My Train Journey Part – 2

cont. from last post :

As I stepped out of train I asked what is the departure time of passenger train to Ujjain. I heard 10:30 in reply from a porter. I looked at my watch that was showing 10:19. I had 11 minutes in which I had to go from platform no.2 to 1, buy a ticket and then run to platform no. 5 to catch the train. I had a very heavy suitcase with me that I need to run with. I was in dilemma whether I should give it a try. I had another ticket with me that I had booked for my onward journey, but that train was scheduled at morning 5. That meant I would have to spend whole night in the waiting room with sleepy people and mosquitoes. It took me 5 seconds to decide that I have to catch the train in next 10 minutes. I ran with all my energy with a bag on my shoulder and sliding the suitcase on wheels.

I somehow managed to get a ticket and to reach the platform 5 in time. I was happy for my victory for 30 seconds before I came to know that departure time is 10:50 and there was no need for this much hurry. Anyways I started looking for a seat in every coach but the train was fully crowded. So I chose a coach randomly and put my luggage inside.After putting my suitcase under a seat I started looking for seat where I can adjust myself with people already sitting there. But people understood my intentions and stared shifting till the end of seat so that I can’t even think of asking them for some place. I gave up and was standing against a seat.

Then a person who had occupied one seat with his bag offered me the seat. I thanked him and sat with a sigh of relief. I was expecting to reach home by 3 O’ clock and was happy to save around 6 – 7 hours. Everyone was looking at their watches as it was 10:50. I was expecting train’s whistle at any moment.

Meanwhile as usual I started looking around in the coach, but this time with no expectations . It was heavily crowded. There was no place even for standing. It was completely occupied till entry gate. Everyone was sweating and cursing the railways for delay. I heard some people joking that now the train will start in the morning. And it took one complete hour for train to start.

It was 12 in night by that time. Those who were standing were still searching for some place to sit. Some were arguing loud with others. I saw a so called educated family occupying two seats where the man had occupied one complete seat. They were not ready to adjust even 1 person. After some time everyone started feeling sleepy. One man lied down on the floor and slept without caring for what others feel. Then I saw a guy trying to sleep in the place where the luggage is kept. He somehow managed to get in and looked at everyone with proud.

The train was moving slowly and at every station people were boarding and leaving the train. I was trying to keep my eyes open as it was not possible to sleep. An uncle started to lean against me in sleep and in frustration I asked him to take support from his wife.

After some time somewhere someone dropped water from his water bottle. The water was on the floor moving due to train’s movement. Everyone started shouting at the unknown person for making their bags wet. The person on the floor was still sleeping unaffected. By the time my sleep had gone away. Rest of the time I again spent looking out of window in dark.

Finally my destination, my home town had come. I got out of train and proceeded towards auto rikshwa stand.

My Train Journey Part – 1

It was time to go home finally. I had vacated my hostel and one night before my journey I was at Sudharma’s flat along with some friends. I had my train early in the morning at 6:25. The same A.P. Express that made me write my first blog . To avoid the repetition of history this time I wanted to make sure everything goes according to plan.

I again had a night out to avoid wake up early in morning. We played cards in night and then I started to get ready by 3:30. I was ready by 4:40 and Ram was to accompany me till station. This time I wanted to make sure I reach in time, so we decided to start so early. We got a cab after waiting for around 10 minutes and we reached Mehdipatnam around 5 A.M. This time I think the story was like “Miss me if u can”. We took an auto and by 5:15 at the station. We realized we have reached too early this time.

We met Umesh on station who returned from Bhopal by Dakshin Express. We went to the platform where A.P. was waiting for us to board. After I settled my luggage Umesh and Ram left to catch MMTS train. I was getting ready to sleep as per my plan. I expected there would be no problem in catching sleep as I hadn’t slept last night. As soon as I closed my eyes I heard two words -”Bread cuttlet”.

The best way to pass time is eating I suppose. And moreover its difficult to  ignore tasty stuff. So I bought 1 plate and realized my decision was not bad. It tasted very nice. Now I was to get a nice sleep for sure. I slept for around 4 hours till 12 noon. When I woke up my shirt was completely wet by sweat. It was extremely hot that day. The fan were giving out very hot air. I could feel the heat on my feet.

I could sense the 5 tough hours to come till evening. I looked around to see other passengers in my coach. And as good luck always is with me, no pretty girl in my coach. All such good things happen in my stories only. So cursing my bad luck I observed other people.

On the other upper berth there was a guy almost same as my age. Then  I could see three men sharing side lower berth. I looked at the people sitting on lower berth. A muslim guy in white dress reading a book. He looked like advertising for Surf Excel with his ultra white dress. Then there was Telgu speaking man speaking on his phone. A very fat man with his stomach protruding out thrice than his face if u have a top view. One more young teenager was sitting near window.

Nothing interesting so I decided to try to sleep again. But It was not easy. I had to wash my face 4-5 times till evening to get some relief. Frequent intake of cold water and cold drinks was also necessary. I was eagerly waiting for evening. I came down at 5 in the evening and stood at gate to enjoy scenery outside.

I had bought an issue of Outlook that I finished reading in 1 hour and still 4 hours were remaining in arrival of Bhopal. I spent rest of the time looking out of window. Finally Bhopal arrived and it was 10:20 P.M. Till this point It had been a very boaring journey. Let’s see what happened in journey from Bhopal to Ujjain, in my next post. Coming soon !!!

Catch me if u can

Q. Makrand just caught the train in time (almost 30 seconds time constraint).The reason was :

A. He was careless.

B. He was not ready in time.

C. It was his good/bad luck.

D. It was written.

The story starts in NBH hostel in IIIT-H . It was early morning at  5 O clock .I was ready after taking bath. I had all my luggage packed n was ready to go to railway  station. I had to catch A.P. express at 6:25 and at that time i did not expect what was going to happen in next one and half hour.The plan was that umesh ,his brother dharmesh,amitabh and i will be going to station together on 2 bikes. Dharmesh and i were going in the same train till bhopal and from there i was to board on the other train to ujjain.

I had not slept the whole night to make sure that i dont have to worry about waking up in time.Thnx to counter strike that made it easy for me.So i went to umesh’s room and asked dharmesh  to wake him up .He too was awake whole night and was starting to get ready.Here the things started happening. I didn’t have amitabh’s no. so i asked him to call amitabh when umesh wakes up.I came back and after that i went back at 5:30 n to my surprise umesh had just woke up and thus amitabh was called at the same time.So this was just beginnnging of being late

Now see how Murphy’s law ” When anything can go wrong ,it will go wrong at the worst possible time” started acting in coming time.I did not have amitabh’s no. so he could not be called in time.Any ways we all were ready at 5:45 and it was still manageable to catch the train easily as it would take at max. half an hour.But most of the times,nothing happens like we think .

Before we started it was decided that our bikes need to be refueled. Me and amitabh were on 1 bike and umesh n dharmesh were on other bike.Stupidly i assumed that they will stop at the first patrol pump in the way and we stopped there waiting for umesh to come there.We wasted around 5-7 minutes there and menwhile i tried to call them but as they were on bike so they could not listen the call.

Now the real thing started.Umesh canceled the plan of refueling the bike as he thought that it was already late but we did not know this. Meanwhile,we decided to go ahead and catch  them in between ; somewhere near mehdipatnam assuming that they will be behind us but they had actually way ahead of us. Now me and amitabh were confused about the way after mehdipatnam to hyderabad station ,so we called umesh and asked them to wait at mehdipatnam. But he could not listen due to traffic and when we reached mehdipatnam, he was very near to station.

Now we were asking people on road for the way to station.Luckily we met people who were showing correct directions.But after a while we got a bit lost in the streets of old city.Time was running out minute by minute.My idea of great vacation at home was about to be ruined.Umesh called us telling that train is ready to go and come immediately.We were still struggling in streets and i was watching every minute passing away on mobile phone clock.I was just praying that train should get dealyed by few minutes.I could see my dad’s face appearing in front of me asking me questions – why did u not start early to station ?why did u not have some margin of time?

I was asking amitabh constantly to hurry up even though we both didn’t know where to go.In the frustration, ‘ F ‘ words started coming out of mouth . Finally we could see a familiar road n were sure that we are heading in correct direction. I was still shouting at myself for wasting those preciuos 5 minutes at patrol pump.We still were not sure that whether we will be there in time coz my watch was showing time 6:23 and train ticket showed departure time 6:25.At last we were in front of station and i saw from a distance that road was blocked and we can not reach near to entrance gate by bike.

I almost jumped off from the bike and ran towards that gate. I could see the train standing rite in front of me on platoform no. 3  and challanging with a smile -”Catch me if you can “.I hit a man badly in the way ,while running towards gate (sorry to that person if he comes across this page some day).I was now on platform no. 1 and i didn’t know how many seconds are left in departure.I was looking at the railway track on both sides and was thinking whether i should cross from here or take the bridge route.

Suddenly the train gave a signal and a person from the train’s food section shouted that no train will come on this track so just come through the tracks.I trusted him and jumped on the track and hit very hard.I could not balance myself for a moment and took some seconds to settle down. I put my bag in the train and was about to put my leg on the train steps and suddenly the train started moving slowly.

I dont know what happened to me and i froze there and the gate had moved some 4-5 feet away in those 3-4 seconds.I regained myself and at  that time a hand came out of train coach for my help .But alas ,that hand was not of Simran ,else  a DDLJ scene could be there in reverse roals ,this time Simran on the running train offering her hand .In place of DDLJ insturmental music in the background ,all i could listen was the harsh sound of train engine.That hand was offered by an old,big,fat uncle.But he was a life savior at that moment.Thnx to that person if ever comes acroos this page

Finally i was on the train ,ofcourse in some other coach.I called umesh telling him that i managed to catch the train .While heading to my coach i was just thinking about everything happened.I was thinking about “Curious Case of Benzamin Button ” sequence where it was shown that how interrelated events leaad to final event that has to be happened.In my case,if any of the above mentioned events had not happened ,we could have reached the station much before time.

I met dharmesh in the same coach and luckily his seat was just next to me I feel sorry ,because of allthis, he could no say proper good bye to his brother .We talked about what had happened after starting from college and were laughing at everything.I was feeling sleepy and before closing my eyes , i found the answer to the question asked in the beginnnig of this post.No prizes for guessing ,the answer was same as in Slumdog Millionaire.

D. It was written