Sunday, September 30, 2007

I went to Bangalore 2 weeks ago, for work and for pleasure. Okay, that sounds ominous! I decided to go by train and, believe me, when I say, all my travel plans followed Murphy's Law-"If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, and it will all go wrong at the same time."
To begin with, I discovered that there are 2 Shatabdi trains, travelling between Madras and Bangalore, one in the morning and the other in the evening. I was ready to wake up at 4 am, to catch the 5:30am train. Luckily, I thought it would be a good idea to look at my ticket the night before. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and called the station to confirm the time, that I was going to be on the evening train. The recording confirmed what my eyes had seen. Finally, I got to Bangalore at 10pm. Naveen picked me up from Cantonment because, although, he has lived in Bangalore for two years, that is the only station he knows his way to.
My adventures don't end there! I was supposed to leave Bangalore by the evening Shatabdi train on Monday. Naveen and I figured that if the train stops at Cantonment on the way in, it will stop on the way out as well. But no!!! Aps and I got to Cantonment at 4pm. The train was supposed to leave Bangalore City at 4:25pm. I found out that the train didn't stop there at 4:05 pm.(Please note, that I have the exact timeline of events.) So, there I am running towards the car, yelling at Aps to hurry, because I was so sure that if the driver drove like the wind I would be able to catch the train. Aps refused to budge. She stood in the middle of the road arguing with me, "No, no! We won't make it! No!"
We were still outside the station at 4:15pm. I decided to cancel my ticket and get the refund. I ran back into the station leaving Aps on the road still saying, "No no!" I asked the man at the ticket booth where I could cancel my ticket and was told I had to go to the other platform. Turned around, to find Aps standing behind me. I explained that I had to cancel the ticket on the other side and told her to run. Again, Aps refused to move. She stood there saying, " Wait! I have to buy a platform ticket!"
I kept running, all the while, yelling over my shoulder that we would buy one on the other side, all the while thinking to myself, "Doesn't this girl understand the gravity of the situation?" We ran up the stairs, crossed the overhead bridge, cancelled the ticket, got the refund, booked me on another train and came out to see my train pass us by.
I couldn't leave the next day because Shatabdi doesn't run on Tuesdays, and the Brindavan and the Lalbagh were completely booked. I took the early morning train from Bangalore City on Wednesday morning. I couldn't miss that train. I had to be back in Madras because I had a therapy session on Thursday and an interview and couldn't afford to reschedule either one. I was so nervous, I stayed up all of Tuesday night. This time, I got home! (I have, also, realised love using commas!)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Osama visiting Bush at the APEC conference in Australia. Seeing is believing.
http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/