high times
Last Thursday i departed Pune for Bangalore by bus. A sleeper-coach, it was supposed to complete its 850something km journey in around 17 hours, but instead, took nearly 23. Indian buses have improved much since i first took one with a huge hole in the re-rubberized tread in 1998, and this one even had nice sleeper compartments where people could lay down. I did not pay the extra 200Rs for that, choosing to sit for 600Rs instead. A man kept me pleasant company for a few hours, then someone else came to sit next to me, then someone else, and yes, it was a bit of a merry-go-round. No, it wasn’t that people were getting on and off, just that sometimes people sat here, then sometimes there, and sometimes everywhere. I’m pretty used to that on the train, but this was the first time to experience that on a long-journey bus.
The countryside was quite interesting, with pockets of extreme filth, but the countryside is generally green without the pungent smells associated with the cities. There were many rock-granite hills and mountains, and two long climbs up the mountain providing beautiful vistas and twisting mountain roads. Fortunately both lanes were for hill-climbers, so we didn’t have to meet any on-coming traffic. I can imagine many fiery accidents in the past tho, as Indian drivers are not necessarily known for their polite manners.
The bus stops around 3:30pm for lunch, then around 10:15pm for supper. Fortunately i’m prepared, and have a chapati (and nothing else) lunch while waiting in the travel office, and then nothing for supper as the ups and downs of life have made my stomach a little jolty.
The green jacket with hood is quite handy for keeping any potential blood-suckers off me (i think from past experience while drawing my hands up in my sleeves), and don’t pay too much attention when i feel a couple of bites on my hands in the early nite hours. I get a bit concerned then when the other hand gets some bites too, and start looking carefully for the nasty, winged, long-probiscosed blood suckers, but don’t see even one. Hmmm, that’s odd i think as i draw my hands up, and wrap the jacket tighter around me. Wish now that i’d been thinking along different lines. Realizing that things were getting worse instead of better, i made a thorough examination of my white seat cover and skin, but finding nothing, resigned myself to a nite of itching and scratching. What i didn’t know, was that the whole Red Cross brigade had come out, and was intent on taking all of my blood! I never did find what caused the 150+ bites that nite, but seeing the pattern of how they clustered around where my clothes became tight, i imagine it was either bedbugs or some kind of mite, like what we called when i was little – “chiggers”. Scratch scratch scratch,,,, scratch, scratch, scratch.,,scratch scratch all the way…………..
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