My Ahmedabad Trip

It all began with me not having anything to do. I booked a one-way train e-ticket to ahmedabad(36 hrs of journey). That it self amazed me. Booking a one-way ticket to anywhere. Booking one-way means only one thing to me.... Not wanting to come back.
On the day of departure, dad came to see me off. My name was not there on the second-class passengers list. Dad was not amused. He wanted me to just forfeit the ticket and take a flight instead. I just checked the list of the next bogie and there twas. I had been upgraded to the First Class as i had bought the ticket in Tatkal. (The guy who distributes the pillow and rugs said... "En saar...Laalu Lottery nimge hodudbittide!!"
Well there are hazards of travelling alone... u risk being moved around to accomodate other people who travel in groups. Incidentally i had the Birth no 1 in the second bogie(I like numero uno). I felt the first class was royal and promised myself that i would travel first class from now on. There was a very polite TC and after my id was verified i slept. But there was a muslim family which came later. But tired as i was, i just slept although i noticed there was some one who was sleeping on the ground as well.
I got to know in the morning that, that muslim family was also upgraded but three of them got their berths together, but 2 in totally seperate places. The eldest member of the family a very polite mango dealer bought me a cup of coffee and requested me to exchange the berths. Rs5 for a seat exchange? Not really... there was a deaf and dumb but highly expressive 7-8 yrs old boy with the family.
There i was with a predicament of leaving the No.1 berth. but i consoled myself that i would go to bogie no 1 if not berth no 1. I went there to find a Bengali Family.
The Bengali Family consisted of a Father(sleeping like a patient), an old and fussy Mother, and a very good looking daughter. Since the father was sleeping all the time, it was this mother-daughter duo who grilled me with all possible things one could think of.
While i took the train to spend some time alone, it was indeed a paradox that this girl was bored and took every opportunity to chat me up. With all due apologises to the beautiful girl, i have to say here that she made her voice really sweet when talking to me or while addressing any of the vendors with a prefix "bhaiyya..." (Mind U!! she never addressed me as bhaiyya). But when she spoke to her dad or mom, it was terse.
Well her mom knew little hindi and no english. I was more comfy with english since her moms bengali accented hindi was difficult to understand. Now this family had quite a story...
They set off from Kolkatta to goto Vellore for the fathers heart treatment. But since it stopped at 3.30 am, they decided to continue to bangalore. Then after the treatment in blore, they missed their train back to kolkatta. So they decided to go to mumbai. WOAH!! They took this train which eventually end up in Ajmer. (but it would pass the outskirts of mumbai... KALYAN Station). It was here that i made up my short term goal- To ensure they got down at KALYAN! Now that explains the smses i sent to Guddu and my frend to find out the time of arrival at Pune and Kalyan.
The girl who was generally lazy and sleepy would try to chat me up... It is worth writing one of the pick up lines here...
Bengali Girl(BG): Whats your name?
Me: Pavan.
and then translates it to her mother, otherwise she wouldnt let her speak further with me
BG: What does Pavan mean?
Me: Air
translation again
BG: I think in Bengali, Pavan means season. (verifies with mother)
I smile and continue to read the book i had borrowed from Shwetha. The title was "Arranged Marriage"
BG: The title of that book sounds really interesting...
Me: It was written by a bengali
BG: Can i read a bit when u r not...
Me: ok. i will give u when i want to take a nap.
A little while later, i give her the book. (The book is a collection of short stories bout marriages and the kind of problems faced by women - some problems comes with the situation. But most are self created is what i could understand from the book!)
She reads a couple of stories and says.. It has nothing to do with arranged marriage.
Me: Yea... but it has to do with relationships and adjustments. But reading this book surely would drive one towards a love marriage.

I wish to remind u that translation has been happening after every sentence. but the second part of my last statement was not translated.LOL!! She scribbled something on a tissue and kept it in the book. But did not give the book to me just yet. i was helping her mom pack their suitcase coz it was stuffed. BG waited for both her parents to move away from the berths and took the tissue off and handed the book to me. As she bid adieu, i saw an expression on her face... which i would understand this way. Her eyes expected me to ask her bout what she wrote on the tissue which she held on to all the while. But the expression changed to a disappointed one as i made no effort although we both knew that i had observed her penning something down(could it be her contact no and name?)

Now there was constant feature with this Bengali family... Eating!
They ate at intervals of 30 mins. and din bother throwing the left over food or its containers in the trash outside the berth! Imagine the state when they left... Gosh! Do u remember me mentioning that the bogie felt Royal somewhere? Now i felt like i was sitting in a garbage van. But the point to be noted here... MY SHORT TERM GOAL was achieved! They got down at KALYAN. The TC was annoyed with the mess they had created coz he had given the berth to some one else after the got down. (mind u, i had my own masala rottis and water. i din buy anythin other than coffee, the glass - i disposed in the garbage box outside.

One more night of sleep and i was in Ahmedabad. KM waited patiently for the one-hour-delayed train and drove me back home. Life with KM is always simple. And so it was for all the days that i stayed there. Guddu kept monitoring my activities over the fone and chat on all days. I promised to do more the next day but usually fell short of my supposedly fun plans. I told KM that i would drop him to the office and take the car out. But on 4/6 days that i took the car, i din go anywhere.
In between all this, it is worth mentioning bout the domestic help at KMs house. He comes in the morning, helps a bit and goes. A chatter box that he is, made me wonder how he landed in a house where two of the most silent ppl in Ahmedabad lived. He asked KM, how i was related and what i was doin. KM told him "Wo Ben ka Bhai hae." That according to KM, is an universal statement and could never go wrong... LOL.
While i was on the net, Raju(the domestic help) came to chat me up...
Raju:"Kahan se aaye ho?"
Me: "Bangalore"
Raju: "Saab hae na? Bahut bade saab hae office mae. Issiliye mae yahan kaam karta hoon. Mae office canteen mae bhi kaam karta hoon"
Me: "Acha?"
Raju: "Haan... Saab bahut bade saab hae. Director se bhi bada saab hae. Unse kaho. Tumko idhar naukri mae laga-denge!!"
When i recounted this conversation to KM, we both had a hearty laughter together. Quite a character.. Raju!

While I had no interest in anything, we did manage to go to a few eateries there. Choice, Sanja Chula, Lake View Resort(where we played pool and Table Tennis) and others. I managed to buy a lot of bed sheets and had to borrow KMs suitcase(like all the previous times) to come back. I finally managed to book an air ticket on a budget airline

The flight had a delayed start. it was delayed by more than 4 hrs. On the way back i met another businessman. He had over weight luggage and thus talked me into putting our baggages together. (what if he was a smuggler?...although i was a bit tensed, it din bother me much) On the way back i learnt a lot bout his diversified biz.

On the whole, the 36 hr train journey alone was more fun than the 2 hrs return journey by flight.