JOURNEY TO CHENNAI VIA ECR AND VICE-VERSA
Travelling to Chennai from my hometown was both a bitter and a better experience for me. Like my childhood days I mentioned, there were two companions who travelled with me though in the later days one of them rarely joined us in our travelling experience.
It was usually Monday morning about 4 to 4.30, we used to take our bus to Chennai; the Pondicherry new bus stand is always crowded at that time. It was very difficult to take a bus to Chennai via ECR because of the fact that there were many IT employees, tourists and students who used take the early morning bus to Chennai. We then realized that there is an advance booking for Monday morning buses. Then we started booking tickets, which too was a constraint because the booking starts and closes on Thursday at that time we would be in Chennai. Then we used to keep reminder on Thursday morning and call someone in Pondi to book tickets for us. All was well with going to Chennai except for a few occasions when we used to forgot booking tickets or when someone, usually my tall friend would wake up late or worse will not wake up at all even if we call his mobile or landline we later learnt that fellow use to put his mobile in silent and sleep.
Now moving on to the vice-versa i.e. the journey from Chennai to Pondicherry via ECR. It is Thiruvanmyur bus stand where we used to arrive in Chennai and also depart to Pondicherry from there. If it is Monday morning we used to take bus from Pondicherry, It was Friday evening we used to take bus from Chennai, and oh my God you must see the crowd that awaits the ECR bus. We would struggle to get a seat in those crowded bus if we couldn’t get a seat we used to travel in standing. We won’t have place even to move a bit. We would hold our breaths till we reach Pondicherry, the feeling we used to have when we arrive to Pondicherry, I don’t have words to describe that sensation. We used to count our days the moment we reached Chennai, when will we go back to Pondicherry. I now feel that I must have stayed and explored Chennai some more than what I did earlier at least I should have stayed in the weekends. Those journeys from Pondicherry to Chennai and vice-versa were both bitter and better, I learned a lot of things in traveling as the good books says traveling is the best experience.