Hubli fast passenger at 10:10 PM.............

People have been talking much about our Britain inherited railways for years and it will be in years to come, about its origin in India to its bottomless pit which routes our sins to ground ;-)…Well let’s not hang around much talked, being talked and will be talked topic till the last bacteria dies on this earth….What provoked me to write this blog? Did I ask this question before I start this? “No” is the answer…I just thought of writing a blog and first thing came to my mind was train and I said “yes why not?”, after all this was (is) part of my life and it is not an exaggeration to say this….;-)Well here I go…………..It was 8 PM on Friday in the month of march when I left office signing off yet another hectic week at work…… well now the time was to rejoice thinking about the weekend and “which movie to watch?” “Who all to meet over the weekend”, “what time we shall go to sridari’s churmuri stall on Saturday evening”, “who is coming to tiptur this weekend?”, “Going to ganga’s daba with boys wouldn’t be a bad idea though?” all these wonderful thoughts would cross my mind as I travel from e-city to majestic in our dignified Infy bus, listening to old melodies in my better half (I-pod) with my eyes glued into a novel (“God of small things” by Arundathi roy if I remember it correctly)… It would take quiet a toll on me by the time I reach majestic after squeezing through our renowned Namma Bengaluru traffic… it was 9:15 PM by the time I reached railway station and bought my tickets after standing in queue for 15 minutes listening to “Aanewala pal jaanewala hai”, “Dilbar mere kab thak mujhe” ,“Gulabi ankhaen, jo teri dekkhi” and many more followed, witnessing all those innumerable happenings around me like, people rushing and running with their baggage to catch the train… A lady standing in a queue tucked with a baby on her one side and carrying a bag on her other side, enquiring the police man over there for the right time,platform and train which would take her to the place she had bought ticket for and in turn police guiding her…. and at the same time he found someone quarreling at the front line while buying tickets and he appeared there to nullify the heated up situation… As I passed through the first platform to take the over bridge to reach10th platform from where Hubli past passenger which starts at 10:10 PM, I stopped at a shop to buy a water bottle and ordered one and as I stood there with my legs crossed and right hand resting on the counter of the shop, turned my head to left and found a group of youth, speaking in Hindi. One of them was leaving back home I guess (could make out from the baggage he had along with him) and rest of them hugging and cheering gud bye and those feel good factors you get see when someone seeing off their dear ones… but one girl among them was filled with tears and emotion in her eyes and I guess maybe she was his best friend or may be little more than that… Highly emotional scene to witness at a crowded station and I was already started scripting some story (love) in my mind… well I was back to my senses when shopkeeper snapped the bottle on the counter and said to me in a high pitch “dus rupyaa sir” (see the kannada fate in our railway station ;-( ), I realized that I stopped here to buy water bottle and paid him the money, without uttering a word I took the bottle and vanished through the crowd over the bridge to reach 10th platform... as it was already 9:40 PM, I said to myself “oh my god, train would have already come to platform and seats wouldn’t left vacant” and I hurried a bit and reached the platform and stood under the over bridge (where actually general bogeys (last 2 of the train) would come and stand) and much to my surprise train was not there in the platform yet, quite opposite to its historical facts…I felt relaxed and by this time, my better half (I-pod) was singing “Zindagi pyar ka geet hai, jise har dil ko ghaana pade ga….” and I hummed along with her and as I walked down the platform to see if there are any pretty girls so that I can just eye at them till the train comes ;-)… Unfortunately I didn’t find any girls but I found cheti (Chethan) coming from other end of the platform carrying 2 bagages, one in each hand and a bagpack, it was much evident to say that he parked his bike and bought his ticket from back gate (counter near 8th platform) and he looked tired… As he came closer he identified me and asked in surprise “buddhi (he used to call his friends), you also in this train today??, train hasn’t come yet?”, when I confirmed him that it isn’t, he replied “ I thought I would miss it, normally this train is on time but ivattu ee nan maklu ge yenagiddio”, both of us cursed the railway department for couple of mins as if we are always perfect in life and continued our discussions on stock investments which he had made recently and he gave all this gyan about stocks and shares which was always useful… as we both started walking towards the over bridge, we saw Shari (Sharath), Govinda (Naveen) and Gandsi (Santosh) standing there and we too joined them (ours was always a gang and used to travel together always, though some were missing that day).. With in 2 minutes train arrived and we tried our best to get the seats, but much to our embarrasment and misfortune all of us didn’t get the seats in general bogey to sit.... we started contemplating on getting into the reservation bogey and bribing the ticket collector with 125 rs for 5 of us (this was our regular trick when travelling in crowded train as we knew that there would be lots of empty seats available in reservation bogeys)…We got into the reservation bogey, when TC came there and asked us about reservation tickets, Govinda said to him in a low pitch and slow paced voice “Sir, we would get down in Tiptur and you can come near Kardi station” and made some kind of ishaara (some kind of mutual understanding we maintained with these TCs), TC gave a smile and went ahead to next compartment…. As the train started, TC again came to us and asked us to sleep in berths if we want (as there were so many berths left vacant) and assured us that he would come and wake us up when Kardi station comes (station a little before Tiptur)… we all cracked some jokes and had chat for some 15-20 mins and slept by taking a berth each… Chethi and I took the lower berth, remaining 3 took upper ones… as everyone slept, I was still awake as normally I don’t sleep while travelling in the train… I put on my I-pod and switched off all the lights expect the one over my berth, raied the window and opened a novel and started reading it.... since it was almost end of winter and start of summer and more over it was a full moon day, cool breeze was heartening and I felt relaxed as enjoyed my reading and listening to my girl friend (I-Pod), after all it makes me feel like a heaven after whole week of tiring hectic schedule, what else you could ask out of your life??... train took its pace as it left chickbanawar station and I was by this time listening to “Oh maajire…..” and list followed by “Dil aaj shaayar hai….”, “Yadoon ki barat…”, “Meri soni, meri tamanna…”, “Musafir yaaro, na ghar hai na thikana…” and many more kishore da, lata ji and rafi saab’s songs… as I enjoyed this ambience, Train arrived at Tumkur station and I saw chai walas shouting “chai chai”, policemen patrolling on the platform, people getting down and getting in... Govinda woke up and looked at his watch and said “11:30 already” and asked me peeping out of his berth (above mine) “Tumkura maga?” and I said “yes”, and he slept again and before he slept he said “Kardi bandaga wake us up” antha… Train took up its pace more from Tumkur and as Ammasandra station arrived I looked out through the window to see the cement factory glowing with the yellowish white lights... I felt like going and stand near the door for quite a while and did so… By now Enrique’s “Bailamos……..” was being played in my I-Pod and let me confess that it used to make me feel heaven on earth to stand near the train door putting my head out and cool breeze ruffling my hairs (I used leave my hair long then) with train rushing at a speed of around 70-80 km/hr and listeing to “Bailamos….” which was in perfect sync with the speed of train (Which is a very fast paced beautiful song, sung by Enrique), my god one should feel it………… just awesome experience……… I enjoyed my solitude with dark outside, light inside for sometime... as I closed the door and was coming back to my berth, TC arrived and woke up others and grinned at us said “Kardi banthu, next stop is tiptur”… all of us got down and sat on lower berth taking our luggages in our hand, TC sat diagonally opposite to us and we realized he is there here to collect his part of money and Chethi gave him 125 Rs and he was asking for 25 more and Chethi spoke to him in a convincing voice, “Sir, 2 years inda ide train alli barthivi, we always pay this much only, yen sir nimge gottalla” then he got convinced and chuckled at us and put 125 rs to his pocket and started speaking about current affairs in politics and cricket and some other things till Tiptur station arrived and we said him good bye and got down… As cheti’s house was next to railway station he went to his house by walk and remaining 4 of us hired an auto Gandsi sat in front seat along side of driver as he would be the first person to get down and rest 3 of us sat in back seat and auto set off... as we passed by Pai hotel circle we saw big hoarding of Duniya film putting over there, Govida asked “Maga Ganesha theatre alli Duniya haakidare… Beligge maadihalli hotel (small hotel in outskirts of tiptur) alli sigona, amele sanje Duniya film ge hogana, yenanthira?” Shari and I said “yes” in unison. When I reached our house it was 1 AM and my mom opened the door and started cribbing “Ayyo ondh gante agide aagle, beligge yeddu barokke agthirlilwa??, ninge yar thane helokke agutte” and served me dinner and I changed cloths and finished my dinner and started searching for that day’s news paper (as my mom used to hide it from me as I wouldn’t sleep and have dinner if I start reading news paper), finally somehow I used to find it and start reading it for one hour (again gyan from mom to keep the paper aside and sleep as it was already late)… but I never listen to that and would sleep only after completely reading cinema ranjane (prajavani suppliment on Fridays ;-))… finally life would come to halt till Saturday morning as I switched off the lights and go to deep sleep…… ;-)....