Disclaimer : All characters in this post are actual and any coincidence to anyone living (except for those mentioned) or dead is just their plain bad luck.

So this is how it goes. Once upon a time I and KurtNirvana were broke. We still are. But back then we were too. We used to travel to P******m by bus and used to buy 20 bucks ticket so we could save money. It took us 1.5 hours in bus each way but it was the cheapest way to travel, apart from walking that is, which probably would have taken same amount of time.

That particular day was really bad. After buying tickets we were left with total combined 2 bucks between us. I had all of it. I don’t remember that particular day very well. I had fever but I came to work. Why waste a leave to stay at home? So I felt like shit all day and took it all out on people around me with my now world famous sarcasm. Every one in office convinced me to leave early as I was not well but for not so obvious reasons.

So I left office at 7ish, read early, and since KurtNirvana had the usual day of no work and all poker, he left with me. We walked for 10 minutes to the Bus Stop at Juhu Garden to catch the 224 as it goes right by my apartment quickly and doesn’t take me on a world wide tour like stupid 79.

So we reached the bus stop and waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. I think after 1.5 hours of waiting i got restless and started pacing when I noticed an outline of what looked like a piece of cardboard stuck in a corner. It had something written in Marathi but i figured out the number 224 mentioned twice. Ting! I quickly got hold of KurtNirvana, who btw had been on phone all this while, and dragged him to the board.

He deciphered it to be a note proclaiming that the route of 224 has been changed and it now goes from some other stop. WTF! Bastards. So we inquired about the new route and found out it was 15 minutes walk away. With the 2 bucks in our pocket we just resigned our selves to fate and walked towards that place.

After walking for 15 minutes, we were clueless about where we were, so we asked around. One kind gentleman pointed out the bus stop we should have been at as we watched stupid 224 go away. Gah! This was no fun. Not at all. Looking at our desperation, same gentleman told us to go to the place from where this Bus started, which was like 5 minutes walk away.

By this time KurtNirvana was starving so I gave him the 2 bucks I had. As luck would have it there no one selling anything that he could buy for 2 bucks. So we walked on to the starting point and behold!, there were two 224s standing there! I wanted to run and hug them, but better sense prevailed. Asked the guy in charge there which one would leave first and he told us that the one on the left would leave first.

So we got in to that bus and sat there. And sat there for another 15 minutes, being attacked by mosquitoes on the outside and hunger on the inside, before the driver and conductor showed up. Finally the Bus started moving and we felt so relieved. But how could it have been so easy right?

The conductor asked us where were we headed and when I told him he said this bus wouldn’t go past my home as usual but will stop 25 minutes walk away from my home. WTF! So both us got off it and walked back to the starting point again. The second bus was still there. Phew! The guy in charge was surprised to see us and asked us why we got off so we told him the story. He was surprised and said that it was not right. He told us that the bus would have definitely gone past my apartment and that there was no reason for it to stop early. He said we shouldn’t have gotten off it. WTF???? Grrr. Any way the other Bus was still there so I asked him how long before it would depart.

The guy said that the bus had broken down and was just standing there. Argh! So I asked him how long before we could leave on another 224. So he calculated and said that it would be at least 10 minutes before a 224 would come in and then the driver would get his 30 minutes rest so at least 45 minutes or so. @^$&#*@@!^$ Bastards. Only reason we were going through this pain was because 79 took 30 minutes more than 224 to get me home and this was making it redundant.

Thats when we decided to walk to SV Road and catch 79 from there. So walked from there to a bus stop on SV Road. Got on the first 79 we could see and reached home 1.5 hours later at around 1 am. Yes thats right. It took us 6 fucking hours to reach home. Lesson learnt: Don’t try to rush home. Never. Never ever again.