Woh 12 Ghanatey!!!!

Sometimes we do things in spite of knowing the end result!!! And I did the same :)
Result??? Stranded for 12 hrs!!! Thanks to our so called Bharat Bandh.

I was happy that finally I was going to get a break from my nothing doing, nothing happening office life!!!I have planned for it just in time to get confirmed rail tickets.
But even before the journey started bad news started pouring in that there will be an all India Bandh on Monday. Oops the very day I am going to come back to Kolkata.
Given the reputation of Kolkata during the strikes (also known as ‘City of Bandh’s’) I was pretty apprehensive about my prospect of getting back to my home from the railway station. I am a firm believer that one should experience everything which a place can offer where your are living and as I haven’t observed even a single bandh in Kolkata since I landed here I decided to go ahead with my trip and decided to return to Kolkata on the very day of the strike to get a look and feel of the atmosphere :).

But guess what destiny has planned something better for me :). By the time I boarded the train I was told by different sources that on Monday my train would not be allowed to even enter in west Bengal due to bandh. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How can somebody stop a Rajdhani? I asked my self naively :(.

Anyways there was no point in cancelling the trip by that time. So I boarded the train and happily spent my holidays and again boarded the Rajdhani for my return journey.
I was greeted by an Old man in the train who was just sitting next to me ( Why does all the hot chicks sits in the next boggie whenever I travel :(:( ) and he told me that it is going to be a boring journey as we are going to be stopped before entering into WB. I agreed to him that it is going to be a boring journey as I was expecting some hot chicks in front of me instead of that old man. It’s bad that even in II AC you don’t get good company ;).

Finally the inevitable happened!!! I wake up at six in the morning (my morning shift has made in so habituated that I end up waking at six even on Sundays also :() and found that train was not moving!!!!! Dragged myself out and found that we were stopped at a lonely station called Gomoh (Jharkhand). Can’t help it so I went to sleep again and wake up at eight and came to know that we were at the same station. Pretty cool!! As I could not have asked for a better start of the day, I asked the pantry boy to get my morning tea. By the time I finished my tea the train started moving and finally I was happy that BJP and other parties delivered as promised that they wouldn’t touch the railways!!!!!!!!

But to my dismay, surprise and disappointment just after 15 minutes the train stopped at Dhanbad station (Jharkhand) as it was a better station to stop by the Rajdhani standards.
And we started wondering that when this train is going to move in spite of knowing that bandh will end at 6 in the evening. Only good thing which happened during this whole episode that AC of the train was ON and meals were served on time although they were pretty knocked down in Quality and Quantity :). I was just thinking about the other trains where there is sleeper class and a general class with no AC and no Food Service!!!!
Bad!!!!Very Bad!!!

Anyhow took 5-6 rounds of the railway station (Quite clean by Indian standards :)), got my shoes polished for 5 bucks , tried Jhal Moori and litti choka to get the regional touch and to kill my time and finally resigned to my fate and came back to my seat passed a frustrating smile to the old man and slept . Finally by 5:30 the train started and by 8:30 I was in Kolkata!!!

I am not going to debate on whether these bandh’s are right or wrong as it is not going to make any difference to the people who initiate these for what so ever reason and cause. I just feel bad about the common man who has to earn on daily basis to have food at the end of the day!!!! And believe me my suffering is far lesser than the agony and pain of these peoples!!!

For me it was an experience but for many it was a bad day in life!!!