the TRIP to MUSSOURIE, Part DoOsRa

The story so far...
Four guys ( Arjun, Saurabh, Bhuwan and I) have finally decided to leave for Mussourie-Rishikesh on 29^th may.

This part of the trip is called the INITIATION

We decided to take the night bus from Chandigarh to Haridwar so that most of the journey is covered in the cool of the night. We planned to meet at 11 o' clock at the bus-stand only.

Time - 2300 hrs
Place – Bus stand

I had asked Mannat to drop me at the bus-stand that night. We reached there on time but as expected none of the touring party had come. So Mannat and I walked here and there and tried to pass time by some bird watching at night. Fortunately enough, there were many at the bus stand even at this hour. Finally when the guys arrived after about 20 minutes the first words of explanation, before my uttering out a single abuse, came out like this...

Arjun: Chuza bahut bada koosa hai.

Chuza: Arjun bahut bada koosa hai

A2C: Hum teri wajha se late hue.

C2A: Nahi, hum teri wajha se late hue.

Bhuwan: ha ha ha ha

Me: What the fuck?

So the next 10 minutes were spent in discussing the reasons of the delay. Arjun said that Chuza was having an international conference with some of his “professional” contacts but somehow they had started playing the game of who will sign off first. Pahle aap... nahi pahle aap. Also due to Chuza, arjun had forgotten his Mp3-player lying on the bed. Chuza vociferously denied these allegations. Amidst all this hullabaloo an Old aunty ji who was sleeping on the other side of the bench woke up. We all were given a pretty sound tongue lashing. This also reminded us of the real reason why we were there. We bought the Tickets and got into the bus.

But hey! this is not any bit different from normal, usual stuff and when we are concerned things are not supposed to be like this. So as the alchemist says, “the universe conspires etc etc...”, the trip started with... read on...

There was still sometime for the bus to start. Chuza, Arjun and i were inside while Bhuwan was outside talking on his cell phone. I asked arjun to get some toffee-chewing gum-polo. He tried to pass on the task to Bhuwan but he seemed pretty much in love with his phone. Arjun had to go. So now Arjun and Bhuwan were not on the bus. Chuza was still trying to explain to me that how it was not his fault which caused the delay. Suddenly! The driver came in from nowhere. Turned on the engine and revved it up for a little while. Arjun and Bhuwan were still not on the bus. The Bus started to move. Arjun and Bhuwan were still not on the bus. Damn it !!!

“Stop the bus, Stop the bus”

“Run Run Run”

I got off the bus and ran to the shop where Arjun still had not paid the shop wala. The transaction was being conducted in slow motion and to top it all, the shop-wala didnt have 500 ka Chhutta.

“Bhai, bus chal padi”

“bhaiya do center fresh aur de do”

“Bhai, chheti kar. Bus chal padi”

“bhaiya, ye lo paise... WHAT”

“Jaldi bhaag”

We quickly took our stuff and found Bhuwan (the phone had stuck to his ear) and ran towards the bus where saurabh was standing in the door... Dilwale Dulhaniyan Le Jayenge style.

Finally we are on way.

The bus stopped at a dhaba where we had chai, chana-daal and lays. There was an old hindi flick playing on the TV. A hot steamy scene was on. The driver waited for it to end.

So finally en route to Haridwar, in a rickety bus, we tried to sleep-talk-lookoutsideintodarkness before we finally entered the dream lords realm.

AGLE ANK MEIN PADHIYE: Haridwar mein subha ka drishya, breakfast, how we slept on pavements.