Lonely Train Journeys!

Hi all! :)

Journeys in trains, especially long ones are usually fun. For chess players like me, it’s all the more fun since we almost always travel in groups. For this year’s Mangalore open, however, I was forced to travel alone by fate and this turned out to be interesting!

I had the side berth (Number 7) by some ill-fated reservation. Number 8 was absent I guess, turned out to be two chatter box women who came to sit. From Chennai to Katpadi, I could do nothing better than
hear their stories…

Moral 1: In situations like these, you are screwed!

I had my earphones on. Still, women, as always, were better! No Rahman or Ilayaraja could equal the volume of two women talking. Moreover, those two turned out to be professionals, there was simply no intermission. They liked to show off by the familiar technique… ‘Too loud, over reactive talking!’

@ Katpadi, they got down to my relief. There was more to happen. In seat numbers 5 and 6, there was a couple with a kid and they needed the side berth for obvious reasons. The husband requested me to change. He looked so sick and tired, I immediately smiled and changed. Good decision, but for me, the outcome was bad! Seat numbers 1 to 4 were occupied by 5 hindi speaking men! (Even though they EXISTED when I was in the side berth, they somehow seemed negligible!) I repeat – 5 people shared 4 seats. The TTE came to check the tickets and now, a really cheap thing happened…

Moral 2: Indians are good businessmen! :D

These hindi people ‘sold’ one seat and said “We can accommodate ourselves in 4 seats, so take the 1 seat in the next compartment!” That seat was sold to TWO hindi speaking men (I am referring them as hindi speaking men because they were speaking hindi and I don’t know their names, nothing personal!) WHAT THE HELL IS THE TTE DOING? He agreed to everything since they had a nice common language. The two new guys did not want to pay to these 5 legends I think… They sat near to them and started chatting. The count rose to 7 and I was the only jackass sitting as the ‘odd one out’!

Moral 3: You can get cornered right in the middle!!!

 I was new to this situation, I hate travelling alone! SEVEN people talking and a couple plus kid in the side. I was desperate to change the atmosphere. Thankfully, I remembered my friends (Nitin and Vale Prasath) sitting in seat numbers 56 and 57! I shifted my bag and suitcase immediately!

Till the train crossed Tamil Nadu border, two of us were busy texting! Damn the signals. I felt “All trains should have mobile cell-phone towers, common for all networks! Message not delivered hurts, but not receiving messages hurts more! :P

Moral 4: Make optimal use of the resources available!

We were not disheartened. We kept on texting whenever signal was available… till we crossed Tamil Nadu from Coimbatore into Palakkad. Beep! My Nokia 5230 showed ‘LOW BATTERY’! Obvious given the travelling conditions, no phone could handle everything and remain unscathed! Nitin had relatively zero power left too! But we were happy with the overall outcome of our texting sessions! :D

When this was happening, I always found some old people staring at me like “Idhunga ellam eppadi uruppada pogudhu?” I quite liked it. I felt “Ungalukku poraamai! Chance kedacha neengalum dhaan…!” The ‘sunshine’ old man in front of me took out his mobile phone and pressed some keys. I was quite sure he was changing Themes! You silly people, let us live!!! Idhula vetti scene vera.

“Edhuku daa indha maanam ketta polapu! Varlaena vitrunga!”

Moral 5: Do not worry what’s happening around you. Keep texting! :)

And we lamented till we went off to sleep… to wake up 15 minutes after the train reached Mangalore!

Hope you enjoyed the ride!

ak