Tuesday, February 21, 2017

He said,"The train you are waiting has already gone in the morning"





It was a tiring day. After roaming around the entire city for the whole day it was time to go back home.

I went to catch a train to train station. I waited for about half an hour for the announcement board to show the train name, but it didn't.
Finally as the time of train arrival was approaching I went to the inquiry. I stood in the queue for a couple of more minutes. And finally, my number came.
I asked, "Which platform the train to Delhi (Bhopal Express) that is about 5 pm comes on?"
The attendant looked at me carefully.
He asked, "Where do you want to go?"
I responded. "Delhi but I have booked tickets"
He took a deep breath and said, "Sir you have booked a wrong ticket the train has gone at about 5 am in the morning you are asking about it now in the evening."

It was a big blow for me. I didn't know what to do. My dream to go comfortably sleeping in train after a tiring day got crushed. And I started cursing myself how I can be so stupid. To make the situation worse I had a company of one of my female foreigner friends.

I thought of taking the bus. I asked a police lady for direction to bus stand she suggested me to take another train. I went to buy tickets, they asked me to fill up the form and pay heavy charges for the ticket (for next train Gatiman express) that was way beyond my budget for such a small journey from Agra to Delhi.

I planned to go by a normal bus. But as soon as I came out of the station; auto drivers started pulling me to take me to bus stand as they have the commission on the ticket. I asked for Ola cab and asked him to take me to the Govt. bus stand.

After waiting for long he came. He took us to a private bus stand and said can't take us to Govt. bus stand as it is very far and his cab doesn’t have gas.  I believe he took me there to take the commission on my ticket.

I did another cab and asked him to take me to Govt bus stand but he took us to a very far big bus stand not the one I wanted.

We went inside and asked, they said buses are scarce because of the election. If you want to catch a bus you get to wait on the main road.
We walked till the road and stood there in the dusty crowded square.
Everybody was looking at us and some came promising a luxury bus to Delhi. But I was no more willing to be ticked.
We waited, waited more,.. checking every other bus which drove past. We were tired, confused, I was not over with my guilt and stupidity of booking the wrong train and believing all the cab drivers and not doing proper research of the city and bus stands.
We were running behind buses, checking them, and were getting exhausted.

Suddenly the Streat Food Vendor who was observing us looked at us and said "Babu ji chinta mat
karo bas kuch hi minto me bus aati hogi, aapako aaram se bas mil jayegi, sab bas ab khali aani hain, seat bhi mil jayege" 
(Sir don’t worry, you will get the bus in few minutes, and all the buses will be empty now so you will get the seat too.)

I know that was all lie, but I wanted to believe that. And to make ourselves little comfortable I believed in his words. I realized the power of few positive words there -those words made me hopeful and strong.

We waited for some more time and a bus came from inside the bus stand. I confirmed with the conductor that the bus was going Delhi. But he said that there was no seat.
We push entered into the bus and stood near the gate.

The drivers asked us to sit on the floor at the front; as the door will open at every stop and it will be very uncomfortable for us and conductor. We went ahead and sat on the floor of the bus. It was uncomfortable but at least we got the bus.

After a while, a boy sitting on a seat near us offered us his seat. I asked my friend to sit, and the boy and I sat together on the floor.

On the way, he asked, "Which country are you from"
I said, "I am Indian but my friend is foreigner"

He smiled and said I thought you too are a foreigner. And we both started laughing and talking.

His name is Arnav Kulshreshtha and is doing Mechanical Engineering from GLA University Mathura. I was Mechanical Engineering graduate and moreover, my brother had been a professor in his college; so I found a connection.

I thanked him and we started talking about engineering subjects, girls, college, career, life and lot much more. He had his friend sitting beside him in the seat, who later offered me his seat as well.

Finally, the journey was uncomfortable on many levels but this kind soul saved my day. My hope in humanity got strengthened that day.
People are awesome don’t lose hope in humanity.
Engineers are good people :)
God bless this kind soul.  





















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