Night at Coimbatore Bus terminal!

It is 2 AM in the morning and we(my four friends and me) are stranded at the Coimbatore bus stop trying to hop onto to a bus that will take us to Palini en route to Kodaikanal. There were buses on that route, but for some reason we couldnt fathom, they were choc-a-bloc full, yes in the wee hours of morning. We had been at the terminal for well over a couple of hours. Some of us were a little bleary eyed. I wasn't. Feeling a little hot(it was still and humid) I get up and walk to this shop in my purview. It was more of a shack. Nope, I wasnt getting pot :). This is the conversation , if you could call it one

Me: " Jara ek mineral water bottle dena. Thanda hai kya?"

Shopkeeper(old man): Gives me a bewildered stare like I have really asked for weed.

Then I point in the direction of the bottles. The old man nods and smiles and gets me a one- litre bottle

Me:"Issey bara hai kya, two litres wala".
Seeing the look on his face, I put my left palm at the top of the bottle and the right at the base, and feeling rather foolish(well more foolish than I usually feel:)) I raise my left hand to show a bigger a bottle. It works :). He flashes a big smile, and I do the same.He then shakes his head to tell me that he doesnt have a two-litre one.So I take the one litre one and take out a Boomer from the bottle in front of me. The old man then mutters something and this time its my turn to give him one of his blank stares. He then scribbles 14 on an old Tamil newspaper lying around. I see it and we smile and I pay the money and head off to my friends.

0230hrs: We are told the next bus is at 3 20AM, and we decide to barge in, no matter how crowded it was.

0320hrs: As the bus pulls in, there is frenzied running everywhere and taking the cue from others I rush towards the bus as fast as my suitcase and ruck sack would allow. There is chaos already at the sole entrance with all sorts of all people trying to get in. We somehow manage to get in, luggage and all. I grab the only seat that was left, beside the driver. As I sit there, the driver tells me it is the conductor's. I tell him I will move once he comes. The conductor does show up after a couple of minutes and I start to get up, but he asks me to sit. Damn decent of him. So there I was, in the first seat. Couldnt help remembering how as kids we used to fight over this very seat in our school bus.

0330hrs: The bus pulls out of the terminal, and even though it was dark outside, I was feeling really chuffed with the view through the windshield. Empty roads and just the drone of the engine. We reached Palini around six and got a bus from there to Kodaikanal, needless to say without the kind of fun we had that night :)