One night in the Rajdhani Express.................

Day: 10th August, 2006
Time : 1730 hrs (IST)
Location : The New Delhi Railway Station
17 hrs since I left Chandigarh, I was tired, my trip to Noida was vain( I still wish to see the malls , Sigh ! May be some other time). I was thoroughly checked at the Railway station , my luggage was scrutinized to core level by the Delhi Police (Always there for you.)
Pretty soon I found my self standing at Platform No. 1 and had about 2hrs to kill before I boarded the Rajdhani Express. The heat was killing me and I had the usualwet look , the only place I found solace was under a fan and trust me, the feeling was heavenly at that moment.
Soon I was bored, bored of standing, bored of observing people, bored of almost every thing ,just then,there arrived a lady dragging her VIP (from the otherside sans the wheels , there are times when women out shine everybody when it comes to stupidity, what say ? lol Hey No Offences!) I helped her to figure out the righteous path (pun intended) for which the Madame was very grateful, I was feeling nice, calm (one more good deed for the day )and much happy dunno why?( At times a few nice and grateful words can do, wonders in a few seconds ,what medicines and science may take years to do, does any one agree?
Soon, what followed were the hunger pangs and I had to satisfy myself by savouring the elastic Vadas and Dosa (may be it was fried in crude oil) and to top it all the Sambhar was nothing but chilly powder mixed with water. I do hope you do get the picture.
A quick look at the LED at the platform informed me about the IST 1825hrs,"Another hour!", I muttered to my self and I found my self teleported to the book stall and the first book to catch my attention was the Five Point Someone-Chetan Bhagat soon the charaters of Hari, Alok and Ryan were giving me company and the feeling of solitude was lost for a while. I some how cherished reading the aforesaid, may since I read it at night (the night before my DBMS II exam lol). By the time I left the stall I had Mr. Bhagat accompanying me morphed as One night @ the call centre. And trust me what followed werea series of infinte events of conflicts between me, myself and God .
Soon it was 1926hrs IST by the LED clock and The Rajdhani Express chugged in right on time and all draped in .............cont.

orange and cream, India’s pride and I guess, it is the only train which has maintained its reputation, by reaching (always) on time, Anyways seat no. 6 (which costed me err... my parents a whooping Rs.1230/-only) in the AS/3, (a Three-tier Sleeper Air Conditioned…. guess its not always cheap to be comfortable…it was a 15hr journey) compartment awaited me, thanks to the last minute booking, which came to me like a miracle, that came true since my name was in the waiting list.

I was the first one to enter the bogie (stupid name I know …lolz), I had the window seat but in these so-called 3A(Three Tier AC- Sleeper) noise free compartments, you hardly get to see outside, courtesy the extra dark filmed glass used, well I had to satisfy myself with the, ‘You cant get every thing.’ theory, though I wondered, whether the trains needed permission for having colored film, an offence and security threat that generally (en)lightens you(r) wallet by a whooping Rs.1000/- (I don’t know if you have noticed this but this is almost equal to the money spent on my journey ) and I know I used the ‘whooping’ again oops ;-).

Well with my luggage (read as the fake Diesel bag I bought in Goa when my trusted bag gave away, by the way for Rs. 500/- what seemed a steal to me was just the opposite to my friends…. Sigh! I don’t want to bore any one with the history of my bag) neatly tucked under the seat, I sat down at last. A quick glance at my watch (read as Dilsher’s/ Charan’s ‘the argument still continues’ 3315, that I have been using as an alarm clock, watch and of course as a mobile though I still miss my W800i at times…ok sorry no more history lessons, I wonder why am I sounding like Chitra…(well she is a fellow blogger www.theamiablechick.blogspot.com) mumble grumble.

I chose to ignore the fellow passengers since I never bothered to have a chat with them, moreover, my mind was preoccupied by the Royal blue book which, I held in my hand ever since I bought it. Now was the time to know some people with whom I could relate my self. Most part of the night was spent in knowing Mr. Shyam Mehra a.k.a. Sam Marcy better, well as I read further the bond between Sam and Jeet (a pseudo name for me) kind of grew stronger. Well we both hated to work under pressure, the bosses (read some pathetic teachers in my case) thought of us as their private property and almost used as slaves, our folks thought of us as good for nothing blokes, both of us depended on friends for help, liked being at all hip places and good food joints and last but not the least we both were having problems in our love lives and we had been dumped at some time or the other in short we were familiar with the word ‘no’ in a much better manner then the affirmative ‘yes’. Yes, rejection was our cup of tea exclusively (but some how I prefer coffee over tea hehehehe)

I was reading, when I find something interesting to read (though that is very very very rare) I prefer to finish it in one go…guess this is the only time when my brain works like a compiler (Confused!!! About the compiler’s entry …hehehehehe pick up a Computer Networks by Tannenbaum and look for the Compiler vs. Interpreter and you will get the answer, guess it does pay to be a Computer Science and Engineering student at times lolz.) I was lying on the top birth with a proper bed laid for me bed sheets, blanket, pillow et all. The only breaks I had taken so far were for soup and dinner, I was almost half way through (the book and the journey) just when the guy next to me requested me to switch off the light (a luminescent yellow bulb and neon tube light), well when you are on the topmost birth, tasks like aforesaid are not always appreciated especially when you are engaged in reading something to which you can easily relate your self to, but still I got down and my fellow passenger was more than thankful, thus there was another good deed added.

Well there I was, standing in the compartment did not feel like climbing up again, I sat on another seat, which was somehow all empty though a comfy bed had been laid there as well, another glance at the 3315 confirmed the time 0216hrs IST (yes, I was still pretty much in India lolz), so the next day had started and I had already done one good deed for the day but still I could not sleep, the guilt of leaving Sam (my new best friend, who had been giving me company ever since I boarded the Rajdhani all along) was a little to much to bear so I started reading again and I don’t exactly remember when I dozed of and I only woke up when the catering staff woke me up for the breakfast. Soon after breakfast it was time to get back to reading, just when Mr. Ganesh Gupta had made his entry in the (read our) story, and I (rather we were) already chalking out plans to get rid of him, true friends follow the code of conduct of the Musketeers “All for one and one for all”.

Well by the time I finished reading Sam had already taken me to the best of the places in the NCR - clubs, cafes, Pizza Hut and even to the Rail and the Doll museums, while I just took him to the toilet and seat no.6 (I know that was bad on my part as a friend.) I (re)read certain parts of the book again just to understand the intensity of emotional pain suffered by my friend in one single night, while I had been pondering over such thoughts, the staff came up with the rating forms I gave them what we call a B+(pun intended), soon the all these guys (the staff) were literally begging for tips.

A flashback

Date: 23^rd November 2005

Place: A marriage place on the high way near Ludhiana

Talking about tips reminds me of an incident when we (my classmates and I) were at a friend’s sister’s marriage, all of us had been having fun the dinner was over we all were over stuffed and were talking about stuff (genuine male gossip ;-)) and soon we had the waiters swarming over us for tips begging us, falling on our feet, crying and using all sorts of heart rendering techniques.

Anyways all is well that ends well.

A reality check Ahmedabad Junction had arrived (1010 hrs IST- On time), the passengers rushed towards the exits (Indian mentality? I asked my self) soon the compartment was empty, I picked up my bag and headed for the exit, thus my trip in the Rajdhani was over but as I walked out of the train I knew that the memories were going to be with me for a very long time to come.

Peace Jeet

PS 1.Thank you Mr. Chetan Bhagat for a book, which made my journey, seem much shorter.

2.Thank you Indian Railways for providing me an environment where I could read comfortably.( B+ ;-) lolz)