Tuesday, February 07, 2006

To Bhuvaneswar

Hi folks,
I am in Bhuvaneswar, from Bangalore..nearly a 1000 km.s away. It was my first long train journey alone. Yes I felt strange as u guys r feeling now. I left Bangalore on Saturday(6th Feb) aftnun . Had to travel to Chennai as i did not get a ticket directly from Bangalore to Bhuvneswar.
It was a nice journey. First time into Tamilnadu. Believe me I can't forget the views of the green fields beside the train tracks. It was just beautiful. And the rocky hills too..They are like huge rocks of different sizes and shapes tied with a rope in an amazing knot and thrown onto a small mudyy hill. Its always a different view for someone who has seen trees on the hills. I like it.
Sun had set over the beautiful landscape. It was Chennai @ 8:30. Someone said Chennai is urrrrrrr..hot!..Yes it indeed is.. .I was walking with my luggage on the platform and sweat seeped out on my forehead, again ..it was 8:30PM. I called my friend Vinay who was still in office. After 10 mins he came to the station and it was a meeting after a one and a half years. Pleased to see him. We had dinner and discussed our lives . It was time ,10:30 was the next train: Chennai - Howrah.
I boarded the train and Vinay bid me adieu and left . I had a middle berth. Believe me its not at all comfortable to take a middle berth. But I had no choice.
Since then it was just the train the tracks and stations whizzing past..One after the other . Did manage to catch some sleep during night. Someone told me in the morning that train was late by 3 Hours at Vijayawada. We were to reach there by 5:00 in the early morning but we were there only by 8:00. I was kind of apprehensive because it was just half the way and we were behind schedule. Correct time to reach Bhuvanswar was 9:00 on Sunday night. If it gets late then it might be very late in the night and difficult for me to get an Auto or Taxi to Infy which is far away from the city. But next to my seat were people from Bhuvaneswar and they told me not to panic as there will be taxis late night. I confined myself to the shanty berth and started reading The Rainmaker. It's a typical John Grisham. Later in the evening I spoke to some of the co passengers. Two of them were travelling to Bhuvaneswar.
It was 11:30 in the night when train reached Bhuvaneswar. It was pretty cool outside. These two guys from Bhuvaneswar helped me in getting a fair deal with the Autowala. Finally he settled for 70 bucks. 20 mins drive from the station to the DC and there I am. Autowala asked for 10 bucks more as he had to come inside the campus.
Done..
Got the room keys and it was lower berth and a smoother couch :)..zzzzzzzzzz....