His friends were a few seats away, laughing, yelling inside jokes, already halfway into their adventure. They waved at him, told him to come join—but he just smiled and gestured, "I'm good here."
He sat quietly, hoping the rhythm of the road would calm his nerves. The seat beside him remained empty… for now.
Suddenly, a voice broke the background chatter.
"Umm… excuse me, is this seat taken?"
Shankar turned and saw her—a girl he didn't recognize. Her ID card read PCB section. She had a soft but confident tone, and a polite smile that didn't feel forced.
Shankar blinked once, caught off guard, then shook his head.
"N-no… you can sit."
"Thanks," she replied and gently dropped her bag near her feet, taking the seat beside him.
And just like that, his solo ride had turned into… something else.
The bus hummed steadily along the road. Shankar leaned his head against the window, earphones in, eyes glazed over as the morning sun spilled golden light across the hills. A playlist buzzed faintly in his ears, but his thoughts were far from music.
Mahabharata.
The epic swirled in his mind like smoke, each tale branching into new questions, wild imaginations. Rajgir—what secrets lay buried there? What if it wasn't just myth? What if ancient science, powers, truths were simply lost... waiting? His eyes narrowed slightly, his fingers curling around the strap of his bag. There was something about this trip—something unexplainable. Like standing at the edge of a page just before the story takes a wild turn.
Beside him, she sat silently, lost in her own world. A small book rested in her hand, its title a soft echo of devotion: "Sacred Sites of India." Her fingers traced the lines with care. She wasn't just reading, she was absorbing—like each word carried weight.
Two people. One seat. Two worlds apart.
He glanced sideways briefly, catching the faint sound of Sanskrit verses under her breath, barely audible over the noise of the bus. She was reading about the hot springs of Rajgir, the foot trails of Lord Buddha, the legends of Lord Krishna.
Curiosity got the better of him.
He gently tugged one earphone out and leaned slightly, careful not to sound nosy.
"Are you… reading about Rajgir?"
The girl looked up, surprised at first, then gave a soft nod.
"Yeah," she replied, holding up the book for him to see. "It's about the spiritual history of the place—how it was once the capital of the Magadha Empire, the presence of Lord Buddha, and how Lord Krishna once visited it too."
Shankar raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You believe all that?"
She smiled gently. "Not all of it literally. But spiritually? Yes. There's wisdom hidden in these stories. Doesn't matter if they happened exactly as described—what matters is why they were told."
Shankar tilted his head. "Interesting take. I've always been more into the science behind the mythology. Like… what if those 'miracles' were just misunderstood technology? Or maybe even knowledge we lost over time."
She glanced at him curiously. "You mean like Vimana theories and Pushpak Viman?"
He chuckled. "Exactly. I mean, flying chariots, multi-layered cities, weapons that feel like nukes? It's either wild imagination or hidden truth disguised as myth."
She nodded thoughtfully, clearly enjoying this angle. "Maybe truth and myth aren't opposites. Maybe myth is just truth in disguise, waiting for the right time to be decoded."
Shankar blinked. "That's… poetic. You always talk like this?"
She gave a shy chuckle. "Only when someone actually listens."
A beat of silence.
Then she smiled. "I'm Savitri, by the way. PCB section."
"Shankar. PCMB section." He offered a small smile back. "Nice to meet a fellow over-thinker."
She grinned. "Likewise. So… are you planning to uncover a lost temple or just here for the mountain selfies?"
"Depends," he shrugged. "If the temple has WiFi, maybe both."
They both laughed—quiet, genuine.
The silence that followed wasn't awkward anymore. It was… comfortable. Two strangers who somehow spoke the same language, even if their worlds were different.
And the road to Rajgir kept winding forward—taking them closer to more than just a destination.
After several stops and a long 12-hour bus ride, Shankar and the rest of the group finally arrived at their hotel — the place they'd be calling home for the next few days.