This is not a story about some sight seeing of some country or a trip across many countries. This is about my journey from my college, NITK Surathkal, to my home in Assam. And yes, it does takes 100 hours, first by train and then by bus...quite a long journey indeed. But its not that I continously travel for 100 hours. There are a some stops in the journey where we change trains or transfer from train to bus.
I am very lucky that I have have got a great company in this journey. I bet going on this 100 hours journey alone will drive you mad.
I will write about my most recent journey, from my home to college around new year. The journey took a year this time! I started from home in 2006 and reached college in 2007.
In such a long journey you can expect some adventures, thrills and also some surprises. This journey had all of it. Lets start off with the journey now.
Day 1
My train was from Guwahati at 6:30 in the morning on 28th dec. It is a 5 hrs journey from my home to Guwahati by bus. I had the option of either coming by night-super, which would reach Guwahati by 5 am, or come a day earlier and stay for the night there. My Dad insisted that I should go a day earlier as the night jorney might be risky(the preoblem of militants there). I readily accepted the proposal as I wanted to meet my friend in Ghy.
I started from home at 1 pm on 27th dec,2006. It was the usual scene as I left home, Dad giving lots of advice, and Mom stuffing my bag with eatables. I carried one bag full of eatables - achaar, puri, mithai, bhujia etc.... etc....She starts preparing these a day before. She will say " You need that for a 4 days journey, and also there are your friends with you." Before leaving home she will put 'kumkum' on my forehead. Dad makes sure that I have taken the tickets and cash.( You need to carry a lot of cash for such a long journey. You may need that anytime, and I distribute the cash among various pockets.)
My Dad goes with me to bus-stand. Surprisingly my friend Rishi was also there.
This 5 hour journey by bus is the worst part of my whole journey. For 5 hours I just sit idle, doing nothing and somehow I feel very uneasy in bus and to add to my woes I dont even fall asleep. But I do enjoy the sceneray and luckily the roads were good then.
I reached Ghy by 7 pm, had to search a little for my friends hostel, where I satyed for the night. My friends who were companying me in the journey were staying in a hotel. It was a nice experience statying with my friend in the hostel, even had dinner in the mess!!!! We had met after a long time and we talked and talked till 2 in the morning. After dinner we went for a long walk in the campus of Cotton College. I came to know a lot about the hostel life of the Cotton College students' and also the political activities of the college. (How different is it from our college (NITK)!) He informed me that most of the cabinet ministers of Assam Govt. are form Cotton Collge, and all the previous GS of the college have entered the field of politics.
At 2 my friend suggested that we must go to sleep as we have to get up early in the morning.
Day 2
I woke up early in the morning at 4:30 as I wanted to be there at the railway station well before time. For the first time during these holidays I experienced the cold of the early morning. You will pity my condition when i inform you that there was no geaser in the hostel.
We reached the staion at 5:40. I was expecting strict checking of my bags at the railway station as there were few bomb blasts in the last month in Guwahati. But there was no checking. None of my partners had come till then. I was too early it seems. I arranged my luggage in our cabin and occupied my seat, waiting for my companions to come. My friend was with me.
The arrangement of the seats required to be mentioned here. We were a group of 7. We had 4 seats in boggie S8 - me, Pallav, Louis and Aslam and 3 seats in boggie S10 - Leo, Manoj and Annu(all the names have been changed). This arrangement has a plus ponit. I often go to S10 to meet my frens and that is a good time pass, moving around the train. If we all are in the same compartment we wont move around much and get bored too soon.
All my partners come in some time. It was nice meeting them after a long time(20 days) and we were all hugging each other. Firt surprise of the journey - we had some more companions for the journey, our 2nd year juniors(8 of them) and also Majuli and also a 1st year girl Nikki. With such a big group the journey was surely going to be rocking.An intresting incident happened before the train starts. There was no power in my boggie, but the rest of the train had. Assam Rifles jawans came in for routine checking. One of the hawaldars asked me why the lights were off. I said him that there was no power in the whole boggie. But still he began rotating the tube lights in hope that it might start working. But how could it happen. There was no power. Why did this jawan did not understand such a simple thing. Then a sensible jawan switched on the main-switch( Yes each boggie has its own main switch, you can check out that) and hurray!! the lights were on.
There is one routine work that we have got used to - scanning the reservation list of all the boggies and checking for the F19 - F24 variables. (Hope you got that!). and this time also we walked the full length of the train.
The train leaves on schedule time 6:30 am. And here we are......on the rails again.
We arrange the luggage properly and chain them. (putting chains on your bags is required when you are in North India)
Those who had read the blog before will know that i have returned after a long time. Lets continue with the journey.
The scenary during mornig time is breathtaking. (Do experience that once in ur life time!) Its all green and green......
I take off my jacket and stand at the gates. The chilled air blast at me. But i dont feel cold.
Edited on 25th July 2012-
I decided to revive my blog. I thought I cannot proceed with new blogs untill I finish my old blogs. After going through this post I have realized that I don't remember a lot of important details of the journey. That means I cannon complete the blog now. Hopefully when I meet my friends we will be able to recall all the interesting incidents of the journey and then I will complete this post.
