Well, well... what a weekend! Had my heart pounding the last couple of days when I couldn't find a couple of my certificates with me. had to make a short yet highly necessary trip back to Goa in order to get them. And so, on saturday, 21st April 2007, at 1400hrs, I left the institute along with Keegan and Joel. The two of them had to go to Mazgaon Dock. So some reason the ferry wasn't available that day and so we waited for the local State Transport bus. An hour into waiting for the bus, we hear this loud marriage music from behind us and we watched as a marriage procession walked by us. The band had 4 people playing the drums and 1 guy playing the keyboard. Nice. The groom proudly walked by as everyone waited in the sweltering heat to board the buses lined up for them. For some reason they all seemed to be waiting for someone. Then all of a sudden there was another band playing behind us and we saw this group of ladies energetically jumping about and so we assumed the bride was coming. But lo and behold! Another groom! Now, maybe it was the heat or maybe it was just the frustration at not getting a bus for so long but at that moment... we just looked at each other and went "holy shit! a gay wedding???" Of course, we did look at it later and figure out that it was 2 different weddings but at that moment... well lets just say it happened in the 'heat' of the moment.
Got the State Transport bus another 45 minutes later and we ended up outside the Panvel bus station. Grabbed a rickshaw and got to Panvel railway station where there was this incredibly huge snake-like queue. Well, to make a long story short we finally got the tickets after about 30 minutes in the queue and got a train within no time (thank god for high frequency of trains!) These guys get off at Mazgaon Dock and poor lil me travels further on to C.S.T. where I finally get a bus ticket at 1830 hrs for a 1900hrs bus. Needless to say, since the tickets were last minute bookings I managed to get an incredibly cramped bus with NO leg room (Isn't that a common occurrence now?). Reached Panjim, Goa by 0845 hrs and home by 1000 hrs.
Certificates! Found them and peace of mind has been achieved! Well, now that I'm back in Goa and have a few hours to myself I decide to get a haircut that's pretty much been overdue for a while. All done, it was then time to leave at 1930 hrs in order to catch the 2100 hrs bus from Panjim back to this institute!!!
Got the bus and informed the driver I needed to get off at Belapur. He said the bus doesn't pass that side. So I was like okkkk, Panvel would be nice. He looks at me like I'm some weirdo and says that the best he could do for me was the by-pass junction. I had absolutely no idea what that was, but for reasons beyond my comprehension (or maybe coz of the fact that I was just plain tired) I said ok. Bus moves on to Mapusa where I get to witness a pretty incredible fight wherein the passengers (or rather would-be passengers) are thrashing up the owner or rather operators of a bus. Situation calms down and we finally move on.
At 0630 hrs I get a wake up call from my fellow passenger who informs me were at "the junction". I'm unceremoniously dumped from the bus and I have absolutely NO idea where I am! More careful examination of the surroundings reveal a board indication this is the Pune-Mumbai bypass highway which goes under the flyover (If that means anything to anybody!). Wait there for about 5 minutes trying to figure out my next move when incredibly enough there's a State Transport bus moving towards me with a signboard in hindi (thank god I paid attention to studying the language back in school!) which indicated it was going to Belapur Station! Grabbed it... reached the station and at 0745 hrs there was a local bus from the institute which used to come there to pick up people wanting to go to T.S. Rehman.
Man that was some travelling over 43 hours!
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