Idiots travel on footboard

And I was one of them some time back…
Chidambara Vilas, Sri Krishna, Thangam, Velankanni PP... all these names will be familiar to anyone commuting in the Trichy-Thanjavur route. For a few like me these are parts of a wonderful past that would never come back. Studying in one of those self-financing engineering colleges u cannot expect all the staff to be knowledgeable ….Niraya per book-la irukuratha vanthu re-telecast pannuvanga.. atha naanga directa book-la irunthe padika matoma? So u need an external motivation to attend college and I had one very strong motivation - the half an hour travel from training center to college on foot board (mind u I am not kidding!! I had one of the highest attendances in my dept every semester :D ). I was not alone, lot many college goers would enjoy that travel. Among them was my set of friends. Couple of my friends (read kiku and pavikutti) would have already boarded in Trichy and will be sitting in the last row waiting for us. Velankanni PP was our favorite bus in the morning as it would be reasonably crowded compared to other buses and we can comfortably travel in it (athavathu vasadia footboard la nikkalaam!! mathathula thothanum... romba strain u see!!). Antha bus conductor-um namma friend thaan so no issues at all. Foot-board la kaathu vangitu friends oda kathai pesite pona… the day will have a gr8 start.
For someone who has always traveled to school two streets away the 30 KM travel to college looked very difficult in first year. As ever I started with a ‘safety clause’ from my parents in the early days – College bus la mattum thaan poganumnu. Traveling in college bus can sometimes be the worst experience with all the faculties traveling with us.. free-a irukaathu. And our Thatha driver will be using the Brake pedal more than the accelerator to make sure that it takes atleast twice the time to reach the destination. Aiya was traveling by this bus for sometime but athuku mela thaangala. So I shifted to mofussil buses. Arambathula I took bus pass and traveled in select buses that allow passes but later I realized that the trouble of traveling in them is not worth the money and thus I shifted to other buses. Initially I’ll travel on foot-board only if there was no other go but found it to be so enjoyable that I started to travel on it regularly. Add to that KKPs comedy on board. We’ll have elaborate discussions about everything there.. as if we had no other place.
Looking back it all looks a little stupid to take such risks but I cannot deny that I enjoyed every bit of it.
After completing BE it was 3 long years before I actually traveled on foot board (this time it was out of need :) )– that was once in Hyderabad – it evoked all those fond memories but it wasn’t as enjoyable as it used to be without my friends, without those discussions about KKPs adventures (or should I say misadventures! ), without those gossips, those last minute revision before exams.. the list would never end.. and all this in just a span of 30 minutes everyday.