A memorable Pune – Mumbai trip!

There are a lot of people like me who do frequent too and fro from Mumbai to Pune and vice versa. Thanks to technology there are even more options now to travel, mainly the blah blah cars service. You get a chance to meet a lot of interesting people. Well last weekend was an experience worth mentioning about, met and learnt from interesting people indeed.

I have had a few blah blah cars journey which were really good; however this was not blah blah car this time. I was waiting at wakad looking for a transport to go to Mumbai. I normally get down near airport, so ask drivers if they go till there, there was another person who also wanted to go there, and so we started hunting for ride in pair!

After around 20mins, finally we got a ride. Our journey started, it was a pretty silent ride till Vashi. There was a couple sitting at the back (it was a SUV), they wanted to get down at Vashi and did not inform in advance, we took the Vashi flyover, the girl started shouting. Clearly it was her fault, driver did not argue back doing the sensible thing, and apologized, and the couple got down after VAshi flyover.

After she got down we all started talking, with the 'it was her fault' thing. Then we were continuously having talks till I got down. I normally talk to drivers about how important it is to drive safely, etc. I always make a point to keep an eye on driver, make sure he is driving properly. Then it came to drunken driving, at that time he started to tell his story..

The driver was actually a constable on duty. He had a glorious past, he lost all thanks to his drinking addiction. When he was in second year of engineering, he appeared for police constable test and came first. He got sanctioned at a very good place; he was at the best possible place, having a boss who had lot of power politically. I will not go in to details for confidentiality purpose. He actually said: it was like he was flying in his career, everything was working great for him!!

Then he started drinking, slowly he got addicted to it, he lost his glorious post, he lost a lot of money, he lost his health. He went in to rehab, he got better and came out, then he became over-confident, and got addicted again, in all he went into rehab 4 times. Finally he was able to get rid of his drinking habits, but by that time, he had lost a lot in life, and his family also suffered, but his brothers were always there to show him the correct path.

Due to good work in his glorious career, he had earned 3 flats, he had sold one of it for want of money to drink, still he has 2 flats. He is also the owner of the car we were riding in, he did not need to do so much driving, but he said he had lost a lot and he wanted to cover up in his life. He wanted to work hard and buy more cars, and earn more. He has 2 daughters, both are studying, and he works hard for his and his family's bright future.

There was another guy sitting behind, listening to all this, he asked him what happens in rehab. The driver said, the person who is addicted to drinking forgets everything, in rehab they teach him everything right from brushing your teeth, cutting your nails, etc. They bring the person to his teen position, where a person has to choose between 2 paths. It is an opportunity to choose the right path and live a good life. Normally in teens we are confused and easily get tempted to do the wrong things by seeing others. Peer pressure is also there, it is important to take the right decision when you are at that age, and you need your parents for guidance, and you need to listen to them. Well he didn’t say all of above, some of it is added by me here! Anyways, he did raise this point, and it encouraged me to write about him, and about this trip.

The guy sitting at the back also had a small apparent issue. He had ordered a cake from a site the day before, hoping it will be delivered by midnight, but it was still not delivered the next day till 6pm.He called a lot of times to the site, still no progress and he finally got pissed off. He contacted his lawyer, and is going to file a case against the cake company. I was pretty surprised seeing the last part, as such thing I had only seen in the movies, and read in newspapers happening abroad. He told me consumer laws are pretty strict now, and consumer had a lot of power. He was someone who knew a lot about laws, as he was an entrepreneur related to field of manpower onshoring, and was affiliated to government of India. He told a lot of interesting things, some of it I did not know. Learnt a lot from him too!!

So that was the wonderful journey I had, this is one of the many reasons I like travelling, you meet interesting people and hear interesting stories!!

Neeta Travels should be BANNED

 Just because you have a big fleet of buses and some kind of monopoly, does not mean you own the road. Meet Neeta travels, the biggest loafers, scoundrels and the worst private bus service I have ever experienced.

Having worked in Pune for the last 5 odd months and have made several trips to and fro from Pune to Mumbai, and having sat numerous times in this stupid bus service, I have gathered enough hatred for them that I feel like removing my chapals and throwing it on them whenever I see their buses. The reasons for the discontent follow.

Consider a trip from Pune to Mumbai. You go to Wakad flyover bus stop, where there is Neeta stop and from where majority IT crowd takes the bus back home on Fridays. People who have already experience their idiosyncrasy are aware that booking ticket in advance is of no use as the busses are always late by at least half an hour.

When a bus finally comes, it will wait at the bus stop for at least another half an hour and sometimes even 45mins till they find people to fill in. I can tell you having experienced all this; it really really causes a lot of frustration as it is just horrible waste of time.

When the bus finally starts, in half hour time, their stop comes at Lonavala, where again they take half an hour break. The bus stop is also good for nothing with highly priced bad food and again waste of time where people just wait for their bus to resume.

Somehow people bear all this as they look forward to go home and any complaints is dealt with a rude remark by them asking to take back our money and get down in the middle of the highway.

Mumbai to Pune is the same. All though they don’t wait for long times at the bus stop. A typical route form Borivali involves complete Mumbai Darshan. Not to mention their busses are all very old, uncomfortable and their management is clearly reflected from the above. They take atleast 3 and a half to 4 hours  on the Mumbai-Pune route compared to 2 and a half to 3 by others such as the MSRTC or the Purple/Prasanna.

Having tolerated their nonsense for initial month, I always opted to ignore Neeta for the to and from journey, once I even took the non AC red ST dabba and it took same time to reach home!