I planned for a home visit during puja way back in July. My parents have constructed an east side extension of our house and the opening (inaugurating) ceremony was due. They decided to coincide the timing of the ceremony with that of durga puja, so that I can enjoy both puja and the ceremony. ALso this being the festive season, people generally get free time and it will be convenient for them to attend the proceedings. Moreover, my friend Bijoy Das was also getting married during that time in my place Bongaigaon. All these put together, meant an exciting time at home and I just couldn't resist making the plan.
So I decided on the following plan: I will leave Bangalore on 8th Oct night on a 11pm flight to Kolkata. Then I will stay the night in Kolkata because there is no train to my place after that time and in the morning leave for Bongaigaon on Kamrup express at 11 am. The return would be on 16th Oct night on Guwahati Bangalore express. Quite a smooth plan. Tickets done, I waited eagerly for the time.
Little did I know that my company had other plans for me during that time. This generally happens on those small IT companies and when you are not a big shot in the company. The smell of trouble came right on the week before the week I was about to leave for home. My practice head had decided to Process my US visa and raised the request the week before. I was given an schedule of available dates next week. I chose the first day of the week and replied to the visa processor. To that, the practice head replied that on that week, there is a different plan for me and requested her to generate a new set of dates. He had some plan regarding me and i was not even aware of. Later he told me that there is a presales training in chennai for which, I am the only guy to attend. The training will last for week. And in the end, when i got the schedule, the training was scheduled to 9th Oct (A saturday, but in IT we have working days from Mon to Fri). That meant that I cannot catch the flight from Bangalore on 8th Oct. Alarm bells started to ring and even though I should have informed about my home visit and protested about this training, quite characteristically, I remained silent and thought I can make slight adjustments to the plan.
Finally the training got confirmed (my company didnt pay the money till the last moment) just 2 days before the training was scheduled to start and therefore, I had only almost 10 days to replan my travel. I canceled my ticket from bangalore to kolkata and did a ticket from chennai to guwahati on 10th afternoon for 8000/-. Although the price I paid for this is a little higher, the fact that I did it till guwahati made me feel comfortable.
On tuesday I reached chennai and my training began. It was a hectic training right from 9 o clock in the morning till 7-7:30 in the evening. How the training went is another tale. I spent the 8th night at Anupamda's place and caught the flight at 2pm at Tirusoolam. It reached borjhar at around 6:30 pm.
At the airport another incident happened which virtually defines my attitude towards strangers. After coming out of the airport at borjhar, the autowalas started pestering me and I somehow escaped them and reached the outer area. There I saw a maruti van with the front seat occupied by a girl and a couple negotiating with the driver. Thinking that the vehicle is about to be full and I will get a bargain on the fare, I asked the driver when it is leaving. "Ei jayei matro" is what he told. The negotiation of the driver and couple didnt work out and the couple backed out. Sensing further delay I left the van and started asking the autowalas for a deal. Suddenly, the girl, who was occupying the front seat of the van, approached me (in hindi) and asked whether we can share an auto. With the hope of a shared fare and female company for the road, I thought, why not. We booked an auto for 150.
The auto started and reached the road of the airport. Just then, the girl got a call from someone who lost his/her luggage at the airport. All I could figure out from the conversation is that the luggage that the person lost at the airport and the air ticket of the girl, which she threw away by that time, is somehow connected. She stopped the auto and requested (yes, requested) me that I either wait for her to come back from the airport or take the auto on my own.
Even though every cell in my brain cried "Protest", "Don't let her getaway with making her pay her share of the fare", I more or less agreed to take the auto on my own. Even though I muttered something like "happens" or "girls like that only", I felt that being walked over feeling I keep feeling at times. I tried to ignore the incident with a shrug but it still lingered on my mind till I reached home.
After that I reached home by the intercity passenger train, which was again late and my holidays started. During the holiday, attended Bijoy's marriage, met up with friends and relatives and ofcourse, enjoyed the griha pravesh at my own home. Anything to tell about those days, I will tell later.
On the day before I was supposed to return, I had a tight schedule. I had to have lunch at Abhi/Guddu's home and then take Ma to Mahi's place in Ujanpara. By the time I return from Mahi's place with my Ma, it was 8pm. I dropped Ma on our pathway and I went to North Bongaigaon to take the print out of the train ticket of the journey tomorrow. When I was printing the ticket in the internet cafe just opposite to the life pharma, I saw it and I knew it that I just screwed up my return journey. The status in the ticket showed as wait list 3 and the chart has been prepared. I took the ticket anyway and came rushing to home, hoping to catch a alternate train through online booking. I sat with the office laptop and the tata photon + internet and started searching through various options with a frenetic pace. Although I knew it was difficult but, still searched through available trains at howrah and there none that I could catch which will reach bangalore by Monday. Then I started juggling flight and train options and at times total flight options which were costing me a fortune. Finally I settled on a plan of train to howrah and then flight to bangalore. The flight to bangalore cost me 12000/- enough to sully my mood.
The timings were like this: From NBQ to HWH on a Special train whose name I dont properly remember, which was going to Lokmanya tilak station in Mumbai. Departure was at 10:45 and arrival at HWH at 14:20. Then the flight from Dumdum at 6:15 and reaching bangalore by 7:30-8:00.
I arrive at the NBQ station at 9:30 with brother and cousins, only to learn that the train is late by two hours. That being plenty of time and everybody missing the puja seeing, we decided to wander around the puja pandals for a while just to kill the time and be back around 10:30. When we came back after a little wandering it was still late by the same time. In fact the inquiry guy told us to come around 12 o clock. I particularly felt bad about naba, abhi and gudu who were staring at the prospect of being stuck with me till midnight on the puja day. So I tried to make the time more enjoyable by doing some talking (we hardly do at home) but no one seemed interested.
And finally it came, the LTT train (i got used to call it that way since the name contained those letters). To utter surprise, the whole train was empty. For a while I thought that it is not the train. But when the announcer repeated confirmed that it is the LTT train, I got in. And before anyone could make out why the hell it is empty, it started. Thus, before me and brother could think of anything else, we said goodbye and I said that I will keep him informed about my position. Inside the train, it was all the empty seats and dirt. Eventually, fear crept in my mind. The a sight of lone guy with a laptop bag with him will make an outlaw out of anyone. Earlier, the train getting late already set off my alarm bells and with this, things were certainly going against me. Thinking there was nothing to do, I tried to sneak into an upper berth (so that people can't see me from out side) and tried to entwine the bag straps with my hands so that if anything happens I wake up. With comforting thoughts in my mind and confidence in my power, I tried to sleep.
I woke up couple of hours later to sound of people talking. The shutters were down on both side of the coach and there was a couple on one side of the coach. Still half sleep, I went to talk to the couple and they told me they had closed the shutters after talking to the TTE (I think they were initially not sure about me but later came to accept me as a fellow passenger). We talked for while about the condition of the train. I got relieved that there is at least a family in the train and they have done all the safety measures. I trashed myself for not doing it earlier and went to sleep again.
Next morning, I woke up and learned that we were yet to reach NJP. Alarm bells started ringing again. It reached NJP at around 8:00 and later learned that it the right time at NJP was 3:05 am. Late by 5 hrs! My entire chance of making it to the flight depended on the ability of the train to make up for the lost time. It can at the maximum by two hours which was fine to me given that I will be reaching by 5:30 in the evening and with some luck from Godess durga on the Bijoya dashami, I could as well make it to the airport in time. But at the back of my mind I was beginning to make alternative plans.
When I reached Maldah town, I knew that I was late by 5:30 hours. I called up dada, who was outside home in the market to get internet either at home or in an internet cafe. In the next couple of hours, with the help of dada, I found out the customer care no of cleartrip and cancelled the ticket. (By that time I assured myself that I am not going to make to the airport. I checked out with both indigo and cleartrip if I could reschedule the flight with the same price but they said it was not possible. Thus I canceled the ticket. I felt good that they are going to deduct only 1000/- for the whole thing and I get my 12000/- back!) Dada also told me that there is a Bangalore bound train from Howrah at 8:30. I decided to catch that train and smsed my manager that I will be coming late by a day.
I got a general ticket and boarded the train on the general compartment. It was crowded like anything. I tried to find a place (on the floor, not on the seats) sit down doze of but it was impossible with the constant boarding and alighting of passengers throughout the initial journey. I got trampled, kicked and pushed throughout the night. It is only in the next morning that my faculties started to work and I went to the sleeper coach and looked for the TTE. The TTE, a young one, issued a penality receipt of Rs 45o on the receipt of the same and told me to take the seat no 16 on the S1 coach. When I reached there the seat had another occupant and said that he was travelling till bangalore. I just sat around that place ( the seats were getting empty as people were getting down) and by the evening, I figured out that one of the middle berth in the next compartment might be empty. I took my chance and went to sleep on that berth. To my comfort, nobody woke me up that night.
The journey from Yeswantpur to guest house I dont quite remember and am getting confused with a number of instances when I travelled from Hyderabad. May be I already felt like reaching my destination and was thanking God profusely for making it safe :)
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