"You'll be running alongside the bus?" a friend asked, half-jokingly, when told the coach started from Panjim at 5 pm and only reached the capital of Karnataka, Bangalore, at 8 am the next day. The distance, just under 600 kms.
One more reminder about the inefficiencies of life in Goa... notwithstanding all the bombast and big talk. Sharma's bus service was my choice, because I loathe the susegad approach of Goan buses ... specially when you have an early day of work in the city. Paulo's is a fair service -- they were innovators with their sleeper buses. But they are often late. Sometimes reaching Bangalore well after noon! And you can't blame the roads alone, because had this been the case, all buses should have been as late! Finally, we started from Panjim. Being under-slept, one crashed quickly on the sleeper (some love the sleeper-buses, some hate them ... you can't have neutral feelings about them... and the Parrikar government's campaign against Paulo's sleepers can still leave you speculating about motives). >From Panjim, we went to Ponda. From Ponda to Margao. From Margao, to Canacona via Navelim and Cuncolim. For the first detour, picking up passengers was the excuse. For the second, the bad road within Karnataka! It was just near the Kumtha railway station that the bus stopped for meals. For a change, it was a decent place (mostly, the drivers and conductors opt for the worst restuarants, just because they get a good deal in terms of free snacks!) By the time the sun rose in the sky, we were still obviously far from the city. Rural skylines were obvious. Finally, by 8 am we got closer. But by this time, the morning rush had started. And rushes and congestions can be quite bad in Bangalore. As my friend Dr Madanmohan Rao commented, it was a city choking on its own (including IT) success! Got in a little past 9.30 am. Rickshaws still charge the maximum possible. But the city bus stand and some other places have a 'prepaid rickshaw' service. With computer-generated receipts. This lowers the possiblity of overcharging. And the city does seem to know how to use its IT skills to make life a little, even if only a little, better for its citizens. When I wanted a bus ticket back home, the rickshaw driver adviced against going to the main bus-stand. He took me to a nearby agent. All are networked via the Internet to the database of the KSRTC, the Karnataka state road transport corporation. At the click of a button, they can tell you what tickets are available, and also book it for you. So, while Goa struggles with its multiple inefficiencies, the others are working towards solutions. Not bad! Any lessons to learn here? --FN -- FN 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 (phone calls after 1 pm please) FLOSS, geeks, blogs: [http://planet.foss.in/] _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
