Bus ride to simplicity
It was going to be my first bus ride in over seven years. A ride of five hours to a very revered temple in Odisha, starting at 5am from Bhubaneshwar. There was an air of excitement and anticipation as I was yearning to visit the temple for a long time and the journey by bus, added to the mood. Waking up early was never among my choicest ways to start the day, and I pulled my half-asleep body to the bathroom. My dad’s repeated reminders to start early so that I could find a seat in a right bus interjected the gushes of water from the shower. A right bus had 2-by-2 (rows of two seats separated by the aisle) reclining seats, had fewer stoppages and reached on time, or with predictable delay. My father had packed my bag with few apples, a cookie pack and a water-bottle. I did not bother to pick a book or my brother’s i-pod, and decided to spend the ten hours including the return journey, unencumbered. A short ride in my father’s scooter and I was seated in one of the right buses to...