I woke up around 9.30am. Don’t really know when I slept but the laptop was kept safe. It’s all noisy with children playing around, someone is yelling over the low signal mobile phone, and the co-passengers started playing cards as well. I was not in any mood to enjoy, so took my utility bag and proceeded for toilet. On the way back to seat, asked a catering guy to bring breakfast and tea. The old man standing near the door smiled like a long known friend. Hmmm, hi friend, oh no mood, smiled back.
The day was dry with nothing special to harden my bloggers pen. Spend most of the time sleeping and sleeping and sleeping…
Got down at a crowded Pune station in the morning. Proceeded to my frens place and reached the customer by 9.30 after a freshen up session. The meeting was a total proud as I could deliver my message to them loud and clear, without losing their attention and attitude. They promised to credit us with the outstanding amount in a week’s time.
On the way back, I asked my fren to book my tickets home for the day after. We had a small party of our type that night and slept easy, without even a hint of the hilarious day ahead.
There was nothing special to do in the morning other than having a tea and breakfast. Then, we headed towards the town to check the status of my ticket and sightseeing. Things started messing up by afternoon, when a politician with enormous public support at Pune hit by a Punjabi guy. Party started reacting as soon as the headlines hit the screen. The roads were blocked and protesters started attacking roadside vendors and bystanders. We managed to escape through an approach road to the travel agency. They were not sure about the day’s journey. Anyway, I confirmed my ticket in a Volvo to Mangalore.
They asked us to stay back inside the travel agency till the protest subsides. There were goonda gangs supporting the party, roaming around with weapons, honking continuously and blocking the highway. The scene resembled a B-grade Bollywood movie. We stayed there for an hour and when, the police took control of the scene, decided to drive back to room.
The protesters managed to do enough damage to the city in an hour or two. There were burnt Tuppori’s and roadside vendor’s carts seen around. A fruit seller was trying to segregate the spilt fruits; a Punjabi guy with his half damaged Taxi cab was bleeding and crying at the service road. I was horrified to be there for the day and prayed for the bus service to run smooth by evening.
TV continued to flash the damaged Pune-Mumbai, Pune-Dharward highways. I lost my hopes to be home that day. But, by 4’o clock, I packed my stuff and asked him to drop me on Pick-up point. He suggested not leaving, but I was thinking of a try. The agency delivered the happy news of the bus arriving by 5pm.
Bus started at 5 pm, all the seats were occupied. There were only a few mallu faces detected and the rest was all Kannada speaking. A decent old guy was my co-passenger. Things went fine with a good dinner and comfortable journey till…..
At around mid night, I was back to my sense from a sound sleep, with a strange and loud noise around. Looking at the front, the driver’s cabin was covered with a white curtain and there was a drama going on behind the curtain. The bus was going through a fly over near Dharward. I suddenly sensed the driver was not in his control and the bus was moving like a drunkard measuring the width of the road.
No one was awake other than me. I got up to reach the drivers cabin and the scene made me stand still for a moment. A middle aged guy, decently dressed, was hitting the drivers face with one hand and holding the helper boy with the other hand. The driver, trying to control the big vehicle with one hand and protecting himself from the guys attack. I lost my nerves and shouted at the guy hitting driver. My shouts made my co-passengers awake and two guys rushed to the scene. His name was Rafeeq, from Kasaragod, he explained us that, he wanted to pee and the driver is asking him to wait for another 30 mins. He was not drunk, but he wanted the driver to stop the vehicle there itself.Somehow, we managed to calm him down and asked the driver about the happenings. The same thing was explained by driver. He was a good guy, he explained us that, this highway is a bit dangerous to halt and there’s a toll booth in another 20 mins and he will be stopping there for 15 mins to have tea and there are toilets. That was a very reasonable point to be claimed. But he continued that, Rafeeq hit him after a minute’s argument and he was bleeding at his lips. We asked Rafeeq to be on his seat and I stayed with driver to console him.
We reached the toll booth in 10 minutes. Rafeeq got down before the driver billed the toll. Driver then took the vehicle to the hotel parking area, which was just 50 meters away. We all got down, started drinking tea. Then, there was Rafeeq running towards the driver and with no hint, he kicked him on his belly. We were stunned to see this. Raffeq was yelling the driver that, he left him un-attended at the toll booth. There were 4 Mallu passengers standing by. They stopped Rafeeq and he attacked them too. That was it. The next moment, I saw Rafeeq lying down, being kicked by around 6 men. Police rushed to the scene and they were about to arrest Rafeeq after hearing the incidents when driver interfered. He requested them not to arrest, and they freed him. Passengers warned him to stay on his seat till the bus reaches Managalore. He was all hit on his face; blood was all over his body. His lips were swollen. There was a wound on his left hand, and he was struggling to walk. Someone gave him a bottle of water in which he washed his face.
I was happy to see him like that, never felt any sympathy to him. He deserves it. He was risking the life of around 40 people in a speeding bus. And it was his instincts that led him to attack the driver. After all, he’s a Mallu… with a lot of Irreversible Instincts….I saw him in the morning on the same train, with swollen lips, one eye was barely visible and he was walking like a duck. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing… I‘m a Mallu too… Ha. Ha…
Spend two days at home before re-joining duty. The first thing to do at office was planned and here you are sitting in front of your computer screen, eagerly going through each word of my new “Traveblog”…. Irreversible Instincts….
End Of Part-I
