The posts on Sharma Transport prompts me to take a trip back the memory lane
Sharma Transports haas been in Kerala for a long time. The first time I used it was back in 1992 or so and I am sure they were operating even earlier. Their office in Ernakulam is still at the same place, the small building inside the Grand Hotel compound in MG road. In Kalasipalayam, they have now moved to a more spacious office opposite to where their old office was.
I have always been a longhaul bus traveller (flights were a luxury those days when air fares were sky high and traisn were hopelessly over crowded) and way back in the early 1990s I used to travel once a year right up to Pune with them from Ernakulam . This was the time Konkan railway had not started and the only regular train from Trivandrum was the veteran Kanyakumari-Mumbai Jayanthi Janatha express (as it was called then). To get a sleeper class ticket in those days needed contacts of the highest kind - no tatkal and tickets used to sell out in minutes after they opened for sale. Hence bus was the practical option when I went for holidays.
Sharma was selling through tickets to Pune/Mumbai from Kerala at that time. Basically their bus which used to leave at 6.30 PM from Ernakulam would reach Bangalore around 7 AM.Their connection bus to Mumbai via Pune would leave at 8.30 AM. Since through tickets were being sold, most of the travellers on the connection bus would be from Trichur and Cochin and the company provided transit facilities (washrooms etc) at their BLR office. Also the advantage was that since it wa a connection bus, if the bus from EKM got delayed, the other bus would wait.
A lot of passengers on these buses were gulf bound travellers (mostly workers) from Kerala connecting on to flights from Mumbai. This was during the time when there was no international flights from Cochin and Calicut and very limited flights from Trivandrum.
Buses were non a/c - no a/c buses during that time , but even then they were more or less punctual, the staff were polite and the bus to BOM used to reach Pune around 3 or 4 AM and drop us off at Natraj Hotel near the Swargate ST bus stand (now they drop off at Katraj after the byepass was commissioned). Oh yes ! before I forget they were all video coaches which was of no use for me as they used to play mostly Hindi movies even if the BLR-BOM bus most often would be half full of Malayalees. And they used to run atleast 3 or 4 of them during the BLR-BOM run- no wonder I have tired of Hindi movies for a life time
![Uncontrollable Laughter](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/uncontrollable laughter.png)
No Ipods or MP3s, walkman was around but a luxury those days I couldnt afford, so it was the old standby to pass the time - reading a novel! Most of Arthur Haileys works were just the right size for these long trips!
Jokes apart, their service has always been good, after a few years, around 2001 or 2002 I did the BLR Pune trip on their Volvo. This was around the time they just introduced the Volvo - so you used to get some free snacks as well. Same good service, but had to get off at Katraj now that the byepass was commissioned.
A couple of years back I got the chance to use them again on Bangalore-EKM. The same good service, well maintained buses (I got one of the last seats) and punctuality was also good.
I would rate them as one of the top operators on the Ernakulam Bangalore route. I have subsequently used most of the others, but the only other service which I will rate consistently better are the Kerala RTC AC buses on the Bangalore Trichur route(Globus - not Volvo).
Cheers