Journey Back...

My return journey to Silvassa was simply unforgettable.

Whilst coming back to Silvassa my mom, aunt and two cousins came along. We had booked tickets in the first week of September on the Veraval Express but since ticket booking by the Railway Authorities starts 3 months in advance, we were on the Waiting List. I had a nice time teasing my cousin that he would have to sleep on the floor of the train & someone might ‘un’intentionally stamp him. I’m sure you guys must have guessed who the someone is that I’m referring to. Evil ‘ME’

When we checked the status of the tickets a day before the journey there was good news and bad news. To our good luck all the tickets got confirmed. But to our bad luck we were allotted berths, which were not close to each other in the train. We decided to negotiate with the other (single) people on the train. After all we were 5 of us against 1 so they would obviously feel sorry for us and shift for the sake of humanity..

A hurried morning of packing our bags and we were at Margao Railway Station 10 mins ahead of the slated departure. But damn.. the train was 15 mins late. We had to go to the next platform so heaving our heavy bags over the overbridge we reached PL2. Once there we asked the guy at the Tea Stall ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ and he waved to the right and said, ‘End of that side’. We took all our baggage there and waited.

The train was really running late so my cousins started munching on chips. Then as a coolie went by we asked him, ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ He said that side and waved towards the other end of the platform. Oh boy.. What ensued next was a mad run to the other end of the platform. We surely must have been a funny sight as we ran with our luggage.

Once there, we heard the stupid announcement ‘Veraval Express is arriving on Platform 2 shortly’. Sheesh.. So we waited and waited. The same announcement was repeated twice after a gap of ten minutes... Initially, every time the announcement was made some people got ready with their luggage but when the same announcement was repeated people didn’t seem to care. I guess the Railways should use a bit of marketing strategies here and try and promote their food/juice/magazine stalls. It sure would be nice to hear the Railway Authorities being courteous towards their customers.

Ultimately the train came an hour late..

Once inside the train, we found that our berths were in different compartments. So we decided to try our strategies.

Strategy No 1: Exchange a ticket with your neighbor and ask him to shift.
Expected End Result: The neighbor shifts to your friend’s place and your friend shifts to his. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: Apparently there were a lot of families in the train and they would not shift. Would we have shifted if we were in their place???? Naa.. No way..

Strategy No 2: Catch hold of the TC.
Expected End Result: The TC checks his list and makes the necessary changes. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: We caught hold of the TC (Hey naughty, not literally mind you but with our pleading sad faces) but he could not help us. He gave us all the seat nos of people traveling alone (that turned out to be 2) and asked us to request them. But since they were traveling long distance nobody was interested.

We then decided to compromise. No not really compromise but it was a Win-Win situation. Howzaaat? Simple. We won by getting all the seats confirmed and again won by getting the lower berths. He he..

Since, this was the first time my cousins traveled by train my younger cuz was running around like a monkey all over the train. He wanted to know how to climb the berths, what happens if he pulls the red chain, what’s the fine, whether there are snakes in the train, where the AC vents are, does the TC have a berth to himself, whether they cook in the pantry car… question, question.. Every time the train would go through a tunnel he would count the seconds it took to come out of it.

A sumptuous meal of Pulao and Chicken topped with docegrao and bhatk I was all set to take a short nap. But since my cousin was so excited, he would climb the top most berth and climb down again not forgetting to tickle poor Blen arranging her bed sheets on the middle berth on his way down. Boo hoo.. My brilliant plan of sleeping in the train after tiring myself at the wedding went down the drain.
Since this train starts from the South, it was filled with South Indians and they were all speaking in Malayalam. There was a family who went off to sleep after their lunch and they were very much annoyed with my cousin monkeying around. The old man told me to tell him to sleep. So, I told my cousin with a strict face. ‘Sleep!!!’ My cuz then remained quiet during which they settled back to sleep.

Hardly a minute later there was a long Vroooommmmmm.. and the old guy and his folks got up with a start. Courtesy my cousin switched on the (old antic overhead) fan. The old guy had had enough. He got up angrily and told my cousin, ‘Act as though you’re in class.’ Boy!!! Did he make a mistake??? The devil that my cousin is pat came the reply, ‘Nobody sleeps in class.’ Ha ha…

There were two cute lil gals in the train going from Goa to Ahmedabad and so the evening was spent chit chatting with them. My older cuz then took out a pack of cards and the older lil gal taught us a card game, ‘Go Fish’.

Post dinner we all slept keeping in mind we had to get up at 3:30 am. Mobile alarms were set and we went Zzzzzzzzzzz….. Since the train was running late we arrived at Valsad station at 4:40 am. We were just in time to catch the 4:50 Passenger Train to Vapi. Since we had to change platforms we hurriedly got all the luggage up the overbridge and down the other side. If I was traveling alone I would have probably crossed the tracks instead of taking the long way.

We got tickets (Rs.5 for 25 kms… cheap.. I advised my cuz since he was so crazy about trains to buy a Rail Pass and travel on unlimited trips via train) We boarded the train and sat sleepily for the 40 mins journey to Vapi. The train was a double decker but that did not interest my sleepy cuz.

Once we got to Vapi, we got into an Auto to get to Silvassa. Vapi has this typical odor of chemicals and has been labeled as the 3rd dirtiest city in the world. Boy!!! Anyway the rest of India (leaving Goa aside) ain’t so clean either.