Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Third Homecoming

Around 10 months since last post. I thought the time for that to happen would be about 4 months, when the last semester ended. But, staying in hostel , in the worst summer ever (where were the rains !), the thought of writing something did not even cross my mind. The fact that it was a time to do absolutely nothing can be confirmed by the number of movies I watched during the three months. That number is 2. This is about 100 times less than the minimum number I would have liked to come up with.
The Doordarshan series I was planning to write has to be put on hold for a while due to something more, what people might call, interesting. I think writing short posts in between is possible about Doordarshan, I do waste a lot of time waiting for some good amount of free time to come my way and this is how 10 months pass and my blog is not even one post richer.

Here is what I had to say:
Trains, my favourite topic for writing posts, are something that fascinate me as I am a new entrant to this humungous group of rail travellers. Not that I have not travelled before,but that was negligible in comparision to the number of times I have been in a bus, purely because I did not have anybody living as far that I would have to take a train to reach there. But since my father got shifted to Ahmedabad last year I have had many opportunites to travel in train and travel alone, which is always a learning experience as to how you react to conduct and misconduct of others and vice versa, etc.. Here are the three most of terrible/exciting experiences I have had with them, in increasing order, and it is just the part of reaching the station on time.


i. Day-14th August, '08; Train - Kisan Express; Journey - Delhi-Hisar(170km);
Occasion-Raksha Bandhan; Problem-3 day weekend=>Delhi Traffic, Rain

I started from my hostel around 1.5 hrs earlier for New Delhi Station( not that early, I know). As it was a 3 day weekend I could not find any autos which agreed to go the station (it happens, just because of the sheer number of commuters on those days). My cousin was also with me. When we could no longer wait in the rain further(must have been 15minutes), we got in the 620 number bus. Due the rain,jams, red lights and mostly the traffic we reached Janpath with around 10minutes for our train to leave from ND Rly Stn.( this was not the originating stop, 2nd or the 3rd one I think). We got out of the bus. Now it was raining heavily. Waited for auto, did not think we would find anything in the rain, but luckily found one. No other jams or anything till the station, got out of the auto, ran to the station, asked here and there which platform does that train leave from. Got one bad answer, did not find the train there. Asked again, had to go up to the over bridge and when we were coming down the stairs to the correct platform, we saw our train leaving right in front of our eyes. Still, got down quickly, the train had not gained that speed, so thought of getting on the train while it is on the move. As soon as we were about to board it, we heard something addressed to us - 'Datt jaao re, ib to rukkegi, ghani jaldi o ri hai'.
This translated from haryanvi means - Why are you in such a hurry, the train is going to stop. I heard those words, repeated them in my mind, and finally took a breath of relief. The train that we thought was leaving was in fact coming from another station and those were just one of the first few coaches of it (its relatively good speed, when it was about to stop had fooled us). The journey went smoothly in the AC chair car, filled with people, without tickets, occupying the area other than the chairs.


ii.Day-15th July, '09; Train - Ashram Express; Journey - Delhi-Ahmedabad(933km);
Occasion-Homecoming; Problem-Late start, luggage !

In all the excitement of going home after 7 long months, I did not realise how much packing needed to be done till I actually got down to it. That was because I had to take my dusty old computer from hostel room to home (love that computer !!). It is 4 and a half years old, but if I had the choice i would have liked to keep it in my room along with the laptop, which I did for the more than 4 months. Countless number of hours have been spent on that computer, playing games, watching movie, chatting, surfing, and all that with a 40GB memory. Many of friends are still amazed how I survived all these years on that configuration.
So with the train at 3.00pm when all the packing was done, I got out of hostel at 2.00pm. As usual could not find any autowallas willing to go to the Old Delhi Railway Station. I was getting very late now, so the first autowalla that agreed, I did not bargain for a second, but got on it. Late as I was, the auto had to get gas filled. Then around 2.35pm I was stuck in a jam at Daryaganj. Everybody had turned off their engines and the situation looked very bleak. I had to wait for 5 more minutes and then the traffic began to clear. But the auto's engine was not starting !! I thought I am bound to miss my train today. After around 10-15 tries the auto finally started and I reached the station at 2.55pm. Got down from the auto, signalled a coolie, told him to me to the train in 5 minutes. I had a CRT monitor, a CPU, a UPS, a box containing keyboard,mouse etc and two bags of my own out of which the coolie took the CRT monitor and CPU and we started to walk really fast. When we were entering the station, the security guys stopped us for checking the luggage !! I tried to show them the form I had from the institute saying that I have the permission to take the computer with me, but they were not ready to leave me. So i told them, my train will leave in 2 min and I have to go, they asked for Rs.50 and I instantly agreed and was through the security.
The thought that I might have to return with this much luggage in case I miss my train had already crossed my mind, though I was trying to avoid that thought and think of not loosing a bag or a box of my luggage in all this hurry. But the coolie had other ideas. In spite of running the fastest I could, he kept saying 'saab jaldi chalo, choot jayegi aapki gaadi',over and over again. I ignored his comments. And my eyes lit up when I saw the train on the platform. But my coach was still long way away. Even 5 seconds had not passed since I got on my coach, that the train started moving and I made a note to never start this late for station, especially with this kind of luggage involved.
The train journey was good, though I did not expect the weather to be very hot during the night, which it was.


ii.Day-13th October, '09; Train - Ashram Express; Journey - Delhi-Ahmedabad(933km);
Occasion-Diwali; Problem-Diwali !

With the self-note I made during my last experience with trains, I tried very hard not to start late this time. With cribbing about the minors going bad, specially the PHL on that day, plus some packing, 1.35pm was the best I could come up with for the 3.00pm train. As always, I could not find even a single autowalla ready to go to the station out of the 10 or so I asked. So, I thought, a better way would be to reach Main Gate and go from there. An autowalla agreed for Rs.25 to go there. I reached there in 5min and started waiting for autos. One autowalla agreed but he was asking for Rs.160, which I thought to be very high. I asked few autowallas but nobody else seemed ready to go there. I dont know whether they are scared of some ghosts living there or what, it is such a good place for autowallas, one would think.
After my offer of going to station was rejected by many autowallas, I came back to the Rs.160 auto and started for station. This was around 1.50pm. Not even 2 minutes had passed since I got on the auto and I could see looong jams near the IIT flyover. The autowalla took me from a different route, above the flyover, which I thought would have less traffic. But how wrong I would be I had no idea. It seemed every traffic light had turned red for me, on top of that, every road was filled with so much traffic, that memories of the worst traffic jams before diwali (in previous years) flashed before my eyes. The autowalla stopped for water in between !! I was in such hurry that I could have driven the auto and left him there, but the new route did not let me do it. I just asked him to hurry up.
In around 1 hr I had reached only India Gate and I had about 20minutes to cover up the rest of the distance. I thought if it was possible to catch that train, the only option from here can be the Metro. I told the autowalla to drop me at Central Secretariat. Somehow, some of the roads were closed in between and had to go through a different route to reach the Metro station. I got off the auto quickly and as haraami as the autowallas are in Delhi, he charged me Rs.150, fully knowing I had no time to bargain for the way shorter distance that he had to travel, than what was initially agreed upon. Anyways, I took my luggage which was a carry bag and a trolley(the fact that it can be pulled on wheels turned out to be great, retrospectively) totalling around 15kg, and rushed down the stairs of the station. I hoped for a ticket counter without any queue, and that is what I got.
I took gave a Rs.20 note, took the token for Chandni Chowk station(Old Delhi station) and the Rs.11 change and rushed to the entry. Got myself checked at the security and was running to the platform, when the policemen told me to get my luggage checked. I came back, got it checked through the scanner. As I reached my pocket for the token, I realised I dont have it ! I searched again every pocket but could not find it. I ran back towards the counter, leaving my luggage there. The policemen told me to get my luggage also. I followed their orders. Paid the fare, got the token , got myself checked at the security (deja vu :) ). Thankfully the luggage was exempt from the security this time.
Metro is never a good way to travel when all you have to is run and you are not accustomed to it. That is because, you dont have time to check, which platform is correct, which exit gate is good for you etc..I asked someone which platform for chandni chowk , and got down the stairs in no time. The metro was there and I boarded it. The Chandni Chowk was 5 stations away, and 10 minutes left for the train to leave. I had very little hope, but the best I could do in that situation now was just to sit and conserve my energy for the next dash that was in store for me. Every time the metro stopped for a few seconds at a station, I lost a little hope of ever catching that train to my home. I finally got down the metro at 3.04pm.
Anyone who has been to Old Delhi Metro station will know what I am talking about, when I say that the stairs you have to climb before you reach outside are never ending. I knew this since I had been there once before. Remember, all this while I was up and down, and running here and there with 15kg of luggage. I ran towards the exit and saw a lift before I could see the stairs !! But the doors closed as soon as I was about to enter. I had no other option but to run as fast as I can, through the stairs. The whole ordeal left me exhausted and completely devoid of any energy to continue my run. But I could not give up, took a long breath, waited 5 seconds and then ran again to the platform. This stretch was even more excruciating, mostly because I did not have any water or food too for dont know how many hours. I somehow reached the platform at 3.10 and did not see a train there. I asked around and was told that the train had left 5 minutes earlier. The pain and numbness in my arms and legs that had vanished in the hopes of seeing the sight of that train returned as soon as I got this news.
Having experienced this for the first time, I was not sure what to do now. I thought of some options for catching the train at next stop, but there was no way I could reach there befire the train. Remembering that the TTs always have few tickets etc with them, I asked one on the station for the next train to Ahmedabad, but he politely refused. As the next trains were from New Delhi Station and he did not have any role to play in that. When I was asking him, a guy overheard our conversation and asked if I wanted a ticket. I said yes. He took me to a travel agent's office, who was sitting below a bush, with a table and a chair. Two of them started to convince me about this bus that leaves at 5.30pm and reaches Ahmedabad at 10.30am next day. It was sleeper class and had only 3 stops. No matter how ok that offer sounded, I would have preferred a sleeper seat in train even if the bus was air conditioned. So, I told him that and he said the charges for 3rd AC ticket in Rajdhani Express was Rs.2400 (without the agent and tatkal booking, it is around Rs.1200). The fee he quoted was almost double and the train reached Ahmedabad almost the same time as the bus. So, the sleeper seat in bus started sounding like a fair deal to me. It cost Rs.950. In between I talked to father and sisters in my home and they started their own mission to get me on a train by exploring other options. While I had to finalise that bus ticket, since it was getting late and I feared even this would not be available afterwards. While I was coming back from ATM to give this agent money for the bus ticket, I got a call from home saying they have booked me a train for 3rd AC Rajdhani Express, at 7.55pm from ND Rly Stn (for Rs.1500). As I got back to the agent, I realised, the Rs.100 that I had given him would go to waste(cancellation charges). That is what happened.
The time was about 4.00pm and I had about 4hrs to catch my train, from a station one metro station away. I bought one bottle of water and slice. Drank them both. Rested for few minutes. And slowly got down the same never ending flight of stairs. But here the queues for tokens and entry were not something I hoped for. It took me more than 25 minutes to reach the platform, another 5 minutes for New Delhi station.
Though my ticket was booked, but I had to still get print out of the ticket which was mailed to me. I was told I would find a place to get that print out when I enter the station. But it was nowhere to be seen as I entered through Ajmeri gate. I asked around and was told that the place is on the other side of the station. So I crossed 16 platforms (I am carrying 15kg luggage all this while) to get to the other side. I searched for 15-20 minutes with everyone telling me different location of where I could get that print out. Somehow it all looked like a conspiracy, just to make me miss this train also. Tired of roaming uselessly, I saw the big market in front of the station and thought I would surely get what I need there.
I did not know that the market was Paharganj ! I was offered all kinds of hotels, and various other stuff, by almost everyone who saw me. In that market also, I was told that I would get that print out at about 10 places, all of which were not correct. At the end of it, about 2-3 different people told I would find it, deep in the main market. I looked at it, and thought it to be the last place I would go at that point of time considering how unlucky my day was. I called up my friend, asked him where I can find a cyber cafe in Connaught Place. After about 10 minutes, I got a call from him, getting the address for it.
I took an auto to go there, cost Rs.30. I reached the place, got 2 print outs which cost Rs.40 ! All this would have been done in Re.1 in hostel. I started to look for auto to get back to the station, but as unluck would have it, I did not find any. So I started walking back to the station(I still have the luggage). At around 6pm I reached the station.
I started to look to the display board to see which platform the train would depart from. But it was still 2hrs away and thus no information. I finally ate something (5 vada for Rs.20 ! ) from IRCTC canteen and reached the platform.
I had about 1.5hrs to spend and could only think of where I would have reached by now if I had not missed my train, though the experience would teach me something about not trusting the Delhi traffic ever (still have soreness in my forearm). I took out Stephen Fry's Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music in the meanwhile and waited for the train where I would find a bed, I had to lie down for a long time after this.
The journey afterwards was better than expected, with company of 4 other guys. We played cards, chatted a bit, but mostly I was waiting for the time when I would get to sleep. And it was the best sleep I have had in a train.