The Journey to the Lost City
Come, Travel Along!
Destination chosen, Trip planned, Tickets Booked.
A week left to pack our backpacks and begin our journey, in the hot summer of 2018.
Which journey, you wonder?
Oh, the one that a few of our friends planned to the Lost City of India — one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in east-central Karnataka, India named HAMPI.
There were four of us — two friends from Chennai and two others from Bangalore.
The journey began on the afternoon of the 27th of April, Friday when me and a friend, from Chennai, had to hop on a train to make it to Bangalore by 8 pm and then a bus was scheduled to start at 9 pm to Hampi, with the four of us.
It was around 1.30 pm .We got on the train and settled in.
The excitement started to kick in, as the train was scheduled to start in the next fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes passed by.
The train had not yet started.
We look around, waiting patiently.
Yet another Fifteen more minutes passed. It was 2.15 pm.
This time we looked at each other and could see signs of worry rising.
Nobody inside the train looked as worried as we were, of course, they probably did not have another bus to catch.
We were trying to make sense of every announcement that we could listen to at the railway station, finally arriving at the conclusion
that there is a delay due to the engine cooling process.
Now how long it was going to take, we had no idea.
All we did was just sit on our berth and wait.
Finally, around 3 pm the train started. The journey was six and a half hours long.
The estimated time of arrival at Bangalore Station was 9.30 pm, delayed by one and a half hours.
We were very disappointed.
Will this journey end at the beginning itself?
Will this trip end up being just a plan?
Oh, these were the questions that were running in all of our heads,
but somewhere deep down we were determined to try our best.
Five hours passed by. It was 8 pm, our scheduled arrival time before the delay. We were one and a half hours away from our destination.
We prayed for magical powers that would speed up the train, just like the Knight bus from Harry Potter, we silently wished
for the powers of the Knight Train to show up.
It was 8.50 pm. The two from Bangalore have reached the Yashwantpur Bus Stop to get into the bus to Hampi at 9:00 p.m.
Well, they had already begun the journey along with us and we all knew how it all was going to end, but as I said, we were all
determined to try our best.
It was 9 pm. We got a call from the two in Bangalore that the bus had arrived.
They hopped into the bus to inform the driver to wait for a few minutes until the two of us from Chennai got there.
At this point, the train to Bangalore had just reached the Bangalore Cantonment Station and unfortunately halted due to a signal.
We were already near the train door, waiting for the next station.
As we stand there in the signal, we looked outside. There was a fairly narrow road, leading to, none of us know where.
It was now or never, we jumped with our backpacks from the halted train before the green signal and ran into the road.
It was 9.10 pm.
We ran almost a kilometer to find a Taxi with a driver parked at the side of the road.
We quickly requested him to take us to Yashwantpur as we need to catch a bus that has been waiting for us for 10 minutes.
Of course, it was not easy to convince a taxi driver until you say you’ll give him some extra pennies.
And then we looked into the maps, another thirty minutes to reach.
Just like I expected, the bus from Yashwantpur was no longer waiting for us and had started its journey to Hampi, without the four of us.
All hope was lost.
We reached Yashwantpur at 9.45 pm, met the equally disappointed two from Bangalore.
Now it was three of us together thinking that we should just get back to Bangalore and spend the days here.
What was the fourth one thinking?
Well, one crazy idea!
Let’s get on to a taxi and chase the bus at the next stop!
All of us looked at each other, thinking, Are we going to do this?
Now, what was going to happen in the end, we had no clue.
Suddenly, It felt like we were going on a trip with no destination.
Yes, we got into a taxi and told the driver to just go straight in the direction we tell him, as fast as he could, and only stop when we find our bus.
We were twenty minutes into the ride. We could finally see our bus. The bus was going past the toll gate when we were yet to cross over.
Fearing that we would lose the bus again, we got out of the car in between all the traffic, ran towards the bus that was finally taking us
along to the lost city!
The next day morning, when we arrived at the lost city, we did not feel lost.
With all our energies revived, we pinched ourselves wondering, did we make it.
After all, yes, we did.
The rest of the journey is a whole new story for another day.
Today when I look back at this journey, there’s a sensation of a journey fully lived.
What better way to end this journey but by an anonymous quote :
“We Travel Not To Escape Life, But For Life Not To Escape Us”
