Generally..Extraordinary!

Mood swings of a woman are as common as our parliamentary disruptions. It’s a new and interesting story every week. And so, there I was, yet again entangled by the caprice-syndrome. This time, ‘I wanted to go home’. And let me tell you how this works for me (specifically)- When its about going home, all that mattered was “to make up your mind once”. And that was that.

 Notwithstanding the fact that my annual leave reserve was already shrinking and that it was almost impossible to get reservations for next 2months in this peak season, there I was- calling my most reliable ticket agent (or rather the only ticket agent I knew) and oh-so-coolly asking him to get me tickets in my favorite train(yeah, seriously) and my favorite class(can you imagine?) to DELHI for day after tomorrow( ROFL!). God bless him, at least he didn’t laugh at my crippled rationale. But the next day, when I saw him ignoring and dilly-dallying my calls, I smelled danger. Eventually he put me out of my misery and disillusioned me-“Couldn’t get your tickets”!!! A normal reaction would have been that of disappointment, or an over(girly)reaction would have been of anger and tears, but to my roommate’s surprise I laughed it off and said- “So what?  I’m going without reservation . But ghar jaane se toh mujhe koi rok nahi sakta”.

Now for those who don’t understand Indian Railways like I do NOW- here’s the modus operandi, especially for the female population. For a 16-18hour overnight journey you MUST have a CONFIRMED AC ticket in the month of MAY when its way too hot for sleeper class and India is going crazy after vacations. But…when I checked availability of all the trains to delhi (I was calculating that I could get confirmed at 20 waiting max in tatkal quota) the waiting lists jeered at me with MINIMUM 125 in sleeper. I even went to the station after my office hours to give my last shot at getting a sleeper class waiting ticket (so that atleast I could SIT at the mercy of others in sleeper) but that day I realized 1 thing I had never known before in life : “Sleeper class booking closes at 2pm on Sunday.”

Later in the evening my roommate told me to check flight tickets. She had this theory that sometimes airlines drop rates to get customers on the last date. I shrugged. The staggering rates (Rs. 6K) made me think for the 1^st time after this series-of-unfortunate-events-obstructing-my-plan- ‘ Ye ho kya raha hai saala?’ My caring roommate soon started narrating me how TCs harass girls travelling alone and how it would be a traumatic risk to travel with a general class ticket.

I staggered for a while (who wouldn’t?) and then called my ultimate counselor - Mother. I had planned on not telling her about my plan and giving her a surprise later but I’m a chump and a wimp! So I began by saying firmly- “ Mother, What I might tell you now might disconcert you a little but I want you to respect my decision and guide me the “how-to-do-it” rather than suggesting me against it.”

In the next half an hour she worked her magic. Not only did she boldly tell me to come (not many mothers have the courage to fuel their daughters into executing a long journey alone without reservation) but she also de-cluttered all the mental mess I was loaded with.

So that was when I ‘made up my mind’(again) and told myself - I’m going home. Devil may care how.

Next morning, I woke up early, reached office before time. I forbade myself from thinking at all about the impending journey. Soon, happened the 1^st miracle (overstatement? My advice-stop judging, keep reading) of the day- the clerk told us that we’ll get 3days transfer leave (we had recently got transferred to a new unit)and we can claim it anytime within 3months. Now that’s 1 of the privileges of a govt. job- there’s a leave for everything!  So I jumped upon the offer and applied for it. Now prior to this I was going home for 3.5days while using up 2 of my earned leave reserve, but now, I’d be home 4.5days and that too without touching my ELs! (It’s a BIG DEAL for ME).

I left office at 11.45am, caught a bus in 2minutes exact (for which we usually had to wait for 20minutes), kept thanking god for the unexpected gift (yes, holidays are a BIG deal for me. Did I mention it already?) and just relaxed. It had dawned upon me that “if that’s how its gonna happen, I better as well make the most of it”. I had a general class ticket with me by 1pm and I was strolling towards the restaurant for some pet-pooja. i passed an hour by calling friends, observing people, staring at guys and bingeing. I saw a 6feet tall heavy weight south-indian army guy fretting about how he didn’t have a confirmed ticket and how it was so difficult to travel like that in summers. I saw his face whiten when he heard how I planned to travel. He simpered creepily and I could feel he was intimidated, if not impressed.

Soon MY train arrived. I skimmed through the overwhelming crowd for the TC for a few minutes before I sensed the train began inching and that was my cue. I got in and started searching for a place to sit. I came across an empty upper side berth and asked the couple (in side lower) to let me sit up there as long as they’re not sleepy. My plan was to sleep off the afternoon so that I could compensate for the loss of sleep in the night (due to non-availability of a berth, I had to sleep on the floor).Needless to say, It was extremely hot. But I couldn’t make excuses. Everytime I tried to sleep I found myself drenched in sweat whenever I woke up. I invented 5-different-positions-to-sleep-to-sweat-less. (It ‘ll be coming up in my next article, sit tight! ;-) ) I slept intermittently for 5hours and when I woke up, I saw it was dark outside. God bless the couple , I thought. At 8pm I had my dinner and that’s when I noticed a really hunky foreigner in our coach. ‘And look what we have here’ I thought. Small green eyes, 6feet tall, well built, blonde and fair as hell- he could have easily qualified for an actor. Although he was with a girl, but what could stop ME from eyeing up a sexy foreigner? (Its not a question after all ;-)). After dinner, the kind couple requested me to vacate their seat and I did so, gratefully.

Since the TC hadn’t arrived so far, at ITARSI station , very honestly I got out and started searching for him. I found him and asked politely to please upgrade my ticket to a sleeper class. He (a very kind man to be a TC) told me that there was no vacant seat in the train. I told him to upgrade it anyway. But he told me “ let it be. There was no point giving penalty when you’re not even going to get a berth. jaise chal raha hai chalne do” . I grinned and said- “Ye bhi thik hai”.

 I came back ,sat on the next seat, took my ipod out and thrust it in my ears. I was only selecting the coach floor to rest upon at night when an uncle in the front coach asked me where my seat was. I replied I had none.  Very kindly he told me to go to coach S7 where they had a seat which they did not require anymore. At first blush, I couldn’t actually believe if he really meant it. But, to my utter surprise ( and relief and elation and contentment ) he.did.mean.it. And he was so kind that he even sent his friend to escort me to the coach. And also offered me to come back in case any problem surfaces.( yeah,I’m very charming you see). But seeing all this happening I knew I was beyond problems now. I was beyond fear and beyond uncertainty. Though I was alone, but I never felt even for a second that I wasn’t being taken care of. “Care” came in ways I couldn’t imagine.

As a “thankyou” gesture I gave them the box of sweets I took for my family. I knew papa, as always, would look forward to the Nagpurian signature sweets, but sometimes you have choose between what-you-ought-to-do and what-you-always-do.

The train’s arrival time at NDLS was 7.30am. I slept at 10pm and woke up at 7am straight. I had no alarm, my cell phone ran out of battery, but it didn’t matter. i reached home. Safe, sound and in Rs 200/- J

 Now this is a lonnnng story with a very short message. As many would think,I did not mean to boast how daring (or lucky) a girl I am. (I’m a wimp remember?). Neither did I mean to advertise(or criticize) Indian railways. But if you haven’t guessed so far, I did mean to give you a food for thought- “ Has there been any point in your life when you are certain about something without having even the slightest hint of HOW? When you cease to care/plan/worry and begin to just flow?  when you live in the present and live your ass of it? when you liberate yourself from all the compulsions to control the situation? That’s when you give up changing and start accepting- People. Situations. And yourself. Its called SURRENDER. And If you have felt THAT even for once in life my friend, you have felt GOD.”