Come and join the Joyride..

Cousin sister's engagement ceremony. No leave. No train booking. No bus booking. No stamina.
Yet, its a big day for her, so I gotta be there. We set out on our overnight bus journey to Kerala. Yes, I said bus. It was a Special Bus.


Special Bus; I had never heard of this term before. I assumed a out-of-regular-routine bus that has been scheduled to accomodate the heavy traveller volume on the long weekend.
Yes, you're in for a surprise just like me.



Characteristics of a Special Bus (SB) specimen;

1. Special buses arrive on a special time. This will usually be few hours here and there, yeah, just few hours.

2. Special Buses don't consider filling up petrol before a long journey.

3. SB do not consider checking if their head light is broken. This gets visibility only after it arrives on its 'special time'. ( I thought a broken head light hanging out of the socket is visible right in the front, I could be wrong).

4. SB do not even check if they have a functional Brake System. This too, is left for verification half way through the journey on the hilly areas.

5. SB have a driver who doesn't know the route. ( This one is a classic). The driver asks for directions on the way and infact picks up strangers from highways to guide him through the 'night' journey. ( How safe :) )

6. SB driver doesn't know the local language. ( I guess we can give him a waiver for this one, since he is heavily relying on the ever-helpful hitch-hikers! Come on now. )

7. SB buses reach their destination just around nine-ten hours later. ( Now, you CAN'T blame the poor driver for this one. The hitchhikers took him through the route that landed right in front of their doorstep. Bravo! )

8. SB buses definitly have flat tyre during midnight. This one is almost established as a identifying feature in SB-for-naive-travellers.

9. SB usually has three seater, broken windows, no leg-space and a pregnant-lady-who-throws-up. (No offense for the 4th factor, all sympathy, but yeah, the combination of these factors can be lethal.)

10. You will never believe the Joyride in SB... until you come and join in. :)