KUVEMPU EXPERIENCE-1

Words can speak loud but action louder,and some acts can bring out the best experiences of one's life. One experience which i and 15 fellow mates share is the Kuvempu one.I still have the vivid experience of that visit.It was March 2008, when we were asked by our estimable lecturers to go and put up a poster presentation.It was a three day programme and there was going to be series of talks covering major areas of ecology,biotechnology and what not! For us, at that point of time it was the most deserving break from strenuous projects (least we thought that way).

So on the destined day 12th March,our journey towards Shimoga began...we wait for our friends in the bus stop and suddenly from nowhere this conductor guy comes out,holds on to our bags and puts them in the crowded moving bus and we are left with no option but to climb the bus.Appu and Dillu manage to get the front row ladies seat while i and Jos get stuck to the seats opposite to the driver and people please take my advice on this one-that on long journey(more than 1 hr)never ever sit there due to the following reasons:

1) After two hours,the engine of the bus gets all heated up and if you decide to wear fancy shoes(rather than the Bata! ones),your legs start to burn in that terrible heat!!! I am not making this up its really true..
2) When you are damn tired of the summer heat and decide to give rest to your spinal chord,you find yourself leaning towards the three horizontal bars rather than comfort of the backrest.
3)The drunkards and chain smokers decide that they need a view of nature at its best and so they land up next to the drivers seat.(and to that point Jos said that she will pray that the man gets out of the bus soon,coz at that time i was acting like the dog who puts up its face out of window to get fresh air)
4)The cleaner doesn't hesitate to make a pass at you.

So after 5-6 hrs of dreadful journey,we are totally exhausted and decide to grab a bite until our friends catch up.(Since they were in the next bus) and we order something from menu and wash our faces to find out that the water there actually had more oil than all our faces combined.
After our brain gets sufficiently pumped with glucose,we reach the main bus stop and find our long lost friends arriving and after asking how their journey was and other stories we realised that we have to catch a bus to go to university which is one hour journey.We do get to see the beautiful Shimogan donkeys and pigs..we finally board into a bus and this by far i describe it as the" best bus journey of my life!!"

From the place we come from Mangalore,the capacity of the bus is normally say 50..but this ultra strong buses of Shimoga can accommodate 150..not exaggerating! we get into the bus and it moves little say like 100 m and people swarm in like bees and there is the compressions and rarefractions(Newton's third law is very true in this case) and then we see this man getting inside from the drivers window coz he cant enter the normal way and to our astonishment he turned out to be the conductor!!!The bumpy ride gives us a full hand experience of life in Indian Village!!! In this whole scenario Ujju loses her purse(later finds it)..and finally we reach our destination : KUVEMPU UNIVERSITY
to be continued...