DIN'T EXPECT THIS TO HAPPEN!!

I was very excited of the tour to Madurai to present my paper at the most prestigious "Thyagarajar Engineering College", the Stanford of the south or the Anna University for the South Indians, on the 15th of February. We booked a ticket for a bus run by the Tamil Nadu Government that was scheduled to arrive at 8 pm at Tambaram. We reached the bus stand at 7 pm and waited for the bus to arrive.


Then came the confusion... The bus dint arrive till 8:30 wherein the buses scheduled to arrive at 8 pm have arrived. We waited and waited and at last got frustrated and approached the time keeper of the transport corporation. He was such a responsible person that he gave a very brilliant answer saying plainly, "The bus will arrive since it has not crossed the bus stand!!!!". Whats the use of technology that has developed heavily but does not help in communicating this very vital information of when the bus will arrive?


Time rolled on. It was 11 pm. The still dint arrive. At last we decided not to wait anymore and decided to take a bus to Trichy and get another one to Madurai. But we werent sure of getting there early. Still we kept our hopes alive. We got one private bus to Trichy and the tragedy

started all over. The bus driver was very reluctant to start the bus since the bus wasnt full. Finally, he started his Mercedes at half past eleven and we breathed an air of relief. This dint end..After driving for some 15 minutes, he rolled into one petrol bunk and stayed there for another half an hour for fuel. I was feeling that we have done a terrible mistake by getting into this bus. With no other go, we slept silently hoping to reach Trichy somehow by 7 the next morning.

It was 6:30 in the morning the next day and Trichy was beaming with sun shining brilliantly over the eastern sky. I was sensing a smell of victory of reaching the place atleast by 7. Ofcourse, there was that toughest assignment of reaching Madurai by 9! It sounded impossible at first but the confidence and desire to reach the college stayed us alive.

When we stepped out of the Trichy bus a middle aged man came running to get us into a bus for Madurai. The bus was cosy and looked the best one to travel to Madurai. We went in demanding the driver to start the bus as early as possible. Promising us he seated us in one of those seats and there was one Vikram's hit films running over the television at the top. Inspite of these frustrations we enjoyed the movie!!!

The road fro Trichy to Madurai was a lush green country side with barely people goingb walk. Then came the most harrowing part, the bus driver was very reluctant to drive the bus over 30 km/her!!! Even the slowest of the tortoises could overtake our bus. It was 130 km long journey which we hoped to end in some two and an half hour, but that seemed too optimistic for us. He drove the bus and parked it in fron of the so called hotels halfway between trichy and madurai that had nothing to eat except for some old packet chips. There were some tender coconuts to drink. That gave us some energy, cos it was last night since we ate a crumb of bread.

Then the bus rolled on and reached Madurai at 10:30 for beyond our expected time and it was not the appropriate bus stop. So we took another bus from there and reached the other bus stand and took an auto to 100 rupees and reached the college at last!!! The event "paper presentation" has commenced and our slot has been postponed by those kind hearted organisers. We dint take bath, no break fast and had one of those hostel rooms to rest. With our head reeling, we entered the presentation arena , which was simply fascinating and waited for our turn.

They called our name and we climbed into the diaz. I felt a sort of dizziness and everything was simply revolving around me. We made a good presentation that satisfied us but there was one student judge who asked some "for asking's sake " questions trying to dethrone us. We, suffering from loss of energy yielded to his plot and ended in me shouting at him!! In all it was a "Big Mess".

The total mission was a failure and I turned towards J and said, "I dint expect this to happen". For which he replied, "Nor did I!" We, with a heavy heart, boarded the Pandian Express and reached Tambaram the 16th morning hoping not to do a mess like this in the future!!!