Journey

The window seat was free. I expected that. 

I settled down on the uncomfortable seat and made sure the windows were tightly shut. I generally hated Delhi buses. The CWG ones and the green ones were better. The blue line and the private buses were usually just bits of scrap fused together to move at a very slow pace while making very loud noises. 

But today, sitting there with not enough place to move my arms, I felt oddly comfortable. Maybe it was because I was going home after a long day, maybe it was because the stuffy buses were quite cozy during Delhi winters or maybe it was because, now that I was leaving, I was beginning to accept Delhi and its elements.

I woke up from my 'bus siesta’ only when we trundled into Noida. Gazing out from the window at the familiar roads I remembered old bus journeys.

During the first semester, Mom had been quite apprehensive about me taking my Activa to college. We were new to this place, and my vehicle was TN registered. (It still is. We realized such things don’t matter in U.P!!). So every day I had to take a stuffy, icky, annoying bus ride in the morning and an equally stuffy and icky ride back home in the evening. The mornings were hell. The evenings were a bit better and phone calls from my friend (which kept me occupied throughout the journey) made it almost bearable. I knew nothing then except the stop that I got in and the stop that I got out. There were some landmarks I recognized (Honda showroom, BSNL, the big mall...) but the route was just a lot of twists and turns to me. One day, I accidentally got down at the wrong stop. Assuming I was quite far from home, I took another bus and after a good 20 minutes, reached home. It was only much much later that I realized that I had been a mere Rs.20 away by rickshaw!

Thinking about that girl now, it was quite funny. New, vulnerable and awed by most things, she seemed completely different from the current me, lounging lazily on the seat, not very fussed about reaching home soon. 

College had seemed huge then. Flouting the 75% attendance rule seemed improbable. Brownies at Rs.30 was "splurging". The parattawala at Gate 4 was the usual hangout (how, in that scorching heat, we managed to stand there is something I cannot fathom). I thought I would never know my way around the big mall (GIP) and shopping there?? Completely out of question! Old friends, I thought, would stick around. I thought I would make a lot of new friends too. 

Now, 3 years later, here I am... almost done with college. The campus is now overly familiar. I have 3 back papers due to lack of attendance, the brownies smell funny (how come I never felt that before?). GIP is our favorite hangout. I can find my way around there blindfolded. We shop there, eat there, watch movies there and sometimes vent our frustrations there. Some close friends have become mere acquaintances, others are almost like family. I made just one friend -- but someone whom I know will stick around (even to write back papers!)

The college years in the capital city are almost done. I learnt more than what is put up in the Course Structure on Amizone. A lot more than that. From the grimy windows, I can see the streetlights in Noida twinkling in a friendly manner.

It is time to say goodbye. It is time to go home.