A Journey to remember! Part-I

Looking back, I think it was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my short life. I was glad when it was over, praying "Please God, let this be one of those 'Once in a lifetime' experiences". I hope someone up there heard me for it was straight from the heart!

Ok.......Let me start from the start........I had booked the tickets almost two months before the journey was to actually take place. The tickets were not confirmed when I booked them and as luck would have it, they were still unconfirmed when the train actually started on its journey to the place I belong.........

On the day of the journey, we started for the station (late as usual) from the office. The 'we' here includes Sonal, Khush and yours truly. We got into the only rick that we could find, who apparently would have had difficulty in getting fare back from the station for he asked for twenty rupees over and above the meter fare or maybe he was just taking advantage of our situation.......may God bless him with a severe case of piles!

The train was to leave at 5:20 and we got out of the rick at five O'clock sharp. I paid the rick driver and we started on foot towards the main entrance. Khush bid us goodbye at the entrance for she had to catch a bus to Mumbai. Now it was Sonal and I facing the humongous mass of humanity crowding every available inch of the entrance. Just then somewhere from the barely audible loud speakers we heard the announcement " Jhelum Express will leave on time from platform no. 1 ". I thought 'Great! What a time for the Indian Railways to show their punctuality'. Sonal phoned her friend who was already waiting at the platform for us. She suddenly turned towards me and said " We need to go to the platform by getting round the stairs". She might as well have said something in German for I was clueless. 'What stairs? Why can't we go by the entrance like everyone else?' By the time I could ask her these questions she was on the phone again probably getting the directions. After she was off the phone I followed her as she marched forward as if she knew the place like the back of her hand. After walking 100 meters or so we saw the stairs that we were supposed to go around. But seeing that all we had was a three feet wide passage that was filled with humanity, I had serious doubts about the odds of us reaching the other end in one piece, so to speak. But undaunted she marched on and all I could do was try and keep pace. We took the crowd head on and tried to bully our way through. I don't know how many souls were hit unwittingly by the bags that I was carrying but I was too busy not to fall down to actually stop and apologise. After a grueling two minutes which seemed like eternity we were finally able to go around and climb the stairs to reach the platform safely. 'Yay!'

On the platform Sonal's friend was waiting for us. Another one of Sonal's friend, Atul, was to board the train with us. He joined us shortly and I think it was 5:20 when we regained our composure and frantically ran towards the train still believing it was on time. We climbed into the first third AC coach we could find. 'Gosh! that was close. We almost missed the train. I am so glad we made it!'. I was so busy rejoicing that I failed to notice that It was almost 5:30 and still the train did not look like it was moving any where in a jiffy.

In a short while, we found out that the reason the train wasn't moving anywhere was that the reservation chart had not yet been prepared. I found this ridiculous as the chart is suppossed to be put up at least two hours before the departure of the train. We also needed to look at the chart because our tickets were still wait-listed. Frantic calls were being made by Atul and I so that we could find out the status of our tickets. But no updates were forthcoming. I called up my Dad asking him if the tickets were confirmed as he said they would be (you know he is a govt. officer? :D). But Alas, nothing could be done until the chart is prepared. So we waited. At last after almost two hours of waiting in the humid and cramped conditions, we heard the bad news. "The chart has been prepared and our tickets were still not confirmed". At this point I seriously considered getting off the train and try to book a flight instead. But we had no option left but to endure this journey of 28 hours (officially) without any place to sit or sleep. I dreaded to think where we would sleep. I knew the answer but I did not want to think about it. The train at last started from the platform and I braced myself for a journey that was sure to be unforgettable.



To be continued......