Reaching Koil Konda Fort by Bus from Hyderabad to Mahbubnagar
Given a choice my first preference to go anywhere is take an overnight train, sleep in the train and arrive at destination next day. If the journey is too long, then I take one of the low cost airlines, only on very few occasions I have dared to take a Bus to go anywhere, like when I went to Hampi in a Volvo bus. So this weekend when I joined the GHAC trek to Koil Konda fort in Mahbubnagar district, I was a little skeptical, to take the bus to Mahbubnagar and wanted to drive on my own as it is only about 110 KM from here, but later changed my mind to enjoy the bus ride.
I arrived ahead of time and in typical Hyderabadi style most of the folks started trickling in after 10:15 am, the assembly time being 10 am. Finally we took the bus that left Hyderabad MGBS ( Mahatma Gandhi Bus Stand) around 11:15 am. The bus was a normal non luxury, non AC bus with 2X3 seat configuration. Most of the seats have been torn by passengers and were in real poor shape. I settled on the second last seat on the 2X2 side and started observing people around me.
The first thing was a few beggars who have entered the bus and were harassing passengers for money, now as a principle I do not give money to beggars, and my concept of giving back to society is to invest in micro-finance for rural entrepreneurs, creating jobs and respect for people rather than giving charity. A lot of kids that the beggars carry as their own are actually on rent/stolen and on drugs, so by giving money to the person carrying it you are actually funding an illegal as well as immoral activity.
The second thing I noticed was a lady conductor, distributing tickets to all the passengers. Now there is nothing new or unusual about the same, but as I have just written a post about women who travel on Women’s day, I really admired this lady who was travelling every single day in a local bus for her job. Salute.
soon we had various vendors coming in the bus selling all kind of stuff from oil to grow hairs, to pill to grow you know what (ok I will spill the beans- pills to grow all kind of muscles), but as I had no interest in any of these I ignored their sales pitch and focused on this guy who was selling these yummy snacks that I loved as a kid and miss as an adult.
Soon we were on our journey and the bus started from the MGBS, after a long time I felt the air on my face when a vehicle moves, it sure is very different experience compared to travel in your AC car of train. Only drawback was the stench that keeps on coming from various places when the bus would slow down. Once we reached highway a family of 3 ladies entered with a kids in tow. Initially each one of us was trying to ignore them, but soon good sense prevailed and some of my fellow travelers from GHAC offered their seats to the ladies, I must say I felt really happy at this simple act. We started playing dumb charades in the bus and before I knew it we were in Mahbubnagar. It turned out to be a good short journey. I think the more you travel like majority of people the more you learn about what is happening around you and get to see the real India.
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I was smiling to myself. We had the luxury/compulsion of travelling by bus some two decades back. I had gone through those feelings expressed by you. One important point is the bus was not stuffed. If it is , then it is sheer torture.
The travels by buses mostly in Tamil nadu was bliss. The lush green fields, and the pretty small bridges all added to the glamour. We used to fight to read the small place names, and try to connect with names we used to know from reading Tamil History. It was fun. Travel by bus in Goa, too is a vary satisfying experience.
Now I can no longer hop into a bus without the driver smirking , for the delay. I avoid them.
My journey was only couple of hours so I kind of liked it, I am not sure of long haul journey during day on the buses. Need to take one to experience it. Thanks