As I left Shanti Bhavan for Bangalore this morning, I couldn't know what a nightmare it would be to get back. This blog entry tells the story of my 5-hour odyssey between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is also meant to thank people like Gokand and Habib - without them I wouldn't sit in the school building right now and write this post!
This morning I took of for Bangalore, planning to spent a few hours there, having lunch and and do some shopping. Over the last week I had put together quite a list of things I needed to get, including a warm hoodie (I only brought one warm hoodie and one jacket to India and right now the mornings at Shanti Bhavan are unpleasantly cold - this week I spent every morning PT I had shivering.), a jar of peanut butter (some extra protein, tastes amazing on Chapatis!), some candles (to deal with upcoming power cuts) and some other small things.
Lizzy and Saching also went to Bangalore, so we took the trip in the morning together. I could have already taken it as a warning that our bus had a delay of over an hour. ;)
We arrived in Bangalore pretty late and as I was starving I went straight to Domino's Pizza. Lizzy and Sachin had some other plans so we didn't stick together. I accepted quite a challenge as I ordered one Pasta and a Pizza Margherita with double cheese. After I finished eating and managed to get up I looked at a few shops around Brigade road, hoping to find a jacket or a hoodie. However, the stuff was pretty low quality and not exactly cheap so I gave up and went to "The Forum" a huge mall with the busses to Hosur running basically on the opposite side of the road. I had a nice coffee there and decided to do my shopping at the "Bazaar", a huge department store next to the bus station that would probably have everything I was looking for. I got everything, except for......matches! Good thing they sold candles, but neither lighters nor matches. By then it was already around 3.30 pm and I was planning to get a bus at 4 pm so I headed to the checkout only to find a massive queue that stood behind the only open checkout counter. It seemed as if the cashiers spent 10 minutes on nearly every customer. As I came closer I saw the reason - that very day a special offer promised incredible amounts of gifts, coupons and points for every customer registering for a payback card. The registration process involved filling out various forms and the cashiers had a very, well, relaxed way to carry out their duty, hence the 10 minutes. Having about 8 people in front of me I spent over an hour waiting -.-
Leaving the shop, it seemed as if I was lucky: A bus was just standing there, with the conductor screaming "Hosur" - exactly where I had to go. It was nearly 5 pm as I got on the bus and I was just happy to be on my way home. Everything started of right, except for the moment when the bus driver found himself on the oncoming lane and not noticing it until the conductor started screaming. The right lane was seperated by a small concrete wall which ended further up the road from where another bus came right at us. Suddenly it was just chaos: the bus driver accelerated like crazy, hoping to change lanes just in time for not being hit by the other bus, the conductor kept shouting, the bus was equipped with TVs on which an Indian movie was running, the volume turned up as high as possible and on the inside as well as on the outside decoration lamps were blinking in all colors. In brief: we changed lanes in time. Doesn't it feel amazing to be alive?
After that experience I decided to try not paying attention the driving any more and took out my book to distract myself a little bit. I knew the highway and if we stayed on it we would arrive in Hosur in about an hour. The only problem was: it started getting dark. By the time I looked out of the window again it was pitch black. (At that point I have to mention: In India, you're not told the name of the bus stop you are currently at, you just know when to get out.)
I decided to ask about the time left till we would arrive in Hosur, just in case. The conductor gave me a weird look and started repeating the name of the town we were actually going to which suddenly sounded a pretty similar to Hosur. However, after five minutes of gesturing and with the help of other passengers I knew I was headed in the wrong direction and my best bet would be to just get out at some bus stop along the dark highway, hoping to catch a bus to Hosur from there. My pulse rose to unknown heights.
There I stood in the dark, the sign on the busstop saying Bommasandra (the rest was in Tamil) and with no idea how to get to Hosur. By then it was already 6pm. After asking around I finally found an english-speaking Indian (Gokand!) who could tell me which bus to catch. It wasn't that easy though as I would have to change busses at some point. As he was my last hope I joined him on the bus that came half an hour later, waited till he was screaming "Get out" (because the bus obviously didn't stop as planned) and managed to point at the bus I would have to catch. Too bad nobody was there to film me jumping off a moving bus, running after another bus on the highway, dodging cars and finally jumping into the open rear door. Anyway, I had reached to point where my pulse couldn't rise any more long ago.
I was surprised at how the bus arrived in Hosur as planned and I found the bus to Bagalur (the next village I had to got to on my way to Shanti Bhavan) without any trouble. I arrived in Bagalur at around 9 pm and spent some time wandering about in search of a rickshaw driver to take me to Shanti Bhavan. I finally found Habib, who started going on about how it was night and how dangerous the roads would be but finally agreed to take me to the school for a higher price than usual.
We were speeding through the dark, being the only vehicle on the road, when suddenly something happened that would have caused me a heart attack had I been only a little older.
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by the bloodcurdling scream of a woman.
I clasped my chest with both hands, dying a little bit inside.
Then I realized: my driver had a Hindi song as a ringtone with started with the female singer screaming. While I was shaking on the rear seat he calmly answered his phone. For the rest of the drive I tried hard not to look into the dark forest on both sides of the road.
When we finally arrived at the campus gate at 9.30 pm it took me a while to realize that I actually made it. I'm already sure about one thing: Next weekend I will just stay at the school and actually enjoy it!
Domino's Pizza :3
The blinking bus that almost killed and abducted me ;)
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