Sanju and I made our flight to Delhi by about 30 seconds. They make you check into flights 45 minutes before they depart. Probably a security measure, and it’s good policy anyway, but for our 7:00 flight to Delhi, from an airport about an hour away from Koramangala, this meant getting up at the ass crack of dawn. Right after Sanju and I entered the snake line for check-in, they closed it, signaling that the 45 minute barrier was up. Maybe this means someone was looking out for us, but as someone who thinks that stuff’s a crock, to me it just meant that our planning was off.
We arrived in Delhi and got to the bus station at noon. I didn’t ask questions when we immediately boarded a bus. I’d assumed we’d take an overnight bus, but I also assumed Sanju knew what we were doing. Turned out this bus was not direct to Dharamsala, but was rather a bus to Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, from which we would transfer to Dharamsala. The saving grace here was that this was definitely the nicest bus I’d ever been on. I didn’t play varsity sports, I was only on JV team when IMSA’s Scholastic Bowl team won the 2000 State title, and let’s just say our junior high Science Olympiad team didn’t exactly spring for super quality buses. This thing had leather seats, LA-Z-Boy style leg rests, and free bottles of water for all. Good stuff. It was only a few dollars more than the really crappy buses, but I paid for this luxury in karma when we got to Chandigarh at 6:00.
In Chandigarh, we transferred to the first bus we could find to Dharamsala. This was a local bus. Local=cheapest. Fortunately Sanju and I both snagged window seats, and fortunately we both had warm clothing on. This bus was put to shame by the old school buses that only had half-backed benches. If you’ve been to school recently, you probably know the distinction I’m talking about. I still managed to sleep a little, but things really went to hell when we arrived at our monastery at 3AM, long after everyone had gone to bed. And also after having walked down about 300 steps with our luggage, making walking back up to town impossible for both of us. Did I mention it was about 45 degrees out? After briefly chilling on a bench, we snagged a monk who happened to be running around doing something, and were let into an unheated dining hall to sleep until 7. At that point, someone woke up who let us into our rooms. They were also unheated, but the three huge wool blankets more than made up for that quickly.
Tomorrow, after some rest, things get better. Don’t worry. Like I said, "auspiciousness" is a crock. At least once your planning starts going well.
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