Boulder to San Francisco~ One Bus, 22 Unreasonable People, 3000 miles and Road to West Coast

So yes, it happens a lot of times... Sitting with friends somehow the question of what you like doing the most comes up and occasionally we find ourselves jumping up to what interests us most of all. I therefore am usually the first one to chant, I love long drives! It always feels like a victory to share that passion about being in a vehicle, for longest of hours and riding down the roads you never know but enjoy every second of it... Yes I love long drives a lot, and finally at the Unreasonable Institute we were going on a long drive, Perhaps the longest one I could ever have... or may be the longest one to make me get rid of my un-ending love for long drives... but yeah long... so we were supposed to ride in a bus, all 22 Unreasonable fellows from Boulder, Colorado to San Francisco to pitch to a room full of investors from Silicon Valley. I knew I was ready for my pitch, but was I ready for the drive of 3000 miles to west coast of America?

Finally the day had arrived, we all in the bus which to my amazement had a toilet that I hadn't seen in Pakistani buses, the nice comfortable seats were to provide us home for the next 33 hours of travel and two kind-faced drivers stood up ahead, were to take us to our destination. I couldn't have been more excited!

Our first stop was International Development Design Summit, at Fort Collins, which was one of the best parts of this travel since we at the Unreasonable Institute had wanted to meet these wonderful people from around the world that used design in development to create powerful solutions to worlds depressing problems. The two hours of Unreasonable Picnic proved to be a fantastic time for all of us to connect, share ideas and most especially compete in Unreasonable+IDDS Olympics games!

Finally back in the bus we were all looking forward to our longest journey ahead, while some putting cushions and pillows on their seats to make them comfortable, some listening to songs and some frantically typing on their computers... that was our family, all of us together, coming from 17 countries from around the world, living together for 7 weeks and now riding on a bus to California.... It was no big deal.

Driving down the road, with scenarios of green passing by us and the sky with its blue making this all look

perfect... led me to think about all the bus rides I have had in my life. About hundreds. Each time as exciting and wonderful. The road underneath the bus, flowing backwards making us closer to our destination brought back waves of memories to me......That crowded inside of the public bus from Hyderabad, where seats occupied by men with huge mustaches feeling pride in the dignity of it, while women crouched beside them with black burqa's, some of whom holding their little kids who usually were crying, the smoke of the cigarettes and smell of it would fill the air inside while somewhere close to you a baby would give a milky burp, the old Bollywood songs chanting on high volume and the bus whooshing down to its destination..... There is nothing more perfect then that and nothing as beautiful.

And there have been those rides when I would be running to the catch the handle of the bus-door and rush in to find the space filled with girls in white dress with a look of annoyance from the mornings of going to college, I would be panting while feeling good about making it inside the bus and in that dancing and jolting down of the bus and our holding tight to whatever was available some one would tap on my shoulder and I would look back finding my class fellows and we would beam with happiness to see each other every morning!

The travels to and from Balochistan have always been memorable, I cant forget the sunsets and sunrises from the bus windows, the beams would come pouring inside on the sleeping passengers and I would be standing on my seat stretching my eyes open to see how the sun actually comes up, the shapes of mountains of Balochistan would come as a reason for me to play and guess what they look like until I am tired of standing. Dawn of the day, bus would stop near a mosque and people would rush outside to pray then is when mom would open a small cloth-bag filled with roti and fried potatoes and we the kids would munch on them enjoying the sun-rising into daylight till the bus starts again on its journey.
There are millions of memories connected to the journeys in a bus.... and sitting here with the wonderful Unreasonable fellows from around the world, I had a feeling this journey as well was going to become a great and unforgettable memory.

And it became, one of the unforgettable trips one could ever have! although we didn't have kids screaming nor we had any sacks of flour perched in the middle of the seats or people snoring on top of their lungs, but it was just as perfect... we stopped in Wyoming for beautiful sunsets where we also saw deers ran through the open land, enjoyed a peaceful picnic near Donner lake, Enjoyed the bright flashy lights of Casinos in Nevada, stopped at the Pacific Ocean, went through the Golden Gate Bridge screaming like crazy, ate Fernando's Brazilian biscuits, saw sunrise of Utah... and with 33 hours of travel we all reached in San Francisco, presented to about 100 people the next day and made our way back just like that after 3 days~ That's how Unreasonable we are!