A.S: People who have never been away from B’lore(in a sense that they were missing it) might not relate that well to this post.

Well, my job has taken me to Thamaraserry these days. There is calculation that goes on in my mind all the time whenever I am shifted to a new location: How do I get to B’lore from here and in how many hours?

Now this is where Thamaraserry is a bit tricky. By road, it is just 313 kms away from Bangalore. To catch the flight you have to anyway travel 75 kms on road (40+35) and there is just one flight from Calicut and that too in afternoon. The train route, however comfortable that might be, will make you feel like being cheated for your time. Just have a look:

Fig: the red line shows the train route (includes the 35 kms road journey from Thamaraserry to Calicut), while the blue line is the road journey.

I decided to give the road journey a try, though it included a ghat section and an unpredictable service and also the risk that it might eventually take lot more time as well. But I perhaps had no choice either, I was not sure when I’ll be free on Saturday, so a flight was out of picture, and given that I only had a Sunday as the leave, I could have ill afforded the train and reach B’lore the next morning.

So I finished a meeting with salesmen, then accompanied one of them for sometime in the market and then asked him to help me in boarding a bus to Mysore. After a 15 minutes wait I got a bus going in the same direction..up to Kalpetta, some 35 kms away from Thamaraserry. I just boarded that bus and wow! What a feeling when you are finally moving towards home.

The bus took about an hour to reach Kalpetta and once reaching there I was in a state of cluelessness that could have put even Ravinder Jadeja to shame J

I mean that I was there at this station, having just 4-5 other buses. I tried to ask at least 3-4 persons about the bus to Mysore and none of them served any purpose but to impress me with their fluency and command over Malayalam and adding to my misery. After half an hour of wait and several such attempts, I got to know that I should go to the other bus stand for the Mysore bound buses.

Then I waited at this other stop for another half an hour, many buses came and went.. some going to Mananthwady.. some to Sultan Battery..which in fact was on the route. But I avoided these local buses and kept on waiting for a KSRTC bus. And then, there it was, I could read a bit(Ma..Sa..Ru)..confirmed the same and yeah, It was a Mysore bound Super Express..WoHoo! and I know that I am gonna be at home before the dinner time

The bus was true to its name.. a rattling Super Express being driven to the max speed it could afford. In an hour we were at Sultan Battery and had a half an hour break there.

Pics: Inside the SE bus and monkeys tormenting passengers in another KSRTC bus(on right)

Soon we entered the Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary. I keenly looked outside to spot some wildlife but gave up after an uneventful 15-20 mins. After a nap, I woke up to find ourselves in plains. The time was 4:30. Soon we hit Nanjangud and I spotted the Mysore-Nanjangud KSRTC VOLVO shuttles, that sight made me feel closer to home.

I reached Mysore at 5:30. Ran across to catch a Volvo and did a mental High Five once I was in there.

At the end what came as a nice surprise was that Raja-Rajeshwari Nagar came as soon as we entered B’lore. I was at home by 8:30. Seeing my Mom, wifey n kiddu, there was no doubt that all the efforts were worth it : )

The post Thamaraserry to Bangalore: Account of an impromptu journey appeared first on Bhanu Sisodia.