PART FICTION: TIMELESS TRAVELS
The punjab roadways bus at 3Pm starts from Chandigarh on its way to Patiala everyday and is almost 3/4th full with the crowd of students coming back from the colleges in Chandigarh. The rich who could afford accomodation in Chandigarh or those who own a car to take them back to patiala were more fortunate as they availed more comforts while daily passengers like me only travelled by this bus.
The bus in itself signified a whole culture with different types of people and different hues of students filling in seats and discussing their daily happenings and adventures in life.The journey usually took 2hours and 30 minutes but sometimes on a bad day even 3hours were not uncommon: plus the conductor always has the inclination to get in more and more passengers as it increased the revenues from bus.
I used to travel on this bus daily from Chandigarh to hometown patiala everyday after finishing my college classes.The use to cost Rs 11 so when the conductor use to come i use to give him Rs11 and he use to issue me ticket to patiala without asking me the destination. This daily ritual saved energy for both of us. In this bus some students used to get down at other stops in between like rajpura etc and also this bus after reaching patiala proceded further towards Nabha and Sangrur.The journey used to be monotonous but i use to spend my time in bus by hearing some discussion or by looking at beautiful natural scenery outside and some other attractive objects.
The attractive objects included some beautiful posters in the bus or some graffiti written here and there by unknown creatives in the bus.But i realised for past few days out of my almost 3years of travelling, my object of desire turned out to be a damsel who always use to sit on seat no12 of the bus. I noticed her for some days that she always used to go beyond my destination point in patiala. I met her at bus stops few times and we both exchanged smiles but i never had the gutts to ask her how she felt about me.
One day after lot of contemplation, i decided that i will find out at which stop she deboarded the bus, but i used to get down at patiala in Rs11 so today i decided that i will pay conductor the amount which she pays. As she boarded the bus we exchanged smiles,after she settled she gave conductor 15 Rs . I also gave conductor Rs 15 which the conductor never anticipated but he from his years of experience knew that it was a case of love at first sight. So he issued me the ticket and i never bothered to check it. As bus reached Patiala almost all people deboarded except few old people and some small brick brack sellers. Some of them got down at next stop in Nabha. Sangrur happened to be the last stop of the bus and when bus reached there all the passengers alighted from the bus including her. I also got down .I saw her going to another bus counter and i also followed her.Gathering all my courage i called her and asked where she lived, to which she replied Patiala.I was surprised that why then she took ticket for sangrur but before i could ask her, she asked me where i stayed. I also replied Patiala. Then she asked me have i come to meet someone in sangrur,i replied in affirmitive and shyingly disclosed her that i was following her.I thought she will get annoyed but when she told me of her reason of coming to sangrur i was startled, she disclosed that she also liked me as for her also it was love at first sight but she never new where i lived so she thought that today she will travel till the point i travel so as to find out my whereabouts. What a coincidence i thought and we both lovingly embraced each other and boarded another bus.This time when conductor came i took out some money and gave it to conductor;he asked where i want to go and how many tickets i need.I replied two tickets to any where..........
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The punjab roadways bus at 3Pm starts from Chandigarh on its way to Patiala everyday and is almost 3/4th full with the crowd of students coming back from the colleges in Chandigarh. The rich who could afford accomodation in Chandigarh or those who own a car to take them back to patiala were more fortunate as they availed more comforts while daily passengers like me only travelled by this bus.
The bus in itself signified a whole culture with different types of people and different hues of students filling in seats and discussing their daily happenings and adventures in life.The journey usually took 2hours and 30 minutes but sometimes on a bad day even 3hours were not uncommon: plus the conductor always has the inclination to get in more and more passengers as it increased the revenues from bus.
I used to travel on this bus daily from Chandigarh to hometown patiala everyday after finishing my college classes.The use to cost Rs 11 so when the conductor use to come i use to give him Rs11 and he use to issue me ticket to patiala without asking me the destination. This daily ritual saved energy for both of us. In this bus some students used to get down at other stops in between like rajpura etc and also this bus after reaching patiala proceded further towards Nabha and Sangrur.The journey used to be monotonous but i use to spend my time in bus by hearing some discussion or by looking at beautiful natural scenery outside and some other attractive objects.
The attractive objects included some beautiful posters in the bus or some graffiti written here and there by unknown creatives in the bus.But i realised for past few days out of my almost 3years of travelling, my object of desire turned out to be a damsel who always use to sit on seat no12 of the bus. I noticed her for some days that she always used to go beyond my destination point in patiala. I met her at bus stops few times and we both exchanged smiles but i never had the gutts to ask her how she felt about me.
One day after lot of contemplation, i decided that i will find out at which stop she deboarded the bus, but i used to get down at patiala in Rs11 so today i decided that i will pay conductor the amount which she pays. As she boarded the bus we exchanged smiles,after she settled she gave conductor 15 Rs . I also gave conductor Rs 15 which the conductor never anticipated but he from his years of experience knew that it was a case of love at first sight. So he issued me the ticket and i never bothered to check it. As bus reached Patiala almost all people deboarded except few old people and some small brick brack sellers. Some of them got down at next stop in Nabha. Sangrur happened to be the last stop of the bus and when bus reached there all the passengers alighted from the bus including her. I also got down .I saw her going to another bus counter and i also followed her.Gathering all my courage i called her and asked where she lived, to which she replied Patiala.I was surprised that why then she took ticket for sangrur but before i could ask her, she asked me where i stayed. I also replied Patiala. Then she asked me have i come to meet someone in sangrur,i replied in affirmitive and shyingly disclosed her that i was following her.I thought she will get annoyed but when she told me of her reason of coming to sangrur i was startled, she disclosed that she also liked me as for her also it was love at first sight but she never new where i lived so she thought that today she will travel till the point i travel so as to find out my whereabouts. What a coincidence i thought and we both lovingly embraced each other and boarded another bus.This time when conductor came i took out some money and gave it to conductor;he asked where i want to go and how many tickets i need.I replied two tickets to any where..........
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