Wednesday 5 December 2012

The unknown four travelling the unknown route

So it was the four of us headed to an unknown destination, which everyone said is located in the south of the country south to ours.  Unknown to eachother and being together for the first time yet we decided to take this journey together, after all we were supposed to be together for five long years, which seemed like ages for us. But not it seems like the years are passing by too soon. Sitting inside a Mahindra taxi like some prisoners being taken to the jail, the questions that hit us was, when would we be back? How long would it be? These questions were left unanswered as nothing was confirmed. The journey to the train station seemed too short and time seemed to be racing. Travelling by transportation means that we have never used before; we were bored to death waiting for the train to arrive and we had a tough time trying to keep away from the beggars. When the train did arrive, we were in a rush to keep our things in order so that we can be comfortable later so much so that we did not even feel the movement of the train. We realized it only when we looked through the window to wave but then all we could see were the posts on the train station.
Two sitting on either berths facing eachother, I am very sure we looked like idiots because we did not speak a word as if we have been enemies for ages. We could not even converse not because we did not want to but because we did not know, what topic to bring up. Even when we tried to talk our conversations came to an abrupt end after a few questions and answers. It was really very uncomfortable to be sitting like that for three long days. The only guy in our group had the toughest time being the only guy. Lifting luggage, putting them on the berth, looking for platforms had to be done by him and worst of all he had no guy friend to accompany him at those tasks. He would silently climb up to the top berth and go to sleep during day time and during the night he would climb down to the lowest berth and sleep there so that we could feel safe. We had to take turns to sleep together on the same berth so that we can keep our luggage safely on the topmost berth. The next day was better, conversations seemed to have grown. Switching trains at Calcutta was the next trouble we had. Having to unload our luggage, look for the platform, wait for the train and again put back the luggage was something we really had trouble with. Feeling like bathing in sweat, we had no choice but to sit on the platform like all other passengers waiting for the train. The incidents with the coolie at Howra train station and Ap Bacteria and Aum Bacteria (we named them after something that they told us) will remain stuck with the memories of our journey. We still do laugh, when we recollect those.
Drinking water from an unknown couple especially, when they have a nagging kid, who tries to drink from the bottle time and again, would be a thing that we would never do in a foreign territory. But we ended up doing that because our silly demand that we want chilled water left us with no water. We were atleast glad enough that the couple let us drink their water otherwise thirst would have made us faint. Tasting that dish for the first time left us wondering what that white colored water was and later after some weeks we learned that it was supposed to be curd and its looked like white colored water because of excessive water and poor us, it tasted very bad. Feared gabbed our hearts when we were nearing the final station. Fearing we may miss our station and we may get transported to another station. Looking back at those days and nights, we feel proud. We did manage to get ourselves to our destination. The best part of the unknown four is that now we are good friends and our conversations never seem to be coming to an end now. Even during exam times we find ourselves talking uncontrollably.

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