Its Saturday morning. My friend and I have to leave Delhi for another friend's wedding in Dehradun. We have booked our tickets for Shatabdi express. The train departure is scheduled for 7am. I stay the night at my friend's place so we can leave together early morning. We are out of the house next morning at 5:45am. Since we plan to be back Sunday evening, it makes sense to take her car and park it at the station. So we take the car. Also no crazy Auto wallahs or Taxi wallahs. 6:00am and we cross Connaught Place and now we are like 1/2 a mile away from the station. One red light (right in front of the station) and we are in. But wait, suddenly the traffic starts moving slowly and soon we realize that there is a traffic jam at the red light (this is the red light right in front of the station, you can actually throw a stone into the station boundary from here).
My panic level starts rising. What makes matters worse is that we are in our own car, so we can't dump it in the middle of the road. The place is like a maze and there is no space to move. Slowly the clock is ticking away. From 6 it is 6:15.. then 6:30 ..then 6:40. We are moving very slowly. We realize that there is no way to take the car into the station, so we decide to flow with the traffic. Finally we manage to get away from the red light and move towards the shops. There's a shopping market right off the road. We find a spot in front of a shop and although it's illegal to park, we stop there. Hopefully we'll be able to convince the shopkeeper. What else can we do? And as we are about to pick up our luggage and run for the station the shop owner comes along swearing in Haryanvi accent. Well, I am all panicky and mad and I tell my friend to ignore him. Its 6:55 am!!! We have to rush!!My friend is a calmer personality and does a good job of somehow convincing the bhaiya our plight, he kind of agrees (with some money).
And now we have only one manzil! Catch the train! So we rush across the station dragging our bags, pushing and pulling and running and panting. As we finally make it to the platform, to our pleasant surprise the train is calmly standing there. Oh My God.... its 7:10 am and it's still there! Shatabdis are almost never late! We feel blessed for our luck and quickly board our coach, find our seats and settle down. Oh my, what a huge sigh of relief. First, we exchange smiles and then retrospect on what happened. My friend advises me on how I become mad and panicky in difficult situations and how I should keep my cool. I sincerely agree and nod along now that there isn't much to lose. There is so much to change within ourselves I think. And then we chitchat a little wondering when the train will start. Its 7:25am, for the first time Shatabdi is so late....
After a few minutes, we see a couple board our coach and head straight towards us. Then glancing at their tickets and then at our seat numbers, the guy says"You have taken our seats". Yeah right! We take out our tickets and show them, "See, 25 A and B". The guy has a confused look, takes our ticket in his hand and scans the ticket left and right! And then suddenly his face beams in victory, "Bhaisahab, aapka ticket to Dehradun ki Shatabdi ka hai, yeh to Amritsar ki Shatabdi hai" (you have the ticket for Dehradun and this Shatabdi goes to Amritsar). And then we overhear from the back "Dehradun ki Shatabdi to theek 7:00 baje nikal gayi, yeh 7:40 wali Amristar ki Shatabdi hai". (The Dehradun Shatabdi has left at 7:00 already from this platform, this is the Amristar Shatabdi with departure at 7:40 am)
Us-^%^&;*(&*!!!
(ps: We did make it to our friend's wedding ... we rode by bus)
This is some time ago, when my sister and I were visiting my cousin M in Delhi. She and her hubby had recently shifted to a new apartment in Vasant Kunj. The place was new to us and we were having a hard time locating her home. Soon we at least found the apartments complex but were still struggling for 1029-A. Amidst our confusing arguments of locating it we heard the sound of a bicycle. As we turned around, we saw it was a postman carrying a load of envelopes and parcels and postage. For me, he was God sent. Without wasting a moment, I hurriedly walked up to him and asked, "Bhaiya, aapko yeh number maaloom hai kya?" (Do you know where this apartment is?) He stared at it for a moment and then after searching hastily through his postage, came up with an envelope with "Mamta Aswal, 1029-A, Sector C, Pkt D, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110070" written on it. "Is this the person?", he asked, and I nodded excitedly. Almost there I thought. Then he handed that envelope to me and said, "Ghar mil jaaye to yeh chitthi bhi de dena" (If you do find the apartment, hand over this to them as well).