Heat and Dust- Returning Home from Vizag

Transportation wise, my trip to Vizag was sort of jinxed. Thanks to my bungled planning I could get train tickets at the oddest timings for the onwards journey to Vizag. The only saving grace was that I traveled by AC which wasn’t the case on the return trip home. I traveled by train when I should have caught a bus and got into buses when I should have traveled by train. All because I couldn’t get train reservations from Vizag due to the summer rush.

I had actually planned to start from Vizag on the second day of my stay but since I couldn’t get tickets I decided to start early the next day. This had the unintended bonus of getting time in the early morning to spend at the beach. Apart from this I had one more interesting and out of the ordinary thing left to do. Since Rajahmundry was on the way I decided to get down at Rajahmundry and check out the fountain pen makers. On my last visit to Rajahmundry I did not get the time to check them out though I actually spent two days in the place. I couldn’t believe it so to make up for that serious lapse I made the decision to stop at Rajahmundry. There was an early morning train, I was told, the Simhadri Express at seven in the morning. So after tea with my local contact I got into the train. This was the first mistake. The train was crowded and I couldn’t even find space to stand. I stood almost all the way upto Rajahmundry. I had breakfast on the train, standing. If I had taken a bus I could have at least got a place to sit.

At Rajahmundry, I went to the Guider store and picked up two fountain pens- one for myself and one for a friend. It was damn hot in Rajahmundry. I had lunch there and learnt that the buses to Hyderabad started only in the evening. It was one in the afternoon so I decided to go to Vijayawada from where I planned to get an AC bus. It looked like a good idea so I caught a bus to Vijayawada. It was hell traveling by bus in that scorching sun which turned the bus into an oven. Everywhere the bus stopped, and it stopped everywhere, kids gathered around the windows selling water satchets, mangoes and stuff like that. Hot winds blew as the bus made its way to Vijayawada. The bus passed through places I had only heard about, for example, Hanuman Junction. Finally at around five in the afternoon the bus reached Vijayawada.

There were no seats available in any of the dozen or more AC buses to Hyderabad. I was impatient to get home. I was tired and exhausted so I decided to catch another bus at six in the evening. I freshened up and had some hot snacks in the bustling bus complex at Vijayawada. I got into the bus which I was told would reach Hyderabad before midnight. I could have caught a train but I was too tired to go to the railway station and find out if there were any trains available. Our bus started on the dot at six. Somewhere on the way, the driver stopped the bus at a roadside dhaba at Jaggayyapet for dinner. It was half past eight when we resumed the journey. Finally, at half past one, in the dead of night, I got down at Hyderabad. I was bone tired and weary. All this traveling in the hot sun took its toll. I fell sick for a couple of days running a mild fever and sneezing like a machine gun. I couldn’t avoid drinking cold water all these days. It was that triggered off the sneezing spells.

I’m told there is another trip in the offing. I wonder where it will be this time.