It is about my ME departmental trip to Bombay,Pune and Goa.....This was the first time when almost all my classmates were going on a tour, with me being a part of it:).There had been quite a few trips earlier, but they were all visits to some company.Frankly speaking, inspite of being a mechanical engineer, i hate visiting the so called "core" companies:).
Anyways,let me begin with our trip details.We were scheduled to leave on 5th night by Kushinagar express and thanks to Indian Railways, the train was late by three hours.:(
We were supposed to collect at Hall 5, quad at around 10 pm and I, being a traveling freak, was there with all of my friends before 10 o'clock.We were all excited about this trip.Some of us were traveling with friends for the first time.So, they felt a slight niggle about traveling without their parents..Luckily i wasn't one of them:)..I was the one trying to calm them down..
It was 11pm when our bus arrived.So we dumped our luggage at the back and boarded the bus.But we were surprised to see the most eligible bachelor of ME,"Sripath", boarding the bus with a bottle of beer:D..As my mother says," you never try to control yourself", i felt the urge to take a sip from that bottle:).I managed to quench my thirst for hard drinks before it was thrown out .We were on the move in a few minutes .Some of guys tried to play "antarakshari", while others managed to get a short nap.Overall it was a very quiet journey as the guys were too exhausted, given the fact that we had our last end sem that very day and we spent the remaining day moving our belongings to the storage room.We reached the station at 00 hrs.As usual, there was no sign of the
train.Even the inquiry officers had no idea about the train.We started doubting the existence of the train.:DIt was a three hours wait at the station until our train finally arrived.Some of my friends lit cigarettes during this stay.Even i managed to get hold of one:D.Atlast we boarded the train to find a horrendous condition inside.I even had a second thought that the train was a passenger train.But the guys were so tired that they just dumped their baggages beneath the berths and fell over their seats.No one even cared to know about the whereabouts of their luggage.
The next morning, i was woken up by a guttersnipe.I was half asleep.I didn't even understand his words.He tried to wake me up and wanted some money.But he was finally flung out by the passengers sitting nearby.An old gentleman tried to teach me not to help such people.But i was in no mood to pay heed to his lessons and i was asleep again.
It was 12 0' clock when i was woken up by my friends.We were somewhere near jhansi.The train was running late by 6 hrs!!!.I always wonder, what will it take to run the Indian railways on schedule.Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav boasts of giving new life to the railways, turning it to a profit making organization.But i had talk with some IPS and IAS officers a few days back and i came to know some new and astonishing facts.According to them, all the guidelines had been issued when Mr Nitish Kumar was holding the chair.Our new,charming railway minister was just implementing them.However, we should be happy that someone is trying to do something good,be it Mr Laloo or Mr Nitish.
We reached Bhopal at 4 in the evening.One of my friends,Arvind Kothari, was to get down at this station.He was not going to be a part of this trip anymore.His parents were there to receive him and surprisingly gave him some packets of food to be distributed among us.He got back to us and delivered those packets.We thanked him for doing this favor and quickly opened up the packets to gobble the food inside.It was delicious,very moreish.We bade adieu to Arvikot and the train sped away.Rest of the day went normally without anything special happening.I was beginning to get bored, so i climbed up to the upper berth and fell asleep.:)
Next morning,around 9am, we reached Mumbai at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminal.We boarded a deluxe bus and left for Pune.This is where the real excitement began.I had heard a lot about the Mumbai to Pune expressway and it lived up to its expectation. The road w
as smooth as polished marble.It gave me an illusion of being out of India.:). I sincerely wish that someday our city roads could rise up to these standards.The scenery around was worth watching.I awestruck by its beauty.We made a small halt at a midway restaurant and stuffed our stomachs as we were not to going to have our lunch that day.I never had such a lovely and smoother bus journey ever before.My special thanks to the National Highway Authority of India for building such a splendid highway.We reached Pune at around 4pm.There's more to come:)
