At laaast the Howrah-Yeshwantpur express managed to reach its destination (after stopping for an exact 15 minutes at Krishnarajapuram). I had been waiting with all my luggage and everything..ready to get down from the train I'd spent 2 nights and 1 day in. It's pretty remarkable, the friends one makes in the train...I had got on with STRICT instructions from my mom and dad (it being my very first time alone in a train): "DON'T talk to anyone, DON'T take food from strangers and DON'T get down at any station." And anyone who knows me can tell you that I will gladly, like a good daughter, obey the last two instructions, but I can't, for the sake of God, follow the first one....extremely difficult for me, i tell you, this keeping quiet business.
So, with looots of tension, my folks left me. I hugged both of them and told them not to worry at all. And the train departed from Howrah station at 9:30 pm. I successfully stuck to my resolve of not talking to anynoe beoz it was night and everyone was asleep, anyway.
But next morning, there I was, happily chattering away. There were two families with me. I had the side upper berth. There was a couple with an utterly spoilt 8 year daughter, and another family with a married daughter and son. It turned out that the son was an old classmate of my younger bro! After that there was no stopping me. They didn't believe me when i said i was 20, coz they had been under the impression that i was 13 or 14...
obviously, my conversation started with he customary sardar jokes...hehe...soon people from other compartments were sitting with us. In our daily lives, we hardly speak to each other....just busy with the TV or Radio or phones. But in a train, when there is nothing else to do, everyone narrates their stories...and that's one of the reasons i looove travelling by train....there was an old couple telling us how they were going to meet their son after years....it was wonderful to hear them talk....
most of the way, i was sleeping or looking out of he window. And, I shared food with the folks with me and also got off at TWO stations: Vishakhapatnam and Vijaywada...hehe..
At Vishakhapatnam, the spoilt-daughter couple got off and an Oriya couple with a really really ciuutte 10 month old baby got on...after that i was busy with the kid...hehe...and the couple was damn nice too...both were taking care of the kid, not just the mom. even the husband was cleaning up the kid and waking up early to help feed him...it was really nice to meet them...they were with me till yeshwantpur..
so, as i said, the train at laast reached the platform and i saw my sis fom the window. She, of course didn't see me coz it was an AC compartment...and then after about 5 minutes, we were hugging each other tightly!
I had, at last, arrived, with nothing stolen, none of the luggage missing, and in my full senses (as i had not eaten drugged food)...
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