How is the journey from Dehradun to Delhi by bus? I know because I travel on this route a lot. Delhi is 239 km away from Dehradun, which some buses take 10 hours to cover and some 5 hours. There is a difference in timings as well as fares between the two buses. Well, let me take you on this boring journey where there is no special adventure except the views and my thoughts.
Leaving home can never be called complete departure. Every time I go somewhere from home, I am sometimes not able to go completely. Every time I miss a little home. It doesn't happen because I want to, it happens because it has to happen. Today I have again set out on a journey but all my feelings and emotions have remained at home.
I set out with a mental assessment of the shortcomings related to the journey. After going out, I am trying to fulfill the void of missing home by sitting here at the bus stand. Here a bus is passing in front of me, a bus is coming and seeing these, thoughts arise in my mind that how does one become so attached to home that the mind is never able to go away from there.
Well, while walking 700 meters from the doorstep of the house, I think that one should not walk after eating parathas in the morning and that too with two bags. While leaving, I am thinking of booking an auto from Uber because now if I go by public transport, I will miss the bus. The uber drivers are coming, no, I will book the auto directly… and while thinking, I book the auto after reaching the road. After keeping both the bags, when the auto starts talking to the air, I think that the food kept in the laptop bag should not come out of the tiffin.
If I had not seen, the food would not have come out. As per his habit, the auto driver is leaving the highway and entering every street which is so narrow that two people are not able to walk together. It's just morning in the streets... there is light fog and people are getting up and going to school with their children. Nowadays a leopard is roaming here and according to a news a few days ago, it also attacked a small child... The friends of the injured boy save their friend from a major accident.
People are lighting fires in front of their homes to get some relief from the cold. But right now it is difficult to get relief from the cold because there is a lot of snowfall on the high peaks of the Himalayas. Nowadays there is a lot of fog all around and the wind is blowing and that too is very cold. While typing on the mobile, my breasts have become so cold that even if I cut them, there will be no bleeding.
The bus stand is a strange place. Here very young children can be seen begging, sweepers come even when you are sitting on the seat, people around can be seen smoking beedis and spitting gutkha. The horns of the buses are blowing continuously, some people are arguing about God knows what, film songs are playing on the announcement speakers, the conductors are worried because the passengers are not coming and finally some dogs are sleeping on the ice cold floor. And one or two are roaming around here as if they are the manager of the bus stand.
Sitting in the bus, everything becomes a little different, now the outside noise has ended but the inner noise has started. People have started eating chips as soon as they board the bus, the packet of chips makes a lot of noise, hence the sound of 'kachar-kachar' was echoing throughout the bus, which I find very irritating. Two women are talking very loudly on the issue that they should not eat anything now otherwise they will vomit on the way and an uncle is shouting on the phone because the phone company has deducted money from his account and now he is not going to get a refund. Needed
The bus leaves as per its scheduled time. Because I get motion sickness in the mountains, I close my eyes. The bus driver is talking to the conductor and saying that it has been 50 years since I started traveling by bus but I have never seen as much fog as this time. While listening to the conversation between these two, I am about to fall asleep and anyway I woke up early today, so I fall asleep early.
After sleeping for two full hours, the eyes open only when the bus stops. The conductor says that the bus will stop for 10 minutes, whoever wants to go to the restroom, go. I also freshen up and look at the fields located here where sugarcane harvesting is in full swing and mustard seeds are waiting to be ready. Some passengers are drinking tea and some are smoking cigarettes and beedis after getting down. I am thinking that I will eat the food I brought with me in some time.
Now Delhi is 130 km away from here, it will take another two to two and a half hours to reach there. I have lunch at 2 o'clock, my stomach is full so I think of listening to some music on the phone. While listening to songs in earphones, I remember the movie I saw last night called "The Glass Castle". The bus is moving ahead and the fields are running behind. Yellow mustard is looking very beautiful on the chest of the earth, while people were seen engrossed in harvesting sugarcane.
The bus takes a little more time than its scheduled time, starting at 11 am in the morning, the bus reaches Delhi from Dehradun at 04:30 pm...which means it takes more than 5 hours. After getting down from the bus, there is a nearby metro station where I can reach on foot. After the security check, I enter the metro and wait for my station to arrive from where I take another bus, then an auto and finally reach my destination at 7 pm.
So this was the entire journey which ended after reaching Delhi. All the photos have been clicked from the phone and were clicked while walking so the photos are not so amazing. An attempt has been made to make the photos a little better by editing them in the mobile app Snapdeed. I hope that you liked the content of this post, if yes then register your support in the comment box.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Poco f1 and edited in Snapseed.