My bus ride home

I recently took the brave step of riding home by a bus. It may not sound daunting but travelling 20km across bangalore on a not so major route can be a pain as I discovered. This blog is not really a crib about how bad my journey was, its more of a empathetic note for all the other folk who have to travel across Blore by buses everyday.

• My journey started at NCBS, where I took bus 1, one of the shuttles into the city (they go to IISc). I got off at Mekhri circle and this ride was for free :)

• There I got onto BMTC bus 2, a 284 that took me the short distance of one bus-stop to Rajmahal-Guthalli, the ride cost me Rs. 3. So far so good, but this where things started to slow down.

• I had two options for buses at this point, one that took me straight home and others involving more bus-changes. The bus straight home never did turn-up. After waiting for nearly an hour, and watching a hundred buses going to KR Market and Majestic, I finally got a 101 to Shivajinagar, I had given up hope on a direct bus by now.

• From Shivajinagar, it was a 132B to CMH Road, I didnt have the patience to wait for a direct bus to Domlur.

• From CMH road, a final ride on a 201 to Domlur, where the conductor charged me a rupee less, didnt issue a ticket and pocketed the rest of the money (Rs. 4), and quick walk home :)

The whole journey involved 5 buses, cost me Rs. 25 and took 2 hrs. Had I taken a rick, this would have cost about Rs. 125 and would have taken less than an hour. Had I travelled by motorcycle (as I do everyday), it costs about Rs. 25 and takes about 45 minutes. The thing that surprised me was the following, I left NCBS armed with all the bus numbers and timings from the BMTC website, but it made no difference. While waiting at the different bus-stops, I got the impression that the timings were a sham. Given the trouble and time involved, why would anyone in Bangalore use public transport, unless you were poor/cheap and had enough time to kill? No wonder the city is choking with traffic...