Hello Hello !!!! ... Looking at the title ... Do not expect an engrossing story like that of Michael Sullivan, Sr . Okay??? Thanks... okay.. lets start!!! :)
What an excruciating day !!!!
The only reason i booked a ticket for Dhobi Ghat was : "What to do in the room on weekend ... lets go and kill some time." For no reason, I was not at all that much intereseted to see that film.Having said that, somewhere deep inside i wanted to see it :). Finally I booked ticket for Saturday 11 45 am show at PVR Banglore.
Saturday Jan 22 2011 : The D-Day
After TV-ing for quite a long time on friday night I slept in the early hours of saturday .. hmm .. around 2 am. Didnt have a sound sleep and woke up at 6 30 am. Switched on TV and was changing the channels in random.At one channel,TV9-kannada...a deserted bus-stand was shown. I was like "oh God...is that Banglore". But i found peace a few seconds later when i found that was Mysore bus-stand. Then i forgot about that and got ready.I should have glued to that channel or some other news channel for some more time. Really should have.
The weather was awesome.Cool winter breezes were circling me. Feeling the morning freshness in the air. I went to Bus-stop at 9 50 am .Generally, It takes almost 90 minutes to reach PVR from my place.Please do not mock at me for travelling that long for watching a movie.I know you wont. Thankyou :P . Ok... I reached Bus-stop and there was already a big crowd there wating for buses. 5 minutes later a bus came and took some with it .People inside were like biscuits in a packet.Tightly packed.Couldnt dare to get in. No other bus was seen coming.I thought that the 'bandh' in Mysore(about which i saw on TV) was trying to cast its shadow over here. Never came the idea into my mind that it was actually 'bandh' here at Banglore too. Infact,it was state wide bandh.
As i didnt have a proper sleep, my eye lids were intermittently falling down freely closing my eyes.I supported my back against the railing of the busstop and was feeling tired and wanted to go room and hit the sack when the inner kranthi came out and said "..but kranthi,waht if the movie was good..what if you missed some great performances.." Actually, i was also looking forward to experiencing the background score by Gustavo Santaolalla, oscar winning composer. i had been waiting there at bus stop for 30 minutes till then . when I was about to drop the idea of movie, a truck arrived with almost 80 to 90 people standing in the back of it. A person sitting beside the driver was crying "silk board". Thats the place i had to go .As there was room for one more guy i got up into the cabin and I was so elated :) Now,the cabin had: the driver,the other person and me. The truck was so high above the ground unlike the bus. Good engine.Good speed too. Trying to see Bangalore in a different perspective from that height :) .
The drama begins:
The truck picked me at 10 20.To reach on time it must go faster. But kya kare!!!!Kranthi proposes - God disposes. the truck stopped at every person's horizontal hand i.e.signal to stop . And it stopped at every bang on it by whoever wanted to get down from truck.You know the trucks!!! To get down and get on to it was not that easy.Time consuming task. At one stop, one guy stopped the vehicle and when i showed him to go back, he was totally reluctant. He wanted to get into our cabin. I said no room and he was adamant.He opened the door by himself, was hanging in the air holding the handle with one hand like a skilfull Orangutan hanging from a tree-branch . What he was doing there hanging was he was discussing and also demanding me to let him in. But there was no room at all. Uff! finally got rid of him.I knew he hated me :(
The only stop i know about, which comes between my place and the Silkboard, is Marathalli. I know nothing about the other stops. When people stopped the vehicle they would ask me whether it was going to "domalur" or some " xxxxxx" ," yyyyy" or "zzzzz" . The first thing is i donot know whether those places come en route. And the second thing is i dont know even the basics of kannada to tell them that "i dont know" . I just would give them my 'blank face' as reply. And in turn i would get some serious, disappointed and sometimes threatening looks too from them.All their grimaces posed one straight question for me " what kind of cleaner are you ,you dumb fellow??!!! Who gave u this job?? " :(
The driver was lank and had a light beard. Somewhere in the middle he was saying in kannada to my co-passenger "more than 100 people sir... will get 1000 today". He was so ecstatic . I felt good seeing his happiness.
I thought it would be better for me if i had some clarity on why buses were not plying much.But the driver and the guy next to me who was also a passenger,were chatting in kannada.What to do?? Finally, after my observation , i found out that the guy next to me, was speaking only 2 words in kannada " eshtu" " barthi" .He was cleverly managing with just those 2 words. i figured out that he was not a local and he must be either a telugu or a hindi speaking guy. Taking my chances, i asked him in hindi whether there was any bandh that day. He said yes and explained in detail in hindi the reason for bandh.Trust me he gave me a not less than 15 minute lecture. This guy was crazy too, in a way. He was asking the driver to pull over the vehicle and go back and collect the money,though a cleaner was there in back. Enkamma!!! I was already running out of time and this guy was hatching some more plans to aggrandize my plight !! :) . But he had the point !!
I opened a book from my bag which has been in pending for quite a long time. But the book found its way back into the bag within a minute. The reason: As the truck was giving me up&down oscilations with a little wavelength,the book was coming close to me and then it was going far down.Up-down-up-down. I couldnt even had the vigour to put on my ipod which was a very unlikely and a rare case. I was so restless and had a strong desire to sleep . But the truck stopped for every 5 minutes and i was bombarded by those incessant enquiries of the road-blockers i.e, people at bus stops . A cleaner's job is the most demanding job.Lesson learnt :)
The driver stopped the vehicle at marathalli .The driver was absolutely unhappy and totally disappointed when the cleaner who was at back came to driver and gave him just above 100 rupees. A zero less in what driver expected i.e.1000. He was completely dejected.But he didnt say a word to cleaner .i felt sorry for him. After some more time when my stop came , i gave him little more than waht he asked .He tried to give me back but i insisted him to keep it.
It was already 11 45. The movie time. I hurried..caught an auto to reach PVR. He charged me more than than the usual rate citing the bandh . I was already late by 10 minutes . I got down and was made to pay another 5 rupees besides the doubled fare when the autowallah said he had no change to give back :( .Having no time to argue,I crossed the road and rushed towards the entrance. There i found one A4 size white sheet clipped to a card board on a stand with these bold arial fonted words imprinted on it "MALL IS CLOSED".
What have i done? :'( I embarked on a journey which didnt augur an iota of excitement right form the start.But i continued with all those restlessness,sleepiness,tiredness only to end up like this. Emi faceuraa ,kranthi? .Lost all my strength by the time i reached PVR.
I could have got down from the truck the moment when i was made aware about the bandh.But i didnt because my mind(if there is) vouched saying " By the time the movie gets finished..buses will ply normally." But now what??? I didnt have enough options. Immediately , I called an auto and he charged me double (obviously) to take me back to silk board stop. I got down and caught a van to drop me half way . This van driver was smarter than that truck driver. He clearly stated the fare which was double than the usual and he started the vehicle only after he collected all the money.I was woken up by someone when the van reached its destination, Marathhalli. My sleepy eyes were burning and burning. A few minutes later, luckily, got into a bus to my place. Finding no shop to buy food ,i got back to room...and .. and ... i just slept for the next six to seven hours like a dead man :)
hmm... THE END
adios
Kranthi
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