Livin' on a Prayer

Just before flying to the US of A for my MS I took a trip across Maharashtra (Mumbai-Aurangabad-Nagpur) alone with a couple of hundred rupees, a few coins to make phone calls and a diary with phone numbers in it.
I made the trip on the MSRTC(Maharashtra State Road Transport Corp.) bus service totally. (I had opted to stay out of the whole VOLVO,luxury bus thing).My theory is that seeing a new place doesn't mean seeing it from a bird's eye point of view because then you hardly remember any of it.Rather if you want to make your trip then do it the way with the common locals. Eat the food they eat,stay where they stay, and speak their language.(I had no issues with any of the conditions.)
The culture of a new place is made by the people inhabiting it rather than the buildings,architecture associated with it.I met some fantastic people along the route and ate some really great food (authentic maharashtrian fare).
The route from Mumbai - Aurangabad was rather uneventful. However while on my way from Aurangabad to Nagpur. I was stranded for quite sometime as all the buses were running to capacity and I barely managed to grab a seat on a broken down vehicle. But since I was totally exhausted, I couldn't care less and dozed off immediately.

My fellow passengers were mostly just local families who were traveling to other places on the route and I was going the furthest to Nagpur. I did manage to strike a conversation with a few guys like myself. We ended up discussing on general topics like the state of India's politics or the some bollywood movie running at that time.

After reaching Nagpur finally it was quite a relief to have completed the whole trip. I mean with my flying date to the US barely a month away most people wouldn't have taken the trip (man..if I get sick m gonna get screwed etc. etc.)

Personally am glad I did make the trip. Yes,I did endure the heat(Nagpur during summer is BLAZING) n also run the risk of falling ill in the whole process. But it was an excellent experience on the whole.