Aapne bhi meri saari umeed tod di vaise.

14th June, 6.50 pm

I was trying to cross the highway as quickly as I could. There was no zebra crossing at that point and I was waiting for the moment where I would notice a small break in the traffic and would run towards the other end.

40 minutes back, I was congratulating myself that for the first time in my life, I had arrived at the bus station half an hour before the departure time. The place is called Majnu ka tila and is a major starting point for most of the long route buses starting from Delhi. There was a small ground at the back, followed by a narrow street where a large number of buses were lined up. There was a small park on one side of the road which seemed to serve as the natural waiting lounge for the passengers. As expected, the place was noisy with a mixture of sounds coming from all the sides. Bus conductors and bus horns, both shouting for the missing passengers, hawkers crying out all around, sounds of children playing cricket in the park, excited travellers whooping and running towards their buses, waiting passengers yelling on somebody on their cell phones and at last, occasional cheers from the elderly people playing rummy in the the park.

After scanning the place, I knew I had to find a place in the park if I wanted to wait for the bus in some peace. I was excited for my journey but not as much as I am usually before setting out on a trip. The excitement was there but being alone, it was contained within. After informing my parents of the arrival, I found a small elevated point in the park which was perfect if I wanted to join the audience of the cricket match going on. Watching a live cricket match always turns out to be a good time pass at these times. The players were children not more than 15 years old, and the wicket was made from bricks, 9 bricks in fact, the standard that I used to follow when I played at that age.

I was beginning to settle down and enjoy the cricket match when I received a call from a goibibo customer, telling me that the hotel reservation that I had made from tomorrow morning in Dharamshala had to be cancelled due to some reasons and they are searching for an alternate hotel. I was quite surprised to learn that as I had already paid for the booking and at that time the rooms were available. Clearly, it was a mistake on their part. I tried not spoiling my mood over that and asked the executive to send me the list of alternate hotels as soon as possible. After the call, I tried concentrating on the match again, but it was not easy now.

Anyways, it was 6.25 and the bus was scheduled to arrive after 5 minutes. So got up and went on the street. At first, I was waiting at the starting point of the street. But when the bus didn't arrive there after next ten minutes, I decided to go and search on the street. May be it’s standing at some other location, I thought. After searching for the next five minutes in futile, I decided to call the bus conductor. First two times, his cell phone was busy but it was connected next time. When I asked him about the bus, the reply I got was “bus to kab se idhar hi khadi hai bhaiya, aap kaha ho?”. When I informed him where I was waiting, then he told me that the departure point of their bus was a different one which was 3-4 minutes walk from here. He tried to explain me the directions and after his third attempt, I understood it.

Walking towards the new departure point, trying to cross the traffic, I received a call from the goibibo saying that it would take them another hour to find an alternate hotel as they were manually doing the process. I didn't pay much attention to this at that time as my only concern at that time was to reach the bus as soon as possible. After crossing the road, I saw a green color bus at a distance and felt relaxed as I had asked the conductor the color of the bus at that time.

10 minutes later, when I was at my seat, the seat next to me was still empty and as always, I was hoping to get a bit lucky this time. But, shattering all my hopes, a middle aged gentleman came and adjusted his bag above the seat. Then after looking at me, he chuckled a bit and said “mai soch raha tha k kaash meri kismat achhi ho aaj”. I suddenly felt the urge to reply to that, saying “aapne bhi meri saari umeed tod di vaise” and we both burst out laughing.