Finally!!!!
We reached the station. It was around 11:45 by then and we entered the station with the same speed and anxiety as a warrior enters a battle field. And I am not calling myself a warrior for no reason, you will know how it suits me.
The feelings were mixed, we were excited, happy, surprised and also tired. But the spirits were as high as ever. I entered one of the compartments and I knew it the moment I entered the train that we have to sit near the gate for the night. Sudeep told me to be there in the compartment while he went to search for place if any in other coaches. As soon as he left, for some reason I was sure that he will find out a place. This is something which I admire about him, the JUGAD (Arrangements) that he can make for everything.
Within like next 5 minutes he called me and told me to walk towards the end of train. I walked towards the end of the train but now i ws feeling that I would not get a place to sit and guess what do I see as soon as I reach the last coach, it was empty with an exception of 4-5 students who were also going to Goa (thats what I anticipated). I just could not believe that we are going to get an empty compartment where we are going to sleep like a king (Again you will know why I call myself a king here) whole night and I now I was thinking that this is gonna be a great journey.
And yes this was the moment, the train started to leave the platform and my excitement was crossing all boundaries. But even my excitement was not able to match the smile on Sudeep's face. He was in a shock that we are actually leaving. He was just not able to contain his happiness and soon he got engrossed in a times travel book which he had bought, to find out everything about Goa. He was reading as if he will write a book on Goa himself and that to tonight.
With him engrossed in the book, I took his media player and started listening to songs, and the first song I heard was apt for the moment, it was Shaan's "Aankhon mein sapne liye". I closed my eyes and started imagining Goa and how are next few days gonna be. My mind was wandering through all my memories and travel experiences and I was feeling that my mind is searching for a particular memory. After searching for a good one hour where it went through almost all the journey's of my life, (I do not really remember which all songs I heard in that hour) it got stuck at the one which it wanted me to remember, but I had to wash away that memory as quickly as possible because I was sure it will ruin my whole trip. Thankfully at that moment the train stopped and that was the last moment in the whole night when I sat like human beings.
And now the struggle starts, suddenly there was this huge whirlpool of human bodies which entered the coach, It was like every person from Kalyan wants to go by this train only. The coach was packed in no time I was getting suffocated. By god's grace the train started moving and there was some air. It was amazing the way so many people had settled down in such a small coach and all of them had managed to get some place for themselves and also for the luggage.
You can never know the utility and necessity of a train and the love Indians possessed for it till you travel in one. No one in the country prefers a bus, even though in trains they will travel like cattle stuffed in a small compartment, still a train is preferred. There are quite a few reasons for this mentality. Firstly trains are inexpensive (I deliberately do not use the word cheap) as compared to bus, then there is a surety that it will reach the destination and even though we know that the each and every corner of the train will be stuffed with human beings (in some cases even animals), the optimistic that we Indians are always board the train with a feeling that we will get space to stretch out legs which we can not do in the bus.
Ya so I was talking about the love we Indians have for our trains. As soon as the train started moving, the love started oozing out in form of peanuts, banana peels and all kinds of kachra. In no time the floor was covered with them. It was a feeling of elation that how much love we have for Indian railways and this is when I realised that literacy has nothing to do with this, the students who were sitting there and the other people who looks literate were the ones creating the mess. I felt this immediate urge to tell them not to do this but then got caught in a typical Indian mentality, who cares this train anyways will be cleaned tomorrow. I hate myself for that.
Soon everything in the train got settled and my nostrils were filled with a different kinds of smell. They were of food, sweat, and ya smoke from the 'n' number of bidis and cigarettes. Its strange that in this chaos where no one was able to move also people managed to take out there cigarettes and smoke them.
I was the lucky one to have got the window seat so I could just smell the fresh air from outside. It ws getting cold and with this cool gush of wind I did not realise when I went off to sleep. I was woken up by a lady, who requested me to share the seat with her and I thinking she is a lady obliged her with it, but this one was the first mistake which I made in this whole trip and with in like next 15 minutes I was sitting in just 20% of the seat and the rest was occupied by her. Luckily she had to get down after 2 station so after she got down i git my seat and I felt like I have regained my throne and I was adamant on protecting it at any cost. I was fully aware of the wars that I would have to fight to save my throne and I was ready to fight it out. There were a lot of times when I almost lost it. People used Sam, Dam, Dand and Bhed and every possible trick to dethrone me but I didnt budge and suddenly I realise that it was Sawantwadi and I was again the king of my castle (Coach). We were just 10 odd people in the coach and I had won the war. But is war had taken its toll on me and my back was hurting like crazy. I looked out for a empty berth and just lied down there, and fell asleep instantly, suddenly I get up and see Sudeep yelling like crazy that we had reached Madgaon. Oh shit we were suppose to get down at in North Goa and we have reached South. I packed my things in a hurry and literally jumped out from the train.
This was my first step in Goa. I did not know that this one small step taken by me is taking me to new levels and perceptions about life. As soon as got down at Madgaon station was one thing I could smell there and that was Alcohol, which I later realised is the only smell I was gonna have for next 5 days. Thanks to my friend.
The vacation has started, but the real fun begins the next entry, where we explore GOA.....
Cheers
"THE RAJAT"
No comments:
Post a Comment