Journeys..

Couldn't come up with a better title ;)

This blog comes more out of frustration than anything else. It comes at a time when I realize you need more than just a good book and some food when you’re travelling overnight just by yourself! I’ve had some really amazing train journeys till date. One of my earliest blogs would’ve been about how you can make the most of a train journey, how you meet people of different tastes and kinds. But that got stopped somewhere in between and was never completed.

My first journey today was from the Hi-Tec city MMTS station to the Kacheguda Railway Station, from where my train to Bangalore was supposed to leave at 19:05. A very cautious me (very rarely am I that ;)) reached the MMTS station well in time, confirmed the PNR status of my ticket (I was at RAC 3 even when I left from office) at this new machine I discovered exists and got into an overcrowded train! My destination was 13 stations away, but I had no complaints standing. Had a couple of cute little babies around who are always a delight to watch, as long as they don’t start wailing! I got a seat when I was 6 stations away. This was like a lot of journeys I’ve had while I was travelling between Mysore and Bangalore. You don’t really know anyone on the train, but yet a polite smile or decency of offering your seat for an elderly person or someone carrying a kid always offers you some brownie points :) Here even though I didn’t understand the language most of the people around me spoke, the basics still helped me out.

I reached Kacheguda at the scheduled time and not knowing what to do bought 2 STATES, a book I vowed never to read after reading the second and third books by the author! And till now it’s going pretty good :) And then I was the perfect stereotypical example of someone sitting in a coffee shop with a book in hand, sipping on coffee and with a laptop lying around!

At 18:20 I moved towards my train, still having to confirm my seat after checking the charts. After that was done, I thought the journey would be a smooth one, and boy was I wrong! (I dunno the exact word for the section containing your seat and the 7 seats with yours, so for now we’ll call it the base :P) So the first co-occupants of the base turned out to be this couple with an annoying ‘healthy’ kid (that's what most North Indians call FAT kids :P), probably 7 years old. And then started the unstoppable series of stupid songs and rhymes learnt I dunno in which school! The obviously tired mom was just trying to get some sleep. After a while the dad used a rather insolent means to shut the kid up, and then started the crying! The kid wouldn’t stop even after everyone else went to sleep! (I immediately felt the need to call my parents and apologize for being a brat who used to cry at the smallest nudge just to get things done my way :P I know now how annoying it is!) Then there was this group of overly enthusiastic old ‘South Indian’ people (yeah I am one too, but I just had to stress!) along with some vexatiously loud youngsters in the next base who just wouldn’t stop singing Hindi songs in a heavily South Indian accent! (Yes I do realize I would’ve created more ruckus if I were in that big a group. This time I was on the receiving end of it, which just added to my misery.)

Finally after eating what was decent tasting curd rice, I was more glad than ever to get to sleep! I was under the impression that SLEEP was something that would get me away from the not-so-memorable journey that I was having. In between this, I got some news that cheered me up for a while :) I WON the Really Tough Movie Quiz on CNN IBN’s Now Showing :D (Yes I do find the need to show off a little ;) My name was on National TV for God’s sake!) I FINALLY finished watching ‘The Prestige’ (oooohhh Hugh Jackman!) and decided it was time to retire to bed. What I was about to encounter was worse than what had happened till now: THREE men in the base snoring and sounding like bears grunting! I tried making all possible signals, the usual chucks to put my message across, but absolutely nothing worked! I just went to sleep, hoping for a better tomorrow and praying for a better journey back….

P.S: The return journey WAS amazing :) no crying kids, no screeching songs!


Written: 21st November, 2009. Published: 2nd December, 2009.