As usual indian roadways, railways, airways stand apart from their clients, in their inability to communicate. Reaching the purani dilli railway station was no less than a nightmare. With these add-on delays, the sprawling crowd at Rajiv chowk metro station was all ready to crush me in a stampede as the train arrived after a 15 minutes delay. When I finally made it to the chandni chowk station, the railway station platform was another good stretch of walk. Once at the platform, reaching the AC coach, which was at the other end of the platform was like a race, considering the display board said the train departs on time at 3:20 pm, and I had to run with my luggage in that crowded platform in some 7-8 minutes. Only to find that the doors of all AC coaches were locked. What seemed like an impatiently long hour, hoping the door would fly open in another 10 minutes every 2 minutes, as soon the cleaning is done, it was quite a giggly affair with the fellow passengers getting mad and stomping on the door, threatening the sweepers that they would complain against them, and looking at the audacity of the young sweeper to reply back- 'Kar do complain, abhi darwaza nahi khulega' was hilarious.
When my feet gave up on bearing the weight of my torso, I finally landed on top of my suitcase. A bit awkward that it was, I managed not to slip and fall, only to gather the attention of my mocking fellow co-travellers who were busy enjoying those aunties still cursing the railways and fearing that the train would leave without taking them on board.
The doors finally flung open to everyone's relief. I immediately settled in my chosen upper berth with all my bedding neatly done. A quick nap and then I was all geared up to get to some pending tasks all on my phone. Dozing a bit in between, chatting with people at other times, I couldn't pay much attention to this novel I had by my side. Too much distracted to focus, honestly.
All of a sudden I heard someone singing 'Humma Humma' close by. Ignoring it at my best, which is a basic survival instinct for we girls, I continued googling around on my phone. From what was singing, it turned to loud munching noises, only to follow the song playing loudly on that weird uncle's phone who lay on the berth right in front of me. I still found myself a little less distracted when the song stopped and his snoring began. It was a stink that now rose my nostrils. The uncle next to me had those smelly socks pointing towards my side. *Smells* I have an overly sensitive sense of smell (good to be compared to that of a sniffing dog). And fetid smells is something I can do nothing to stand.. So that made me leave my zone of still-some-comfort, to climb down my berth and sit with my neighbors in that compartment, a lil girl who kept referring to me as 'aunty', another uncle whose earphones spread all the sound outside his ears listening to all dhinchak songs, and another group of highly intelligent men discussing "Modi ji" ki new year's speech. And me, holding my head in my hands, trying to get away from the nausea, hunger, sleep! Just when I couldn't find a solution to it, I thought of penning it all down. And guess what, I just arrived, Jaipur it is..! 😊
Another hour maybe to get some food and see some familiar faces.. And then another hour to start 2017.. Sounds like a happy new year to me..
Happy New Year 2017!!
When my feet gave up on bearing the weight of my torso, I finally landed on top of my suitcase. A bit awkward that it was, I managed not to slip and fall, only to gather the attention of my mocking fellow co-travellers who were busy enjoying those aunties still cursing the railways and fearing that the train would leave without taking them on board.
The doors finally flung open to everyone's relief. I immediately settled in my chosen upper berth with all my bedding neatly done. A quick nap and then I was all geared up to get to some pending tasks all on my phone. Dozing a bit in between, chatting with people at other times, I couldn't pay much attention to this novel I had by my side. Too much distracted to focus, honestly.
All of a sudden I heard someone singing 'Humma Humma' close by. Ignoring it at my best, which is a basic survival instinct for we girls, I continued googling around on my phone. From what was singing, it turned to loud munching noises, only to follow the song playing loudly on that weird uncle's phone who lay on the berth right in front of me. I still found myself a little less distracted when the song stopped and his snoring began. It was a stink that now rose my nostrils. The uncle next to me had those smelly socks pointing towards my side. *Smells* I have an overly sensitive sense of smell (good to be compared to that of a sniffing dog). And fetid smells is something I can do nothing to stand.. So that made me leave my zone of still-some-comfort, to climb down my berth and sit with my neighbors in that compartment, a lil girl who kept referring to me as 'aunty', another uncle whose earphones spread all the sound outside his ears listening to all dhinchak songs, and another group of highly intelligent men discussing "Modi ji" ki new year's speech. And me, holding my head in my hands, trying to get away from the nausea, hunger, sleep! Just when I couldn't find a solution to it, I thought of penning it all down. And guess what, I just arrived, Jaipur it is..! 😊
Another hour maybe to get some food and see some familiar faces.. And then another hour to start 2017.. Sounds like a happy new year to me..
Happy New Year 2017!!
