Rajdhani Ki Kahani

I could have said that I haven't travelled much by train, hence all the dramatic encounters, but I cannot use that excuse anymore, not since last December, not after travelling across the country for one whole month. I'm well acquainted to trains now so I'm to be blamed for everything that happened last week.

The train was at 8:20pm - both to and fro Bangalore. Ideally, I should have left an hour and a half before departure time since I live quite far from the railway station (about 10kms away) and I should have reached at least 15-20 minutes before the train leaves, but I didn’t. I reached only just-in-time to create a dramatic entrance.

While travelling from Bangalore to Delhi, I didn’t have any id-card on me and the ticket I had booked almost two months before was declared invalid. I wouldn’t say that ‘I was almost in tears’, but my carelessness definitely disappointed me. After much convincing and begging, the TT accepted the scanned copies of the ids I had in my emails and let me travel, without fining (May god bless him!). However, he asked me to get printouts of those ids in the next station. I rang few friends who live in Secunderabad and one of them, Sasya, even came to the station early next day to give the printouts. We had a cup of coffee, talked plenty and said our byes.

…and I reached Delhi the next day.

I had mom courier the id for my journey back home. Everything was supposed go smoothly this time, exactly according to the plan. But, time had its own plans. I received the id on the last day of my stay in Delhi i.e. 27^th May while it was dispatched on 21^st itself. I was even considering cancelling my ticket and staying back until I got my id.

…I headed to Nizzammuddin Railway Station.

I was told it was near to the place I was crashing – Dr. Mani Padma’s place in Vasant Kunj – but it was about 15kms away and we again reached just-in-time. The train had already started so I'd to skip the luggage check and run behind it shouting "pull the chain...please, pull the chain". I would have never jumped into a running train however slow it was going. Someone took pity on me and pulled the chain. I boarded at one extreme while my seat was at the other end. I walked the length of the train heaving, sweating, getting stared and pointed at by passengers who had seen me running.

I met the TT in between and this time I'd an ID to show unlike my journey to Delhi from Bangalore.

It’s not all. Few co-passengers caused such nuisance, like having their kids poop and vomit wherever they are sitting and not take them to loo. I lost my appetite and threw my food.

…and travelled hungry.

As if it wasn't enough that I encountered few racists in Delhi, I had to listen to my co-passengers laugh at stations' names. They found 'Begempet' very funny and kept on discussing how hilarious names are down south. All I did to show them that I was offended was to walk away without saying a 'bye' when the train stopped at Majestic.

I am very sure I will not forget this Rajdhani ki kahani for a very long time…

...and I will try to fix my tardiness and carry necessary documents next time.