Twists In A Tale !!!

Hi all,

Finally I am back and got some time to write this... Actually I have been waiting to write this more than ever...This one's about my journey to and from Ahmedabad... Travelled about 6000kms in 10 days... From Trains to buses to cars to Auto rickshaws to two wheeler all included...

After a continuous watch on ticket status finally when I got the seat numbers thought my tickets got confirmed... We were three of us as I mentioned in the previous blog.... But to everyone's surprise we had a fourth person to accompany us Vishal Shah a.k.a. Bond. We were waiting for the auto outside the mess when this guy decided to join us... In fact we had 5 tickets to Ahmedabad between 4 of us.... We had confirmed seats for 3 of us but could not get one for Bond so he had to travel in the unreserved class... We reached Hubli station morning 4.30am and we had to catch the train to Ahmedabad scheduled at 6.30am from Hubli so we had enough time... All of us slept at the railway platform... (Another first time for me).... Inspite of it being a busy railway station we all had quite a sound sleep after all the sleepless night during exams we could happily sleep even in the noisiest place... We had inquired about the platform so we need not worry about changing platform... 6.15am when I woke everybody suddenly we have an announcement "6532 Garib Nawaz Exp from Banglore to Ajmer is going to arrive shortly on platform number 5 instead of 3"... We got up in hurry packed the blankets and hurried towards platform 5... the Coach number was S11 ... the last coach of the train... and the steps reached at S1... 10 coaches plus a Pantry Car to be crossed and the train was already at the station... A stop of hardly 10 minutes... It was like a morning drill for us... hurrying towards the coach... Here comes another twist... The seats that I thought as reserved were actually not confirmed but in RAC wherein we get half a seat per ticket. So Aadmi 4 aur Seat sirf 1 ... bahut naa insaafi hai... more over the seats were not in the same compartment... so half seat in one and half in another... The train was jam packed with passengers all going towards Ahmedabad or some station in Rajasthan... (Marriage season!!!) no chance of tickets getting confirmed on the way also.... The Reservation coach seemed to be more of an unreserved class... Passing the day was fine but what about night...Luck favours the brave... We were brave to travel 4 people on 1 seat so luck favoured us and the 2 seats opposite to our seat were empty all day... neither did the passengers returned in the night... So Bond and Huda slept on one seat... and Gandaa slept on the other seat.. Now it was me who was left out... However, we had RAC tickets so half a seat... So I had to sleep on the half seat sharing it with some other passenger.... the side upper seat which is already the smallest seat in the railways coaches of length similar to my height...infact a couple of inches lesser than my height... could not even strech legs or change posture while sleeping... JAM got jammed...

Next morning 7 o'clock we were to reach Ahmedabad station but before that we have a small station Maninagar which is very near to my house and by the time train reaches Ahmedabad station I would have reached home so decided to get down there... So got up at 6.30am and packed the blankets and pillows and woke others also to get ready.... I asked the Pantry Attendant if the train was running on time and he said yes but when it was 7'0clock we had just reached Nadiad station... the train was actually running 1 hour late... When the train reached near the Maninagar station we got our luggage near the door as the stop is hardly of 30seconds to a minute... Indian Railways is not called great without any reason... The trains are expected to stop at the station but ours passed the platform and became damn slow so thought we would get down from the running train (Dangerous... Never done this before!!!) As only Bond and me were to get down I need not worry about the luggage as the other two would hand them to us once we get down... The platform passed and we got down from the running train... Well as soon as we got down and collected the luggage, the train stopped.... (Great Indian Railways!!!)

Very happy to be home.... Saw my newly born nephew.... peacefully sleeping... but wait the devil was actually sleeping and once he got up from sleep the exercise starts... everyone in the home tries to make him quite but the little devil would not stop crying... I picked him from his bed and he started to calm down... but when I put him down, he again started crying... Mom told me that not put him down ... he will cry more... What a habit the little angel developed... here's his uncle carrying him for next 30mintues to 45 minutes in his arm so that his mother could finish household chores...

In the evening I had to leave for Rajasthan... Again the tickets in waiting list... not confirmed... God!!! The Indian Railways was playing a spoil sport with me... Got the tickets cancelled and booked tickets in a sleeper bus.... What an experience... once the bus started and I felt asleep... I just could not make out the difference whether I was travelling in a train or bus... so comfortable... Plus my seat was covered with glass frames on two sides and wooden on the rest so no chance of the cold breeze coming in... (Rajasthan's winter are as harsh as its summers !!!)

Got down at Jodhpur at 6am and its was chilling... went to maternal uncle's home where my grandmother lives (Mom's mom)... I was so happy to see her and so was she... Got to eat hot jalebis with milk along with Pyaaz-kachori and Mirchi-vadas in the breakfast... a typical breakfast that you would find in a marwadi house in winter mornings... I was missing them... That's not all... my aunt prepared Puran Polis, my most favourite dish, for lunch....(Puran polis are jaggery and chana daal stuffed parathas to be eaten with ghee)

Life's boring without twists..... We had to board a bus in the afternoon to my native village about 100kms from Jodhpur... the bus also jam-packed... What to do... however got a seat besides the bus driver.... I sat on the engine hood in the bus on the way to my village... Another experience...My aunt's daughter's marriage was the actual agenda for going to Rajasthan... It's a tradition in our society that the bride's maternal side gives certain gifts to the bride's family and guests (traditionally called "Mayra" in marwadi)... So we went to invite few villagers for the function.

Next morning had to wake up at 6am as we were to catch the bus to Pushkar at 7am... But it was so chilly that neither of us woke up and we all were under blanket till 7am... however we got a 8am bus to Merta from where we changed bus for Pushkar.... On the way to Merta... I met a boy who is doing his BBA... and is going to appear for CAT next year... I told him about what he could do for preparing for his CAT (He has no coaching centres in his village or nearby town :( ) and also what could be other tests he should be looking for... I also gave my SDM card to him so that he can contact me... (Travelling helps networking and this was my first real time networking)... On the way I saw the villagers of small villages talking on their Cell phones and Sim cards for almost all the companies being available... Telecom wave was showing its effects... where there were no Landlines 5 years back, people are talking on mobile phones now....

When we reached Pushkar my cousin was very angry on me... she expected me to be there at least a couple of days earlier...but then however I explained her the system here and solved the matter... Pushkar is known for its Brahma Temple and the Animal fair... Well... also for the foreigners who come there ;) The market place was so lively with all the colourful traditional Rajasthani dresses and toys... but the year's recession had taken its toll on these also... the visitors were low and so were the sales...

From Pushkar we went to Jaipur in our car...With my sister and mom with us and Jaipur's main market areas nearby... we could not miss shopping there... Mom bought a couple of Saris and some bedsheets. We went to a shop called Narayanji who made jaggery biscuits (known as Gajak) and was the most famous person for Gajaks in whole of Rajasthan. If you are in Jaipur and you have not been to LMB's Vegetarian restaurant you have certainly missed something.... The restaurant serves food made in pure desi ghee since more than 200 years now and the food is undoubtedly the best...

The next day we had to travel back to Ahmedabad from Jaipur more than 700 kms journey to be made in car and we had to start early... but again the winter took the toll and we could start only at 10 am... However, the Indian Government has improved a lot on the infrastructure facilities in the country.... All through the 700+kms journey we had a great 4-lane tolled highway... The car could easily cruise at an average speed of 70-80km/hr. The amount paid for tolls was nearly Rs. 300 but then the time saved was very important. On the way where we stopped for our lunch, i saw a Porsche Carrera ... at the Highway restaurant... You don't see these beauties easily on Indian roads.... I love driving and hence asked my driver for the keys and told him to sit back and relax for some time... The road was so smooth and safe that I could easily drive the car at an average speed of 80-90km/hr with max speed at 110-115km/hr.Reached Ahmedabad by 10 pm.

The next day I had to meet my relatives, friends and even get my laptop serviced... I squeezed time and met as many of them as I could but still could not meet a few and they are furious about this... Well... sorry guys next time I will surely meet you before others. My mom was all busy preparing snacks for my stay of next couple of months at college.

I had a train next day at 2.30pm. Twists were the part of my whole journey... Initially Huda and me were to leave that day but Bond called a couple of days back saying he has a ticket and he is also coming with us... Great !!! well not so much... 2 hours before we were to board the train he tells me that the ticket he had was an e-ticket of another friend and hence he could not travel on that ticket... But then he knew that I had two tickets but he did not know that Huda was coming on the other ticket so now he had to cancel his trip and came next day by flight... that's not all our tickets were not confirmed till the day of departure.. thought again it would be a half seat travel...here's the twist the tickets got confirmed at the last moment and me and Huda returned by the train...

We reached a day late than the scheduled vacation but to our luck we did not have any session the previous day else we would be under the axe of downgrading for lack of attendance....Next day we had Infosys coming to campus and I was shortlisted for it... Had no clue of what to prepare for the interview just read something about the company.... Infosys is the largest recruiter for us and we all were looking forward to big numbers... They interviewed 32 of us and selected 18... Now that's a real large number for a strenght of 124 students....

Congratulations to all of themm...

Well yours truly could not make through...but no worries.... we are hoping for some more companies and as its said... It's not the end of the world.... So now I am looking forward to opportunities coming in future and hope to give you the good news of my placements soon...

Till then byeee and thanx for reading this long post !!!

JAM