A ROOM THAT NEVER WAS

The light was dim, and the day being so long and tiring , the Bus Stop seemed to be more dim to me. It was almost 2 in the night and still it was crowded. Quite a mixed crowd i should say, most of them being tourists in search of a place to spend their night and some of them had lost their hope and were looking for a bus to go back.
The weekend being long , Pondicherry was over-crowded. None of the hotels,from cheap lodges to expensive starred hotels had a room for anyone. On one corner I found a bench that was about half my length and almost as wide as me. Painted gray, it was one of those typical benches that you would find on a bus stop, made for a couple of people to sit. A lovely King size bed with a fluffy and cozy mattress. On it was spread a shining white bed sheet. The room was freezing cold and a warm blanket was there waiting for me to hit the sack and go off to sleep. Instead , it was this bench made out of stone, hard as rock. Thakur had arranged for a some newspapers that were to be used as bed sheets. Took the towel out of my bag and tried to cover my body with it. Unfolded the arms of my shirt so that could save at least my hands from the mosquitoes. Slowly sleep started to creep in.

A jerk in the Bus broke my sleep. It was about 4:30 in the morning. The music was still on in my ears. The bus was a Volvo just for the name and was far from comfortable, as Anuj had said it was shaking in all the directions. Could hardly find sleep until late in the night. Was listening to music and slept off with the music still playing on my phone. The conductor told me that we were already in Chennai and would reach the bus stop in about 5 minutes. It was pretty dark outside.I woke up Anuj and Sumit. Sumit was visiting his sister in Chennai. Anuj and me were going to Thakur's place and we three were going to Pondicherry that evening. Soon we reached the bus stop. Got our luggage and Sumit asked us to check our mobiles and wallets so that we don't forget them in the bus. Each of us checked our stuff and we moved on. The Koyambedu bus stop is about 10 Min's walk from the private bus stop where we got down and we decided to walk. As we entered the bus stop, I checked my pocket for my phone and it was not there. Totally panicked, I just shouted "Where's my phone". Immediately both Anuj and Sumit tried calling my number, but in vain. It was already 'Out of Reach'. Although none of us had any hope of getting it back, but we wasted about an hour searching for it. Finally we gave up on the search and headed to our respective destinations, caught buses. We took M-70 which would take us to Guindy Station and Sumit to Vellachery where his sister puts up. From Guindy took a share auto to DLF IT Park where Thakur was waiting for us.

We rested at his place for some time and by noon all three were ready with our bags. We planned to visit the Elliot's beach in Chennai, have lunch there and then go to Pondicherry. We got into a bus which took us to Adiyar and from there we took an auto to the beach. Anuj had recently bought a 8 MP Canon Digicam and hadn't had a real chance to use it. So he was all excited about taking pics of the beach. As soon as we reached the beach he opened his bag and took out his digicam. Switched it on and clicked. As soon as he tried to click he realized that there was something wrong with the camera. Checking it for some time he opened the shutter to the battery. Saw in there and was in a state of shock for a moment. There was no battery in there. He looked for the battery in his bag, but it was no where to be found. He realized that he might have dropped the battery from the charger while putting it in his bag. So I lost my phone and in a sense we lost the camera as well. WTF?

It was the first time Anuj was at a beach, so he was pretty excited. We spent some time at the beach and then went to have lunch. We had lunch at 'Punjabi Dhaba' very near to the Beach and the food was really yummm. Every time I was out on a trip in the south, have always been disappointed with the food. But throughout the Pondicherry trip, i should admit, we got excellent food. We then took a bus from Adiyar to Koyambedu, and took a bus to Pondicherry at about 4 from there. We reached Pondicherry at about 8:30. It was pretty late and the first thing that we wanted to do was get into a hotel room, throw our bags, get fresh and then hang out at the Gandhi Beach. We were told about a Mother's Guest House, we called them up and found out that there were no rooms vacant. We were pretty confident that we will definitely get a room. We went to Nehru Road, where we were told that we would find a lot of hotels and would definitely get hotel rooms. Looked for a few hotels there and everywhere we got the same reply , 'Sorry Sir, no rooms are available'. Still pretty confident we took an auto to Gandhi Beach. The first hotel we went into was 'Hi - Design'. We asked for a room and this was the first place where we heard a 'Yes Sir'. But the tariff for a night was 5.7 K + Taxes was totally out of our budget. So we moved out of the hotel. We went into almost all the hotels on the beach and none of them had even a single room empty. Now we asked an Auto- Driver if he could get us a room and he told that we would definitely get a cottage at Auro Beach about 10 Kms from Pondicherry. We took the auto and he took us to Auro Beach. There we first went into Soorya International, and got the same answer. We met a person there who supposedly took the last room available @ Soorya, about 15 mins back, and he told us that he had searched each and every hotel @ Aura Beach and there was not a single room available. Panic had started to set in, it was 10 already and we didn't have a room yet. Still having hopes we asked the auto driver to take us to other cottage resorts. That night we knocked the door of each and every cottage resort there and were kicked out from each and every place.
Receptionist: Sorry sir no rooms.
We: Not even one?
Receptionist:No sir.
We: Not even a Dormitory?
Receptionist: Sorry Sir, all rooms are Booked.
This was the story at all the resorts there. One lodge said that they even rented their staff quarters on that night. The less decent ones used to shoo us away from the resort gates saying 'Rooms illiya'(Rooms not available).

Now the panic button was on. The auto wala then tried a number he had, started speaking in the local language. What i could make out of the english words he used that the hotel had one double bed room available. He told them that we were three and the reply came that it was not a problem. The conversation went on for a long time and it seemed to me that he had started off with .... 'How's bhabhiji and how are your children?'.He ended the call after about 10 mins. I was so happy that we finally got a room. But the auto driver had a look of disappointment on his face. I asked him what happened and he said that the management at the hotel would only allow Tamil speaking people. "What .......... ?"

He then told us that there were quite a lot of lodges within the main city where we would get some cheap rooms, but the rooms were not up to the mark. Looking for a place to sleep we were even ready to get any sort of room even if it had just three mattresses on the floor , enough for the three of us to sleep. So we headed for the city and the wild goose chase started again. From one lodge to another and one more and one more. All the receptionists had a disappointed smile on their face, every where we got the same reply, "Sorry sir, no rooms". It was 11:30 and still we didn't have a room. Finally the auto driver also gave up and dropped us back at the Bus Stop. We decided to have dinner at least and went into Hotel Mass right opposite to the Bus stop. With little hope I asked the receptionist for a room and was sure about what i was about to hear. And i got what i expected. Another 'NO'. An idea sprang up. I suddenly remembered that 'Hi - Design' had rooms available. I asked the receptionist to call up Hi-Design and ask whether they had any more rooms. He asked me to carry on with my dinner and he will let me know. We waited anxiously for the receptionist, all eyes fixed on the restaurant door. Each time the door opened i expected the receptionist to walk in with a smile on his face, come up to our table and say 'Yes sir, they have a room available for you'. It was just about 15 mins , but it looked like an eternity. Once again the door opened, and this time it was whom we were expecting. I saw the smile on his face, exactly the same that I was expecting. Very confidently he walked to our table and in a very polite manner told us "Sorry sir, all their rooms have been taken up".

At the dinner table we started blaming each other for what was happening, the same "Maine kaha tha na ......." thing. But the biggest question was, "What do we do next?" One of the options was that we go to the bus stop, take a bus for Bangalore and Thakur for Chennai and forget all about spending the weekend at Pondicherry. But the Indian in us was still alive. The Indian who is taught to fight till the end, no matter what happens. And thus, we decied that no matter what worse is to come, we will enjoy Pondicherry the next day. Our confidence rejuvenated, we finished our dinner, went out and caught hold of an auto driver. But the instructions were different this time. "Anna, we have been searching for a hotel all evening. Haven't got one (Full Confidence ... Sooper). Even if the room costs 5K per night, we don't mind ... please get us one anna, where else would we sleep? Please anna, please". And once again we started the search. He took us to a lot of lodges and hotels. Most of the hotels, we told him that we had already visited, and the others told us that they had no rooms. Finally it was 1:30 and even this auto driver had given up. We asked him to drop us at the Bus Stop.

The light was dim, and the day being so long and tiring , the Bus Stop seemed to be more dim to me. It was almost 2 in the night and still it was crowded. Quite a mixed crowd i should say, most of them being tourists in search of a place to spend their night and some of them had lost their hope and were looking for a bus to go back.

But we had something else on our mind. We didn't want to go back to Bangalore or Chennai. What would we tell our family members, our friends, our colleagues. 'Haath ko aaya aur mooh na laga'? NAHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN. We decided to spend the night at the bus stop.On one corner of the bus stop I found a bench that was about half my length and almost as wide as me. Painted gray, it was one of those typical benches that you would find on a bus stop, made for a couple of people to sit. One of the corners had some sticky liquid, looked like a chaasni to me, someone would have spilt it there while eating samosas, 'IDIOT', I cursed him. Thakur had arranged for some newspapers that were used as bed sheets. I covered the entire bench with the newspaper and using my bag as a pillow lied down. Tried to cover myself with my towel. Slowly sleep started to creep in and a thought crossed my mind. We were looking for 'A Room that never was'.

Introduction

The name itself is controversial. Well am a guy who doesn't like getting involved in controversies, and don't even intent to through this blog. After all I can't keep my dog's name Sharukh.

I was never impressed by the concept of these blogs as I always thought that I have enough friends. I am a man who has travelled a lot, within India, and my experiences over different places have been mixed. Currently am settled in Bangalore and have my parents staying in Delhi. Got my bike from Delhi and that is where the name of the blog comes from. Since long i have always believed that I have a skill of making friends. And so far I have had a lot of friends. Some pretty good and some just for the heck of it.

But 'Here I Am'.

I come to write a blog after putting in a lot of thought into it. Had decided the title 'Driving a Delhi bike in Bangalore' about 2-3 months back. Had the idea about the content as well. But there was something stopping me. It happened today also just by chance. It's an off at office and am sitting at home doing nothing. Am sitting on the net since morning filling up a few forms for IT returns and my Convocation at the end of this month. Have become tired of doing nothing so thought lets do something. The thought of blogging just crossed my mind and I thought, 'Why not?'

Concluding anything that I start has always been a problem with me. Mostly the conclusions have been messy. I just cant finish off things smoothly. Honestly speaking, have always been confused about how to end it. And I guess I am even right now. Some times I like to leave it just like that.