A planned trip to Kolkata with unplanned mistakes

After a long and tiring day I was all set to go to Kolkata the next day to visit my cousin. And I committed my first mistake. To catch a train of 8:15, I had set an alarm of 7:15, which should have been 6:45 to reach the Railway Station in time. So to compensate, I had to miss my breakfast and rush while taking bath.
I left the hostel at 7:50 and reached the IIT's main gate at 7:55. I parked my cycle in SBI Building and went on the Taxi/Auto/Rickshaw stop to wait for a conveyance. I was looking for a Sharing auto which is fast and quite economic for students. After waiting for 10 minutes I realized that its high time to hire a Rickshaw and reach Station. But everybody knows the Rickshaw walas. They are like "Kuch bhi Karne ka tha Sanyam, bas Rickshaw wale ki ego ko hurt nahi karne ka tha". And I had badly hurt every rickshaw wala's ego who were standing over there, by waiting for an auto when they were staring at me in a hope that I will come to them begging for conveyance before their ego is badly hurt. This was my mistake 2.
But someone has rightly said "where there is a hope, there is a way". And the ray of hope began to brighten when a Rickshaw wala came out of IIT and stopped near me. I asked my awaited question in only 2 words - "Railway Station?". He was a bigger one, he replied in one - "Forty". I quietly sat into the Rick and left for the railway station.
Everything went fine on my way to Station, he dropped me at Railway station at 8:15. Luckily my train was 5 minutes late from the scheduled time. I ran to the ticket window and asked for an express train ticket to Howrah(A railway station in Kolkata). Next to me was a student too. he may be 2-3 years younger to me. He also took a ticket to Howrah. I approached him and asked "Howrah?". His eyes sparkled and mine were bright too to see that I am not alone in that boring journey, where I am going to be with people who will mix MURI and ALU CHOP in the dirtiest possible cloth called GAMCHA, and munch it in the whole journey.
After all these paranormal emotions, we rushed for the Steel express which was expected to leave at 8:20 and it was 8:19 by Railway watch. We decided to take the only way to platform 6, the step over bridge. - Mistake 3.
The bridge was full of people belonging to over decent category like I have explained earlier. It looked like I am in a gully of an ant farm, where the soldier ants guard the way for labor ants. Well I mentioned over decent crowd, they have one more distinctiveness, They won't let you go if you are in a hurry (quite like it will hurt their ego). And the clocked ticked 8:20, and with a siren of the engine, the train started moving while we were busy pushing the over decent people to make our way to the bridge. By the time we managed to get on platform, the train was far enough to be caught.
Well this mistake didn't prove to be dreadful, as another train was waiting for us on the adjoining platform for our destination. As we had express tickets, we boarded the general compartment of the train and stood there to get some place to sit. But the general compartment looked like a hot dog with an over decent people suassage. He managed half a seat and asked me to sit. I was obliged. Journey was good as far as company is concerned. I spent most of the time listening songs in my i-pod. In the last half an hour of our 2 hours journey, I was asked my name, and my new acquainted guy introduced himself with Heinslee, At first I felt he was the grand son of Bruce Lee. But one more look over him proved me wrong.
On deplaning, he guided me to the bus stand and also told me how to catch my bus for Pudupukur, Lansdown. After waiting for 15-20 minutes and questioning around 30 people with red teeth, I finally boarded the bus to my destination.
Finally I reached my cousin's place where I was welcomed very nicely with home cooked dishes and a soft and soothing drink. I was having my breakfast at 12 noon...
After a normal day, I was all set to get back to my campus in Kharagpur. At 9:30 we went to the nearby bus stop, to go back to Howrah station. This time I was going for Puri Express whose departure time from Howrah was 10:35. - Mistake 4.
Wondering why is it a mistake?
Well, i was in Kolkata and I have only 1 hour to reach my destination which is 10 km away. And I am still waiting for a bus.
Well after waiting for 20 mins, at 9:50 I thought of taking a taxi from there and bid a goodbye to my cousin and her husband. I was clever enough, by not knowing the actual way and not letting the taxi driver to take the longer way by the reason of traffic jam at 10:00 PM in the city which has no life after 9:00 PM.
I reached the Railway station at 10:25. The troubles were not yet over. I had only 10 minutes to locate the platform, reach the ticket window and take an express ticket, and rush for the platform (one out of 23). To be precise, i was at platform 1 and my train had to leave from platform 22. That was not all. The biggest problem was that the train was on time and I was not worried about that. I somehow found an open window near platform 1 and asked for the ticket. He said that there is no express at this time. Well he was right at his point, as I was standing on old Howrah and asking him for a ticket to the train which is leaving from new Howrah. I rushed to new Howrah which ranges from platform number 17 to 23. Well I wasted my one minute at the inquiry for a formality of asking about the train I had already known. Mistake 5.
Still wondering why a mistake?
Well I had only 4 minutes left to take the ticket and board the train and I was busy with the man in his middle 40's sitting at the inquiry window.
Anyways, I reached the ticket counter and I was happy to see that I was the third person in the queue. I took the ticket and started walking for the train. Mistake 6 - I was walking.
By the time I reached platform 17, it was 10:35. For a change which left me astonished, the train started moving at the right time, i.e. 10:35:00.
I thought I have missed this train too. and with no hope I walked up to platform 21, after which there is a roadway, where the cars can be parked.
Suddenly.... The soldier in me woke up and said.. "NOT AGAIN, I am not leaving the train". And I started running towards the train, which was atleast 50 meters away from me at that time. I started running with a shopper's stop poly bag in my hand, as fast as i could. Obviously, I had to run faster than the train. I was amazed to see the people who were waiting for the next train started cheering for me, as I was going to catch a moving train which is 50 meters away and accelerating. It filled more energy in me and I started running faster. When I was around only 5-7 meters from train, I was exhausted and my limbs were urging for oxygen. But my soldier woke up again and said "AB KIS MUH SE WAPAS JAYEGA ULLU?". I started running even faster and finally I could manage to get into the last compartment in the train, which was reserved for Disabled people. Well, if I had been questioned at that time. I was highly disabled :P . I could not move even a bit because of 2 reasons. Firstly, I was totally out of energy. Secondly, there was no place to stand, forget about reaching the seating area and having a seat. I just had place to stand one any one of my paining feet and spend my whole journey, as the train was going to stop after 2 hours at Kharagpur.
Well the train reached Kgp before time, that too 15 minutes early. I was astonished for the second time to see the train reaching a station before scheduled time and that too in the state WB aka PaschimBanga... I don't know what made the govt, change the name of the state and rather keeping something sensible, they just translated it into Bangla and removed an 'l' from it.
Finally I reached IIT in 10 bucks less than the normal fare (that too by some clever bargaining). Took back my bicycle and happily headed towards my hostel.

Things I learnt and would like to share...
1. Train is like a chance. If you loose one another will come, but you may or may not have to wait for it.
2. If you miss a train by a few seconds. Or a chance by a small gap of time and you feel its impossible to catch/recover it. It may still be possible to cover up and be in a better position by some hard work.
3. Always take some margin in time if you are going to board a train. Always be ready for the opportunities you expect.

Trip to PUNJAB, a trip to heaven

Feb 16th 2010, I came back to Dehradun from Jaipur after finishing my GATE exam, was in a full mood to hang around to a new place where no one has ever been to, like no on ehas ever thought of, doing something that no one has ever imagined.


In the noon, I logged in to check my mail. I was delighted to see a mail from di which contained an invitation to visit PUNJAB.

So the lazy guy who had not yet unpacked the travel bag which he took for the trip to Jaipur, Picked up the bag and was ready to go.

Next morning, 17th Feb, I woke up, (as my roommates were not in the city so did not have to fight much for the bath room and get ready soon). I took my already packed bag and left the flat without knowing how to go, where to go and especially am I really going or not... ;).

But finally after a small discussion with my land lord and other neighbours of mine - about the route to Punjab, I had a feeling that "Yes I am going to Punjab".

Finally the IDIOT got an idea of checking out the Google maps which turned out to be fruitful.

The route decided was something like:

Bus from SELAQUI to HERBERTPUR to PAONTA SAHIB to AMBALA to LUDHIANA.

I was excited to see that I am going to change 4 busses. I decided the trip to be very short and very economic, as I had a very little in my pocket after the celebration of finishing of EXAMS.

So I took my bag and caught the bus from SQ to HB which took half an hour.

Further journey was a challenge for me, because it was first time in my life that I was travelling to a new place alone. I know it was too late to do that, but I had to make a start by doing this.

From HB I took a bus to PAONTA SAHIB, the bus was too good except the hopeless shockers, shouting windows, stinky conductor and the rash driver. It took around 45 minutes from HB to reach PS. On my way I got a chance to see how nature relies on man when he wants to master it. The birds and ducks in the dam in the morning time looked like someone as put pearls on velvet.

After the dam the road shared one of its sides with the boundary of a canal. I had seen the canal so close for the first time.

In 45 minutes I reached KULHAL which is the end of UTTARAKHAND state and there is a bridge between KULHAL and PAONTA SAHIB. This bridge doesn’t only connect 2 cities but also connects 2 states which have a holy boundary of the Yamuna River.

After reaching PAONTA SAHIB, I came to know that it was famous for 2 things, firstly for its LANGAR in the GURUDWARA and second was the alcohol. Yamuna river touched the boundary of the GURUDWARA making that calm and peace giving place a good picnic spot too.

I had to cross that bridge by walking over it because there was no public transport which could take me to PAONTA SAHIB and only a fool will go by that public transport and miss those scenes of nature, whose picture once clicked in mind can never be washed by any agent or reagent. While walking I could feel the vibration of the heavy load vehicles which accompanied me over the bridge and made the bridge vibrate like a swing in an amusement park.

The water level of the river was not above knees in which I notice a fisherman standing in the river and folding his net in the hope to get some good fishes from the life rich waters of Yamuna. But I could see that no fish was unlucky enough to be trapped in the net making the poor guy lucky. I could just take a pic of that beautiful place and move on.

The mobile was in roaming as I had left back UTTARAKHAND and reached HIMACHAL PRADESH. My cell phone rang for the first time in the trip, I was shocked to see my senior Kanni's number who stayed in Khanna(40 km from Ludhiana). Kanni had passed out last year as and E&C engineer from our esteemed university. We fixed a meeting with him in Khanna on my way from AMBALA to LUDHIANA making my journey 5 breaked.

After crossing the bridge a helpful man of his mid forties guided my way to the bus stand. I had to cross the main market of the small town which could hardly consist of 200 shops. After a zig zag route, he told me to take right in a narrow street through which a scooter could hardly pass by. It led me to the well known backdoor of the bus stand. What I could make out was that the back door was made by taking a couple of bricks out of that pink coloured wall.

After reaching the bus stand I came to know that there is no direct bus to AMBALA which was supposed to be my next destination. I had to take a bus to Jagadhari and change a bus from there which could take me to AMBALA which made my journey 6 breaked. I was lucky to get a less bumpy and better cushioned seat bus to Jagadhari.

I threw my bag in the baggage above the seats and chose to sacrifice the cushion seat and make my trip adventurous by sitting on the roof carrier of the bus. The first 10 km of the journey was in the hilly forest area which made my ears numb for a while and helped to reduce the bus engine’s noise. I could see the nature’s beauty in one more fashion, the road fully covered with the yellow leaves which could have fallen in that season, and the monkeys afraid of the bus horn and the small water bodies which were merely visible through the pinholes of the leaves gaps. After the hilly region of Kalesar National Park area, farms of different kinds of vegetations started. I could just make out sugarcane farms and mustard farms. I could feel the chilled and foggy blow of air hitting my chest over which i had just worn a simple thin cloth T shirt.

Luckily the tyre punctured 15 km before Jagadhari, on a station named Chachrauli and more luckily I got a lift on a tractor which was driven by a heavy built Haryanvi guy, who took me to his farms, where I got a chance to taste the freshly plucked Sugarcane and freshly prepared jiggery whose preparation gives out a smell similar to a dead animal, rather worse than that. He made my day in that one and a half hour. He dropped me 15 km ahead of Jagadhari from where I got the bus to AMBALA.

Will be updated soon........ :)