red beast. A red colored, rectangular, half filled express bus. Interior shining with two rows of equidistant mini-sized tube lights, two headlights resembled clam eyes of a fierce roaring beast which was waiting to run away from the heard once it had filled its stomach with its favorite food, us. A white board lighted with a slim tube light at a left corner of the square transparent big window with some manuscripts in Kannada, felt like a scar on the face of the beast. I think, it was my nervousness which was appreciating the bus in such a manner. Whatever it was, only thing I knew was that this bus was my life saver for the moment.

A slim middle aged man in Kakhee colored dress, was standing beside the bus. It didn't took me a moment to conclude that he was the conductor of the bus. After inquiring the bus conductor, I entered the bus. I could see the third row from beginning being empty. I rushed towards it. To re-confirm, I asked the person sitting on the fourth row,"This bus will go to Hubli?". To my surprise, he started blabbering something in Kannada. It is 9th year for me in Karnataka, but I am still an illiterate when it comes to Kannada. His facial expression and my little experience in understanding Kannada could easily make me feel that he was scolding me about something. I just smiled, showed him my middle finger (ummm.....in my thoughts) and sat on the seat in front of him. Soon, the bus conductor came in to give tickets, he re-confirmed that I was in right LAL DABBA destined to Hubli. With in next ten minutes, I was all set to start my journey to Pune on the LAL DABBA.

11 pm, KBS Bangalore: The bus started moving from the KBS. Either a number of voices mixed together, along with the roar of the bus engine or the tiredness of the whole day made my eyes heavy and slowly, I was feeling sleepy. I thought before the bus would start giving free roller coaster rides on the road, it was best for me to take a short nap to prepare myself for the rest of the unplanned journey.