The trip...contd

Hence i reached Sounak's place.A 2 BHK flat, a laptop and a couple of unpacked suitcases. He had just shifted to the flat the last night. I washed myself clean and we set out for greames Road Apollo, Saunak's office was on the way. On the road, we found a place to eat our breakfast. We were unsure, yet we saw some guys having poori with some masala dosa sabjee. No questions, we ordered for that. The man who was serving understood that these might be some bloody IT folks, though we were not..completely...Anyways, not much of an excitement there, we set out for the bus which would take us to Apollo. Saunak was new to Chennai and did not know the bus details. We found a guy on a scooty, stoped him by and started asking in english. After sometime, he replied back..."Hindi hai kya"? As if he classified me to be an Indian. We were shocked to hear that yet, he replied back in some broken accent that Bus No. 42 would take us to Apollo. We went to the other side of the road and started waiting for the bus to come. During a 5 minute standing time period, i saw about 10 buses passing us by, none of them were 42. I ghushed into Saunak, "Do you really want to go in these"? He said, well if you are in chennai, you have to be a Batman or a Superman to travel on those buses. People were literally hanging out of the doorstep. This was worse than the number of people i saw for the first time on Bonga Local. We changed our minds. Took an auto. It had a meter, which was fully functional. Saunak with his overtly oozing intelligence asked the Auto guy, about how much he would be taking. The guy replied back saying, 80 Bucks. I was like, why did he have to ask him. Anyways, i was constantly monitoring the Meter. It read 3 Kms and i reached Apollo. I knew from the moment i got on to the Auto that, this won't be a very good day for my wallet.

So i came to Apollo Chennai, the place renowned for India's best treatment. My brother asked me to wait near the main entrance. To my shock i found that everything there was first written in English, and then??? BENGALI. It did not take me long to percieve two things. First one that Bengal doesn't have good facilites and second that Bengalies might be one ethnicity that suffers the most due to deases. I met the patient and everything looked normal there. So i was happy. We went for lunch, me and my brother. To my surprise again, i find that he has taken me to a bengali Hotel. The guy was charging prices for ordinary meals as if he was the worst victim of the Inflation and the economic slowdown. I was more eager to end the day, as it was getting under my skin. I took the 11:15, bangalore city express and came back to the place i love being, Bangalore.

The next day, people at office asked me about my experience about chennai. Now how do i tell them...Its all described better with the words above!

The trip!

The last post was full of gramatical errors and i truely regret for the fact that i am not so bad with english. Talking about english, this is one of the reasons for this post. I had come from Bengal on 14th evening flight. I got a call from my cousin brother that i have to visit Apollo Chennai to see my cousin sister's husband who was admitted there. I was almost slogging till 11 in the office that week and now i get a call from him. I have to be there at Chennai on Saturday morning. A pain in the a** but i had go. I thought chennai is just 6 hours so i can manage. I asked one of my colleagues to get the ticket details. He asked me to book it online. So i did. Going by bus coming by train. 

Finally friday nite and i am standing at Madivala. With a galaxy full of travel agents. I was wondering how i would recognise by bus. There was no bus number on the ticket. I had butterflies in my stomach already, thinking if i got fooled in some way. Ahh! There came a bus, with the same travel agency name. I go rush to its doorstep. The guy speaks in half Tamil and i somehow ask him if i can get on. He said sure you can...are you heading for chennai...the answer was madurai. I was as you would be, a dissapointed guy. Came back to the foot point and started staring at the other buses. I was pinching myslef all the time for not been to able to say a "No" to my brother. With only Maggi in my belly and a brain full of anxiety, the moment was killing me. I had been to Chennai before but did not return with much memories to cherish.Ahh!!! There you are...A chennai bus...probably the one i am looking for. Indeed it was. I went inside. A/C semi sleeper coach as it read on the ticket. Never had an experience of such a bus before. There were people sitting(sleeping) with blankets spread on thier body. I found my seat. Very unsure about how the push back worked, i asked the neighbouring guy to work it out for me. He did help in a very generous way and i asked him his little biodata. He was a pondichery based guy, working foe some company here in bangalore and was very generous again to share his word about the work he does with laser technology. I was happy to find a company for the journey though my eyes were drooling at about 11:30 in the nite. I asked the guy that i would want to take a nap and that he would have to wake me up in the morning. I was unsure about where to get down. Suddenly i get a call from Saunak, he asked me to go directly to his house after getting off the bus and that he would eventually take me Greames road, Apollo. I was more than happy to get that call. At about 12:30 i find that the whole of my body is succumbed with red bumps. Man there are bed bugs, i shouted. The guy sitting beside me was so generous that he almost offered me his blanket, obviously i did not take it.

It was early morning 6:00 am. I reached the bus terminus, i am not able to recall the name, but it was nearer to Saidapet. I get down from the bus and find that there are a streak of Auto Rickshaws, of course in a search for their pray. I had already heard horrified stories about Chennai Auto.I tried to behave as intelligent as i could by bypassing most of them. One of them asked me 100 bucks, i told him 30 and he was SHOCKED! I could very well make out that it would not be more than that anyways. I found one of the autos which agreed for 50 bucks. I discovered that the Sounak's residence was only 3 kilometers from that bus stop. I was helpless and i took the ride.

to be continued....