the long night

when we came back down the whole way there was not much peace to be . As most of us felt sleepy but hungry at the same time , we came to know we had to rush to the bhojanalay (the place where food is served ) as there was a huge group of 100 turning up and there wont be anything left once they are done with their thing . as it turned out some of us skipped lunch and instead had the watermelon that we had picked up on our way from rajgiri .then we all had rest . I went to have a bath and then came out and saw that it was raining . I rued the fact that I had missed the chance to get drenched in the rain ( It doesn't make sense to get drenched after having a bath) . But anyways that made the place even more cold . As everyone felt sleepy I was kinda bored . So I was just lurking around in both the rooms trying to find out who wasn't sleepy and thus trying to get them in some conversation . Of course they had become tolerant of my inability to converse in their language and were not reluctant to talk in Hindi . Anyways we had a train to catch from a nearby station Pushkar . they said it was a half an hour drive and our train was at 9.30 . So we had planned to leave by 8 for overcoming any worst-case scenario . But there was more in store , no car was allowed to leave the premises of shikharji after 6 pm because of naxalite threats . So when we came to know about it at around 5 pm there was a rush hour once again . Everybody woke up from their late siesta and all were set to move by 5.30 . but then it was pouring , after waiting for 10 mins we decided to make a move . we got into the sumo we had hired . loaded the luggage over it and provided it cover with a plastic sheet . And here we were set to go . It was so lovely to pass through a road surrounded by green on either in such a rainy whether . though rain stopped , the sky was overcast . anyways by 6 we were at the station . and what a way to greet us at station . people started climbing on our cars and we reached the station . when we got down then we realized that they had climbed on cause we had so many suitcases and they thought we would hire someone to carry them for us . We reached the station went to the platform and sat there for some time . then we came to know that the train was late . how long will it take to come ?not known . anyways we were told it will come by 12 midnight . It was a very small station . though it is a stoppage for many trains that travel from Delhi to Calcutta .and the major shock came when we saw a rajdhani stop at this station of which we had never heard of and which looked no bigger than a platform on the suburban lines of kolkata or mumbai . Anyways in this hour of uncertainty we all decided to stay awake . but for how long . We had some fried snacks from outside the station for dinner . then I went to the station master to get some clear idea about the position . He said that the train will take 2 hours after it reaches Gaya and there is no report of it reaching there . He said that we had been fooled in being handed over the tickets of Dhoon express which is always given last preference on these routes . There we were all doomed . Ideally it is a great time to be in a group as it becomes easier to pass time . But there was some tension between the members in the camp . I wasn't quite understanding what was happening , and my friend who was supposed to understand just kept giving me situations which i was least bothered to listen to . All that mattered was how to spend time . finally everybody started to sleep . on the seats , on the luggage etc. there was something or the other happening till an hour past midnight though . One incident for example was that there were a few people who were sleeping on the platform just beside a pillar . Suddenly everyone started shouting . The man at whome it was directed woke up to find a snake near his neck . though it fled away admist the chaos that it unintentionally caused. ( wonder what reputations human have in the animal kingdom, i would say crazy.) It was a preety busy track with lots of goods-carriages(mostly carrying coal) passing through the time we were there . they never stopped but sped past at full speed , cleaning up the platform in their fury run . that explains how we came across such a clean platform in Jharkhand .As the train timings were uncertain we were to stay ready for the train any moment it came. So we thought of deciding how we would get accommodated in the train . It was then that we saw the berth number that were reserved for us: 8,16,24,32,40,64,72 in S-7 and 48, 50,51 in S-11. those who know about the Indian railway seating system would understand the situation and laugh out loud. I finally went to sleep at 3 am and with the news that the train might come by 4 . i woke up by 4.30and went to the Sation master and came to know that the train has left Gaya but there are many rajdhanis that were stuck in the route so they will be cleared thus it will take another 3 hrs for our train to come . i came back disgusted . After another hours of sleep i woke up to check with the station master and came and told about it to one of the uncles there who said that he had cancelled the tickets . it was ok that he got frusterated , but the problem was that he didn't consider what other options were available once we canceled the tickets. And no matter how insane it may sound but what happened in the end was that we cancelled our reserved ticket for dhoon express and then bought general tickets (as reserved tickets are not available before 8 am) and then we boarded the same train with those general tickets and for the next 5 hours we all along with our luggage stay put in the passage at the entrance of a boogie in which we would have had seats had the tickets not been canceled. Anyways Somehow everyone kept slipping off to sleep and the journey was not that inconvenient. My ordeal was coming to an end . We got down at Burdaman and got another train that would take us to my friends home where all these people were staying. We reached there in another hour or two. I think i kinda dosed off during that period. Finally we reached his place and had lunch . I bid adios to all those people with whom i had spent my vacation and headed to home which was another hours journey in the bus. It was a trip that i will never forget 1)coz it was my first trip without any of my family members. 2) I was with a bunch of people whose language i couldn't follow. 3) I went and lived in Bihar & Jharkhand where people are not really concerned about the opportunity that life is . The are untouched by the shining economy and thus have no complains about the way their lives are. A testimony of the UPA government's failure to bring changes over its tenure is that there people still think that the prime minister of India is A.B.Vajpayee . No matter how strange it seems to be it has given me an insight to what state of mind are people in rural areas and has made me more determined to do something about it in future.