My Cousin’s Wedding @ PATNA : Chapter 2 : My and Dad’s Departure

Mom had already had her piece of turmoil to make it to Patna and now it was my and Dad’s turn to wait and watch how things would unfold for us (though we were mentally prepared for surprises, but sometimes no preparation prepares enough).

Mom had reached on Thursday (17th) morning and we were to leave on Friday (18th) evening at 2015hrs. Thursday evening was again a busy evening, with last minute hurdles to be cleared, as my office and dad’s client discussions on Friday wouldn’t have left us with anytime to even look for the lock and key.

So every nick was knacked till wee hours. We were so ready that only thing unchecked on our ‘things to do before I board the train’ was ‘* board the train’. By the time I and Dad went to our beds it was already 1am (but both of us knew that we were sleepless thinking about what North eastern Railways had in bag for us! ).

Friday the 18^th arrived with a bright Sun. Things seemed perfect with I and Dad ready to kick start the day and finally wrap it up on berths in the AC coach of our train; with that spirit I left for office.

As our train was scheduled for departure at 2015hrs from New Delhi, we’d had to leave as early as 1700hrs in order to avoid peak office hour traffic jams (Yes! once again I had to take an almost half day’s off). My colleagues were already made familiar with the series of incidents that made mom reach Patna 24hrs late and so they were eager to follow my forthcoming adventure too. But the moment I shared my train’s name, there was a pin drop silence in the room for almost 10sec and then I was standing with raised brows and frowned forehead in a pool of laughter; same excuse-nist colleague of mine enlightened me that the train I had booked was the most infamous one to get as late as almost getting cancelled.

This time I had to take his words seriously (After all I was once bitten twice shy). So I decided that I’ll try to follow up with my train’s status before wasting another half day’s leave. It was 1200hrs and not just I but my whole team was trying to look for possible means of ensuring my train’s departure timings.

Finally at about 1420hrs the 139 Railway enquiry call center executive uttered my train’s number and the operators words were ‘train number 12402, Magadh Express from New Delhi is running late by 17hrs and it’s expected departure is 1315hrs on Saturday from New Delhi Railway station.

For that moment whole world came crashing on me. I was awaiting a delay but not as long as 17hrs. Who boards a train after that much of delay? What if it gets further delayed? What if it finally reaches on Sunday evening (Di’s marriage was scheduled for then) ? That’ll kill the whole purpose of our travelling to Patna ( I could almost see myself an Dad reaching the wedding venue with our bags in our hands when Di was leaving with Jeejs after marriage). I was so very disheartened that for a few minutes I decided to drop the plan to go at all.

But then I got a flash from my school times when my English teacher had once shared Albert Einstein’s words with us, ‘If there was a hope, it comes from east, it comes from India’; and I realized that being an Indian wanting to travel to east India I must keep faith.

With that Einstein’s hope I shared the scenario with Dad over phone and suggested him to visit a travel again to look for options in other trains; thus started a race against the scheduled/ delayed/cancelled/ rescheduled trains to Patna that could make our arrival to Patna meaningful enough. But at around 1630hrs I and Dad had finally given up and concluded that we had no option other than playing the gamble of boarding the train no. 12402, Magadh Express, already delayed by 20hrs, (as not going was not an option) and with droopy eyes and spirit I shared the same with my fellow team mates.

Listening to that the excuse-nist rose from his chair and said aloud in a filmy style ‘why fear when I am here!’, he asked, ‘you surely want to reach Patna in time no matter how much it costs?’, I said. ‘if it’s not in 5 figures, yes !’. And then he made a few calls back to back; asked my details and conveyed the whole issue to the person on the other side of the call. Once he disconnected l, looked at me with a smile and said, ‘cancel all previous bookings on Magadh, I have got you tickets on Gareeb Rath Express which is running late by 11hrs. It had to leave at 1715hrs today but shall leave tomorrow at 0430hrs, so gear up!’.

Whohaa ! What a moment it was! I was speechless! The excuse-nist had become the exorcist who had changed entire scene in my favor as against Mamta Didi’s (Railway Minister). My eyes sparkled; my entire team became cheery all over again; and as I told my Dad about the scenario I could hear a sigh of relief from him on the call.

The guy whose words I had initially blown in the air had become the hero for my trip and I couldn’t stop thanking him. The tickets were mailed to my personal email-id that I had to check at home, so things looked quite positive. With a grateful feeling I came back home after completing the day to office and to checked my mail anxiously. There were suddenly 60 unread mails in my inbox so hunt for The Mail was obvious, but I finally fund the mail and opened it with a grin to cherish the beauty of my ticket to Patna. But perhaps the planetary positions of the day had something against my blood pressure and the ticket played with it too. Our ticket had waiting status 50 and 51 which was not a very pleasing view at all.

The very moment I called my, suddenly become, erstwhile-savior to make him aware of the situation but he sounded confident and asked me to check the PNR status; and yes he was right; our tickets had got confirmed (due to 12hrs delay people had rushed  into cancellations and many waiting listed had got confirmed ours being one of them).

Now I was completely elated. Suddenly, a train that was 12hrs late seemed to have got late especially to help me out of a tricky situation. Dad booked a cab for us to reach to station so early in the morning as to catch our newly booked train on time, while I cancelled our earlier booked tickets (ones that were  confirmed 2months in advance).

Saturday rose early, even before the Sun, and we were on station platform at 4am in the morning with hundreds of others, many of whom visibly were waiting for the train for last 12hrs at the platform itself. At 0440am , we were on our berths and train departed from railway station for Patna Junction, expected to reach at 1810hrs the same evening.

We had left but there still was time to reach to Patna…

My Cousin’s Wedding @ PATNA Chapter 1 : Mom’s voyage to PATNA

 

When the plan for attending my cousin’s wedding @ PATNA had conceived, one of my colleagues had sarcastically commented “it was different if it were about shifting to Patna, but a to-n-fro visit becomes a complete IT project; until one reaches the destination it’s a POC ( Proof Of Concept, shows feasibility of obtaining desired IT product), and when one reaches back home its only then that the project is successfully complete”(this had come from the guy at my office whom I call the Excuse-nist).

Back then I took it as a joke and exaggeration (they are expertise to this colleague of mine) and instead was certain about my seemingly perfect-possible-planning as all our return tickets were already confirmed 2months in advance (sometimes we confuse our own ignorance with confidence !!!!).

So after the train reservations, shopping and packing had taken over our concerns.

Who’ll wear what? Who’ll carry what? Number of baggages! Gifts!

There was a lot to do and was being done too. I and Mapa had assigned ourselves respective tasks to achieve the goals in time, so as to not to miss an item in the checklist before boarding our trains.

Di’s (elder sister) marriage was scheduled for 20 February, 2011, Sunday. Mom was reaching on 17^th (Wednesday) morning by departing from Delhi on Tuesday evening at 1730hrs, and I and Dad on 19^th (Saturday) morning by departing from Delhi on Friday evening at 2015hrs, (because I and Dad had professional commitments and Ma’s early presence at Patna was seeked ).

By 15^th (Monday) evening, I was done shopping for everything on my checklist; Dad was done packing everything on his list; Mom was done preparing half/pre-cooked food for our next 2 days without her.

And then suddenly, Dad’s phone rang aloud, disturbing us while striking off items on our ‘things to do before I board the train’ lists; on the other end of the telephonic conversation it was shared with us that Dad had an urgent meeting to attend at Agra, so by no means he could help Mom board the train so ‘make mom board the train’ was added to my ‘things to do before I board the train’ list.

Now started the planning for dropping Ma to station (yes we had to plan because my beloved city,Delhi’s traffic is too erratic). So it was decided that I would take a half day’s off from office and we shall leave for railway, station by 1515hrs so as make mom board the train comfortably (I was little conscious as mom hadn’t travelled on train for years, lest travelling alone).

With all that strategized mindset the next day started quite early with Dad leaving for Agra at 0500hrs in the morning. Then as expected, I left for office at 0800hrs and accordingly left for back home at 1300hrs.

On reaching home, I found mom anxiously doing last minute things in hurried manner and to calm her down started helping her do small things like locking up the bags and wrapping up the food for the travel. At around 1445 I realized that we could enquire about platform details by calling on 138 (Railway Enquiry: released only 3hrs before trains scheduled departure timings).

As only a score of minutes was left for us to leave for station I kept phone on loudspeaker mode and continued wrapping up all that had to be wrapped up. The automated enquiry system was listing details of all the trains scheduled to leave in next 3hrs, so I heard carefully and patiently and then finally, the till-then-seemingly sweet voice of the operator said ‘train number 12394, Sampoorn Kranti Express, from Delhi to Patna Junction, scheduled to depart from New Delhi Railway Station at 1730hrs is running late by 8hrs 0min and is expected to leave from New Delhi Railway Station at 0130hrs’.

Now what? How? Who? Why?

Mom had already cursed Ministry of Railways, Mamata Didi (our Railway Minister), Ticketing System, Railway Engineers, Trains and even James Watt.

I had my own concerns; my half day was wasted and Dad who’s been travelling whole day will have to stay awake for whole night for understood reasons under present scenario.

Now we had nothing to do; anger and tire has taken me and Mom over, and in our exasperation made us hungry and we binged into the wrapped food cussing no-one and anyone who could be blamed for our irate.

I was continuously checking for the status of the delayed train, wishing/fearing for the ‘cover-up’  of the expected delay of our awaited train, but in vain as with every passing couple of hours the train kept getting further delayed for half an hour more.

Now I wished for it to get so late as to let us sleep atleast (as better was worse or worse was better was out my scope of judgment).

Well! With all the confusion, irritation, anger and tension, finally mom boarded the train on 17^th (Wednesday) at 0830hr (yes it was 15hrs late, this was the time she had to reach Patna) and left Delhi for PATNA.

Our day’s ordeal was over, but Mom’s patience was tested even more as the train finally got further late by 9hrs during its go and Mom reached PATNA 24hrs late against our planning.

Partial POC was managed to be dragged to success, next was I and Dad to reach……

(to be continued)