Being Homesick as always, i never had booked my tickets in advance, so was always in trouble in the last moment. I never wanted go, so I didn’t book a ticket or bother to go. This vacation, I got a friend to go with, as his dad had passed away and he had come for the funeral and we had planned to go back together as he stays in Hubli, nearby Bangalore. So with that intention, we booked the ticket a month ago and decided to go as planned. At first, the ticket was on waiting list 60 and 70. We told ourselves we have 30 days to go, we still had more chances.
When the day finally came, we went to the counter to check. To our astonishment, we didn’t get our ticket confirmed; we were still on waiting list 10 and 11. Yet, we planned to go as we were late for the college as it has reopened a few weeks ago. Even my friend had already missed one month of his classes. So we motivated ourselves and went by waiting list; even my uncle told that it’s ok to go by waiting as we can talk with the TT and get hold of the ticket.
We stood there like old fools cause we dint have a place to stay. Then around 8:30 we searched for vacancy and we got it again. This time, we were siting the whole day, till we reached Alipur NJB. Even here people came up from the station and we were chased out from the compartment. We looked like beggars in the train looking for a seat to stay. At midnight, we were looking for the TT to get our bed to sleep at night but it was too expensive as it was during December and lots of people were on waiting list. They charged 1000 bucks for a seat. We begged that we were students, but they wouldn’t agree with us. So we just let go as we hardly had 2000 bucks for the journey and it’s a risk to take money while travelling. After that, we realized that the TT’s seat was empty. So we shared the same seat and stayed there till evening.
On the left side, there was a pack of family (read pack of wolves) who were staring at us like fools. We just ignored it. We didn’t have anything as there was no place to stay… we were on a hunger strike worrying where to kept our stuff and where to take a seat. Before they slept, one of the grandmas’s told us to sleep in the seat as they were kids and could adjust somewhere else. We were excited. They were murmuring in Hindi, we could understand a bit but not much. Then, they started giving actions, and then we came to know. We jumped with joy in our hearts and were praying and thanking God for saving us. That was the second night. We need three days to reach Bangalore. Then we ordered our food as we got a place to eat and sleep. That food was the tastiest food we ever had, the water we drank was like the heavenly drink. With full satisfaction we ate.
There was one problem! Again we got only one seat where we two had to sleep. So I slept down with his leg on my face which was smelling like roasted shit and my friend slept upside with my leg on his face, I dunno what my leg smelled of. When we were about to sleep, on the panel there was a girl sleeping next to us, she started talking to us, ah luck favoured us at the wrong time. We started cracking jokes and the problems we were facing. Had I noticed her enough… but she had a pretty and cute face. We were like… oh! I wish I had a ticket and we could have shared the lovely journey with her. She was friendly and talkative. Till her family got irritated with us and sent her down, we got to know her name and where she stays, but had no mobile no. as there was no phone or pen to write. Then we slept like pigs in the same shit. In the morning, we woke up, took our stuff and that was the third day. We just needed one more night. So we kept our things there and had breakfast in the train hotel. There, we ordered one by one so that we could stay there for long. Even they got irritated and send us out again. Finally, we meet a new TT who promised to get the ticket confirmed for 200 bucks each. Then we went to the compartment where we slept and gave them 200 bucks saying thank you. But they didn’t take it and were just happy that we got our tickets and told us to buy tea on the way and eat something. We said thank you and took the things and left for the compartment, it was in the last bogey. We walked for an hour holding our things. We finally reached it and we happily sat there, the TT was good enough to check on us that we were sitting there, then that day we were so happy that we ate food four times in terms of excitement. Wherever the train stopped, we bought something to eat. Then, we reached our destination. Luckily, my bro came to pick me up at the station. I went to my brother’s place happily
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