Kolkata again.

Having been travelled by bus...day in and day out...while in college... and thorough with the numbers....hopping from 1 bus to another just to save those 5 minutes to reach on time for S.K.Bohidar (i guess he was alloted the class slot for economics subject...dats what my classmates had informed me) classes.... on-time here means - buffer enough to sneak into the fagging end of class during last minutes mess of attendance...I was a pro bus traveller.

And, i was carrying this confidence into this new metro city -- called city of joy (still!!??!!). I took my cousin along with me - class 10th, to have few rounds of the city while I had no other friend yet to torture for my pleasure. Though, I wanted him to show me around and guide me... he somehow (and very smartly too) made me blv that I was the senior partner...and I am supposed to do all the administrative work. Obviously, we both were managing the chicks in our own way... everyone has got this inherent ability to do that.

Not enough money to hire a taxi, I asked him to take me to the Bus Stand.... even though we were racing against time to catch up the movie on the leisure Sunday. Now the job was left on me to search for the right route number.

I went to a seemingly looking bus conductor and asked in Hindi, " dada, will this bus go to dharamtalla (erstwhile, esplanade)?"
(dada was the first thing i learned there. It was used to refer to ppl, like here in delhi it is "bhaisahab" for everyone - be it 18 yrs old, 25 yrs old, 35 yrs old, 50 yrs old, or 80 yrs old --- sometimes i wonder how can i have a brother in each age group)

"Jaabo na", comes the reply with a very flat expression!!

Not able to decipher it, i went to another educated looking fellow and asked him in the politest possible manner in hindi, "will this bus go to dharamtalla? "

"Jaabo na", comes back the voice in the same bengali accent, education notwithstanding!

However, I could catch the word "jaao" in both the interactions. And when i looked at my cousin at the other direction, with his face giving me a disgusting sort-of look (saying, whats taking him so long to just get a bus info!!), I was left with few minutes to make him ride the bus. I looked at the passengers on board the bus... they seemed to yell at me, "what are u waiting for, u moron!! cant u see we all are going to dharamtalla"...and just then my gut feeling said....THIS IS THE BUS and safely presumed from the empirical data captured earlier that both the gentlemen were telling me something in hindi, "jaao na."

But I dunno, why the people in my family can never trust each other. My cousin gave me a glance with his eyes narrowest, and face as stern as Sherlock Holmes!! "Are you sure, this is the right bus?"

"Ofcourse, I am. I have checked up with those two babu moshais as well!!", said I.

"Are you sure, thats what they said?"

Not having the option to swear at my cousin, I composed myself and said, "YES...THATS WHAT THEY SAID"

Desperate, cousin (by the way, his name is happy -- ghar ka naam) turned to another Bengali (I could have used the term person as well, coz there is no other species u wld find apart from bengalis!! and specially when u are looking for some kind of enquiry window) who'd been watching us interestedly.

"Excuse me, is this bus going to dharamtalla?", he asked in ENGLISH (and to my surprise, coz I was always under the impression that for him the dictionary meaning of Language is Hindi). I thought of searching for Rapidex in my uncle's house, may be even to notch up my skills to a level up.

And in perfect English the fellow replied, "Actually I, and all the other passengers (remember, those who were seemingly yelling at me, a minute back) on this bus are going to Karunamayee. But who knows? If your travelling companion insists it's going to Esplanade, perhaps he has some inside information. However, if you were to ask me, I'd say that bus there on the opposite path is the one you're looking for. If you run, you might just make it.

Needless to say, what I did after that.