Friday, October 25, 2013

Those Old Hyderabadi Bus Routes

Saw a 45 today evening and remembered the bus routes of the school days. Let me put down what I remember of those days of double deckers and trailer buses. man, they had imagination then and certainly style.

190 - Sanatnagar to RTC X Roads
Most memorable ride? Taking it to watch a movie at Liberty.

188 - Sanatnagar to Nampally
The trailer bus that got us back from school to home was lovely. We'd walk from All Saints to Nampally to catch that.

184 or 185 - Sanatnagar to Koti (before the 9 series came in)
I'm not sure of this number. But most memorable instance was definitely dropping my new pair of cricket shoes from the running bus at Lakdi-ka-pul and running back all the way from Nizam Club to  luckily find them intact.

136 - Arts College to Koti
Abhijit Dutta, my good friend always took this to go home at Nallakunta. Once he invited me home for lunch and scared the day lights out of me by telling me that his people only ate with knives and forks.

33 - Secunderabad station to Sanatnagar
All movies at Sangeet. But the one movie that comes to mind is Abba the movie at Tivoli.

1 - Koti to Secunderabad station
Only saw the majestic double decker going up and down with that majestic number.

3 - Tarnaka to Koti
Again, merely saw.

193 - Mehdipatnam to Sanatnagar
Was this the right number? Never took it in my life.

18 - Secunderabad to Tarnaka
Never took this bus.

Know what? I could be way off but somehow these are the numbers that come up. Someone could help. Of course these were times before the 9, 10, 45 series came in later.

2 comments:

Diwakar B R said...

Hi Hari, the bus number from Mehdipatnam to Sanathnagar was 191. We used to take this from SR Nagar to our school in Masab Tank. There was a special bus that had a design on the front and had special lights which used to blink when the brakes were put on. You took me to those days when we had a very special affinity to the driver and conductor of the bus, whom we used to fondly call as 'uncle'.

Other routes that come to my mind are 142 - Nampally to Shaikpet
190 - RTC X Roads to Sanathnagar
183 - Nampally to Shapurnagar

Harimohan said...

Ha Diwakar,
Thanks man. 191. I think there was a double decker too on that route if I remember right. Two conductors, one for each deck, nice and roomy. Good view from the front seat on top too! Yes, 190 and I remember 183, though I still have no clue where Shapurnagar is.

It's still a mystery to me how the conductors conduct themselves. One is wading through that sea of humanity, two is issuing tickets and checking passes with all that clicking and giving change and writing about money to be returned, ringing the bell after checking no one is falling under the wheels, catching free ride chappies, getting off the bus and getting on on time. Man, it makes me tired just to think of it. My respect for that job goes up immensely when I think of their work and how we used to trouble them.

I remember one such 'uncle' who allowed me one free short ride between ESI and SR Nagar when I was going to the library.