MissAdventure

Part of the reason why I find ordinary things enchanting and scary in turns is because I haven't seen too much of the outside world. I haven't stayed away from home or traveled much. I always wanted to write about the places I want to go to, the ones I have had a chance to see and the ones I may never see. I can't write a good travelogue as I am not a seasoned traveler. Oh, I take horrible photographs and cannot post them. Only the photos in which I am present look good. Since I don't click them ;-)

One of the first places I toured with my friends was Goa. Just after I started working. 3 of us (all girls) decided to go. The itinery was planned by my friend's mom. She booked our tickets, the Railway Guest House & also dropped us to Goa. I'm not joking!! My brother holds his stomach and laughs everytime he recollects my Goa trip with bodyguards (as he terms it). My parents felt so good that I was in safe hands and gave me permission to go almost instantly. My friend V's parents dropped us to Goa and well, her mom picked us up on our way back too (from Hubli). People remember Goa for 'n' reasons - beaches, * la-la-la * and so on. I have vague but pleasant recollections of Vagator /Anjuna beaches, Fort Aguanda, cathedrals, sunset cruise and a water scooter ride on Calangute beach. What I will never forget is my train journey to and from Goa.

Goa bound- 6 p.m.(Thursday)

My train was to depart at 7:20 p.m. or so from Yeshwantpur Railway Station. I left home at 6 p.m. in an auto.  Traffic jam was ever-present throughout my route. My friend V is a gem. She has the politest way of saying the most alarming things ever. Around 6:40 p.m. when I was nearing the railway station , I get a call from her and she says " hmm.. well, where are you? by the way, I did tell you that this train departs from Bangalore City railway station right?! " OUCH!! (City rly stn was about 6 kms from where I was at that moment). I was in total shock, anger & confusion. I decided to yell at her later. (sensible decision due to which I am sitting here to write this tale). I asked the auto-driver to take me to City rly stn and he flatly refused citing bad traffic. I cursed him, got out and caught another one. In the meantime my mom calls me a million times to find out whether I am seated in the train. When I told her my state, she had a minor heart attack (my mom has to catch any train at least 45 minutes before departure) and ordered me to come back home !!! My dad was checking on me from his office and getting worried with every passing minute. My friend also kept calling & apologizing. I told her ' Stop saying sorry & stop the train instead' :-D I landed at City rly stn at 7:10 p.m. and to my luck, as expected the train was in platform # 3 or # 5. So I ran like a maniac with my bag in one hand and hair flying in all directions. I didn't even have the ticket on me and had no clue which coach, seat number or anything. While I was doing a mini-marathon on the platform, I kept looking in at the entrances checking for my friends. Wouldn't you also? Too much to expect I realized. My friends & V's parents were comfortably seated in A/C chair car muttering softly 'Oh where's she?!'. I kid not. I rushed in finally huffing and panting only to get a lukewarm 'Ah you made it' similar to 'excuse me, you're occupying my seat' exclamation!! That's how V & N were!!!!!:-)

Bangalore bound - 9:00 p.m (Sunday)

We reached Hubli by car from Panaji. Beeyootiphoool route I tell you. Scenic with Karwar beaches, ports etc. Remember I mentioned my friend's mom joined us from Hubli. It was an overnight train this time. At the platform, my friend's mom exclaimed that the seats were not together. 2 of them were in A/C Sleeper & together. The other 2 were in Non-A/C Sleeper and few coaches apart. We all looked at each other and wondered whether to volunteer to sleep alone in Non A/C in peak summer. V's mom , due to health reasons had to sleep in A/C (even otherwise we weren't mean enough to make aunty sleep in general class) and V would be with her mom. N & I were apprehensive and quite certain it was going to be a long night ahead !! When the train arrived, we left all our bags in the A/C compartment & went to check our berths. N's was an upper berth. Mine was middle berth :-( The bigger problem was my berth was amidst some men and uncles!!! I stayed put in the middle berth for exactly 2 mins with all eyes on my every move. It was not as alarming as I'm making it seem, but I felt so uncomfortable and scampered off to N's compartment ; Told her there was no way I was sleeping there. N said 'Cool, now what?'. For an hour we stood near the door and loo, chatted, gossiped but the whole day had been tiring. You won't believe but by 11 p.m. we decided to share the upper berth as we were too sleepy.  We climbed up and although we were both stick figures then, we just managed to fit! N was hysterical and kept giggling the whole time. It was hard for me to control her and the other occupants must have wondered what in the world was going on above ;-) N also has this tendency to say some scandalous things without a second thought. I cannot mention it here but it simply ended up in uncontrollable giggles. Also whenever she would shift , I'd exclaim something in irritation  like 'Owww move your leg' or 'I'm gonna fall off' to which I'd get a retort 'Oh her Royal highness is uncomfortable , go back to your middle berth' . That would just shut me up - in a second! One man got very annoyed and ordered 'Quiet, Go to Sleep, You are disturbing' !!!! That didn't shut us up. It spurred a fresh set of giggles that ended up in a coughing fit as we tried to control them. In short, this was how our night passed. Unforgettable, very painful (try sleeping in 1 position for 6 hours in a stinky train in Non A/C in summer) and annoying. N & I were upset then with our ticket arrangements to say the least but with time, alls forgotten and only the happy memories stay :-)

I had no intentions of writing about this trip in all honesty. Last weekend, one of my closest friends who is probably the biggest critique (and fan) of my blog told me to venture into real issues instead of my usual autobiographical ones. She always mails me whenever I post something. I look forward to her mails since she's one of my favourite writers and she would point out a silly/funny aspect or an old memory :-) Trust me A, I did try to write about Shashi Tharoor but it ended up like this. Soon I promise a post on women's issues, my issues and your issues ;-D

@ Ria - thanks for the title. A word - do google and see what pops up!! ;-)

I'm off on a vacation to visit my grandma and relatives for a couple of weeks. Its unlikely I will be online so I shall catch up with all your blogposts next month - I promise. Tada :-))