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I
wish to recount my personal experience during my
visit to Bhagalpur last November.
Bhagalpur is the place I was born 35 years ago
and incidentally it's my wife's native place
too.
It all happened when I had to see one of my
uncles in Dumka and the driver of the house
informed me that the car had broken down. He
said "u kya hai ki iska ingen baith gaya hai,
obher wayling karana hoga."
I could estimate that I was hearing of a long
term project and then I declared that I will go
by myself.
I tool a cycle rickshaw and started for my
journey of 115 Kilometers, The guy told me that
all buses leave from the other side of "Ulta
Puul". When I reached Ulta Puul, I found
everthing was topsy-turvy. The bridge was
getting a face lift and by seeing it I could not
gauge as to where it started or where it ended.
I inhaled a deep breath and tried to cross the
Ulta Puul. Half way through, I had to use my
acrobatic skills to jump over a small trench and
after having performed I heard a voice saying, "wah
kya jump lagaye hain lagta hai pahla baar Ulta
Puul taap rahe hain".
When I was about to reach the end, suddenly a
guy on a bicycle appeared from nowhere and
dashed his bicycle on my right hand which was
holding a brand new sports bag and lo! the bag
immediately left my hand and rested itself in a
heap of garbage and I had my trousers slashed by
an iron rod which was protruding out of one of
the pillars.
I recollected my wit and heaved a sigh after the
great achievement.
I asked for the bus to Dumka, "Yahan koi bus
nahi hai, aapko aaagey 3-4 kilometer jana hoga.
Baag Baadi main bus milega Dumka kaa".
I asked for a three-wheeler. Seeing my size, he
said "ek sawari ka 3 Rupiya, aap ko do seat
milega 6 rupiya dena hoga." I asked "kitna time
lagega?" He said "bus jab bhar jayega to
chanlenge". I rested for about 45 minutes and
nobody came.
Then a rickshaw came over to me. "20 Rupiya
dijiyega?? tempo se paahle pahuncha dengey." I
said yes and he gave a flying start to his
vehicle. I was amazed at the speed and the way
he maneuvered his rickshaw in small streets and
after real 15 minutes he dropped me near the
bus.
I asked the conductor, "bus kitna baaje jayegi?"
He replied "bus 9:30 par yahan sey chchuth
jayegi." It was 9 so I thought in the next 30
minutes I will be on my way.
As soon as I entered the bus I was greeted by
the book seller for purchasing some story books
and when I tried to find my seat I had to sneak
in and out 2 times and ultimately settled down
on a fully bare seat with no inch of upholstery
just iron every where.
When I saw the clock in the bus, my heart sank
because in it the time was 8:15 and not 9 and
when I asked the driver he said, "ee time hi
theek hai aapka ghadi fast hai. Jabb isme 9:30
hoga tabhi bus jayegi."
I cursed myself and left the bus swearing not to
go by it but I returned defeated and with
compromise because after that there was no
vehicle for that day.
The bus started at 10:15 (9:30 by the clock
inside) and it crawled for about 30 minutes to
get in as many people as possible.
The driver was in no mood to speed up the bus;
it seemed that this journey would last forever
but after some time it picked up some speed.
I just dozed off but suddenly woke up to find
that it was already 2 hours since the bus had
left and I was happy that we would have covered
quite a distance. But another setback was
announced that we will have to change the bus
and move into another one which was parked next
to it, and I read the milestone 'Dumka 70 Kms'.
That meant we traveled just 35 Kms in 2 hours.
"Do ghanta mein itna door le aaaya? lagta hai
bahut tej chala ke layen hain", said the driver
of the other bus to our driver.
After we sat in the other bus, it left with a
breeze and I was relaxed that the worse was over
and in a few hours we will reach the
destination.
But the God had other ideas! After about an hour
or so we heard a loud noise and the bus came to
a screeching halt. The conductor announced that
"tyre puncture ho gaya hai, badalna hoga" and
surprisingly the puncture happened just opposite
a repair shop and a dhaba.
I just relaxed and sat inside the thatched
dwelling. 2 hours passed; the guy was wrestling
with all his tools to fix the tyre and the owner
of the hotel said, "bhyaiya, daal bhat aaloo ka
bhujiya khayiga? Bechara ee ladka hai naa, bada
mehnat se banaya hai."
I was hungry also as the lunch time had
approached so I ordered a plate and when I
tasted the first morsel it was delightfully
tasteful and a real treat to have such food
which is not available in any other part of the
world except at line hotels in Bihar.
I had 2 meals instead of 1 then the bus was
ready to move and at about 4 pm it reached Dumka
without any more events.
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Comments: |
Congratulations, at least you
reached there safely and even had
sumptuous food in between. -
Anjum Parwej - Mar. 4, 2006
That's not really surprising. In
almost all journeys, I faced the
same problem. Using public transport
in Bihar was just painful and
complete waste of time. I had to
travel between Hilsa and Patna, just
less than 70 kms and spend many
hours of painful journey in train
and three wheelers. I used to start
at 9.30-10:00 AM and reach my
destination in Patna by about
2:00PM, surprisingly about 4 hours
later! During journey by tempo, I
always had feeling that I am sitting
on shaker and trying to keep myself
safe. Again, few trains were never
on time. Announcement at train
station was really loud and
annoying. Overall, You have to have
your own transportation if you
wanted to save time and do your work
on time. I am not very hopeful that
this is going to change in near
future. - Manoj Kumar - Mar. 4, 2006
Sanjay Gupta ji, very good article.
Bihar may be a dead place for
investment and industry but is
really a happening place as far
traveling is concerned.
I was in Patna 2 years back. I was
going from Bailey Rd to University
area in an auto-rickshaw. Suddenly
my rickshaw banged another rickshaw
real hard breaking his lights etc.
When I asked, he coolly said, "Break
Fail Ho Gaya". As I started to get
down, he said "Baithe rahiye, ek
baar fail hua, gari nahin ruka to
kya kabhi nahi rukega?"
Another rickshaw wala started
abusing him and started telling me "Jaan
ko dekhiye 10 rupiya mat dekhiye,
uska break fail hai fir kahin pe
marega"
Finally somehow I reached 4 km in
1-1.5 hrs. - Kaushal Das - Mar.
4, 2006
I really enjoyed the journey. In my
write up, I never at all felt that I
am complaining. Whenever I am in
Bihar I really enjoy traveling and
having food at the road side
eateries and hotel. I wolf on litti
and kachori sabji and the yogurt
nowhere I could find the same taste.
It is heavenly and I always wished
my journey to last a little longer
because of innovative experiences I
got in this motherland of ours.
It is a departure from the
monotonous travel by first class and
air I always had and would look
forward to many such experiences; no
regrets and no complaints. -
Sanjay Gupta - Mar.
5, 2006
It is a very well written article
which evoked a lot of emotions and
made me very nostalgic. I loved the
way you described situations like "lagta
hai pahla baar Ulta Puul taap rahe
hain". I could visualise the scene
and could almost hear the tone in
which it must have been said. And of
course, I ate dal bhat bhunjiya for
dinner after reading about it.
One and half years ago, I had
visited Patna with my little boy who
was just one year old at that time.
Even he enjoyed the train journeys
much more than the air journey from
USA to India as everyone in the
train played with him as if he were
a family member to them. Where in
the world can we find such "apnapan"
even for strangers!! - Rakesh
Kumar - Mar. 7, 2006 |
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