It never happened...almost
Till the last moment, I was not sure if I was going to go or not. I had a lot of things going on here at the time and didn’t know if leaving them was the best thing to do. We didn’t even have tickets till the day before we were supposed to leave. But Abhijit made one last attempt by invoking the Tatkal quota and we had our tickets. Just like that, defying all logic or convention. The second major hurdle was getting leave from work since we were to leave on a Thursday night and we work in the same office, I was very skeptical if our bosses would agree. But there too we did not face any problems. The trip was well and truly on.
The big switch
So on the fateful evening, we reached CST well in time, found our bogie and seats and had just settled down when I felt the urge to check the reservation chart. I went out and to my horror, I could not find our names in it. At that moment, I just realized that everything that had happened up to that point was too good to be true. We were in the correct bogie, the correct seats, even the correct train and date. Then why were our names missing from the reservation chart. I cursed the railway software for this befuddling error and decided to make one last thorough check of the chart before calling in the authorities. I went over every name in that chart till I came to the bottom and to my utter relief, our names were there! But wait what were they doing at the bottom of the chart? Apparently, we had been upgraded and allotted seats in a 3-AC compartment of the same train. The devil software from a few minutes ago turned hero as I rushed in to tell Abhijit. He too did not believe it at first and wanted to see it with his own eyes. As he came running back confirming the discovery, we realized we had moments before the train started, to cover around 200 meters of a crowded railway platform to reach the a/c compartments. The next opportunity to make the switch would only present itself at Kalyan, a good 40 minutes away and we were not so sure the TC’s would wait that long. So we ran for it…and the train had already started moving when we hauled our luggage and selves into it. The adventure was well and truly underway.
Southern surprise
This was only the second time I was visiting the south of India. My first visit had happened when I was a 9 month old toddler, so next morning, I woke up around 8 when the train had halted at a station called Bijapur in Karnataka. As I looked out of the window, I realized there was something different about this station. Before I could realize what that was, the train had moved off. Our next halt was at Gulbarga. It was here that it struck me. The stations were so clean! A far cry from the crowded and dirty railway stations that I had seen thus far. Very good, or as the French would say, très bien!Here we are…
We reached Hyderabad around 12:30 in the afternoon and were received by our friend Arpan. Our other friends Praveen, Lohit and Sreevalsa were already in Hyderabad and were supposed to pick us up at the station. As we sat waiting for them, we realized we didn’t have return tickets! We made an unsuccessful trip to the booking centre and in the end, decided that we would make the return journey by bus.
Anyways, after some time, Praveen met us at the station and informed us that he and the others were going gift-shopping for the new couple. Rukku had made arrangements at a place close to his house for us friends to stay and we could go there,they would join us later, he said. Once we reached the place, forget about lunch, forget about freshening up, we just got talking. The three of us had a lot of catching up to do. While talking, we fell asleep only to be awakened by a knock on the door. It was Rukku himself! We congratulated the new groom in unison when his father entered and reminded us that we had not eaten lunch. What a valid point. So we proceeded to his house for one of the best lunches I have ever had in my entire life. Post lunch, the combination of fatigue from the journey and complex carbohydrates from the lunch ensured we did not waste a single minute falling asleep. Bliss.
Reception
The reception was to be held that evening at 7. Praveen, Lohit and Sreevalsa came back from their shopping expedition at 6:30 and awoke us from our slumber. After a few minutes of regrouping, we thought it wise to start readying ourselves for the reception, and Sreevalsa made his way to the bathroom only to realize that there was no water in the taps!! We were literally left high and dry. Fortunately, two years of hostel life had given us the skills necessary to face the world in an unbathed, but confident state. Out came the deos and the hair gels and we were ready in record time!
Reception 2
At the reception, we were joined by Suman, another dear friend. Finally, everyone who had committed to come to the wedding, was at the wedding. Receptions, as I knew them, were a purely casual event devoid of all religious practices. But this was different. After the married couple made their way to the stage and the world got a glimpse of Mrs. and Mr. S. Rukmini Kumar for the very first time, three priests climbed up and started invoking various gods and goddesses to bless the couple for a happy married life. Sreevalsa, in addition to being a PhD student at IISc Bangalore, is also well versed in the Vedas and scriptures. He too joined the priests in the chantings and I am sure the gods were put under extra pressure to bless the couple, a sentiment which at that point of time was shared by all present.Reception 3
We Indians love our food. More so at weddings. So after the new couple had been duly blessed and people started making their way on stage to greet them, we decided to check out the culinary offerings. Much to the dismay of the carnivores among us, it was an all vegetarian fare that day. Rather than accepting defeat and ingesting it, we decided to go out for chicken, at that very instant. None of us were familiar with the local geography, but this was a thought that had not crossed our meat obsessed brains till that point. So we searched high and low for any place serving chicken in the vicinity. Being unable to do so and out of fear of getting lost, we came back to the reception. Resigned to our fate, we went in to the dining section to see that all the food was over and the caterers were packing up! Oh, the horror!! Then, Rukku came to our rescue and we were given some food out of the share they had saved for the family. Thankfully, the caterer had overestimated Rukku’s family’s eating capacities and they had sufficient food left even after four hungry idiots had eaten their fill.
Post reception
After dinner, we sat out in the lawn and started making plans for the following day. Since it was the first time several of us were in Hyderabad, we wanted to see it all. Unfortunately, time was a constraint and so in the end, it was decided to wake up early, go to Golconda fort, go to the hi-tec city, have biryani at Bawarchi’s and in the evening, return to base to pack up and leave. Wonderful plan!
It was past midnight when the reception got over. We proceeded to our room to retire for the night. But we were once again left high and dry, this time, figuratively. Apparently, the room we had been living in belonged to a friend of Rukku’s, who was not informed that we would be returning late at night. He had locked the house and had gone to sleep. So there we were, in an alien city, without a roof on our heads. We called Rukku who tried calling the owner of the house, but that did not work. In the end, he called us to his house saying that something would work out. In all, there were six of us and his house was already filled to capacity with the outstation guests. We were beginning to wonder if any hotels or lodges would be open at 2 in the night when Rukku’s elder sister told us that their neighbours had agreed to take us in. She was as adamant as we were reluctant to disturb a complete stranger in the middle of the night, but it was useless. So we spent Rukku’s wedding night at the house of complete (and might I add, kind) strangers.The day after
Of course all our plans made the previous day had gone kaput the moment we woke up at 11. After a hurried bath (our first in two days) we assembled at Rukku’s to decide the next course of action. Over a sumptuous breakfast, reformulations were made. Retaining the biryani bit, we decided to let go of all previous destinations. As per the new plan, we would go to Prasad’s, a mall cum multiplex cum entertainment centre on Necklace road and proceed to Bawarchi’s from there. So we finished our breakfasts, booked our return bus tickets. We didn’t know it at the time, but this move would save our asses big time. Anyways, after a rickshaw ride through the city we reached our destination. The first look didn’t really impress me much…so what, a big mall cum multiplex…seen plenty of those in Mumbai. But the best part of this was the 4-D movie that we saw. 20 mins of absolutely thrilling visuals and effects. Trust me, if you ever get a chance to watch a 4-D movie, do not miss it. Anyways, after this, we decided to move towards the one activity I had been waiting for the whole day…lunch. We stepped out of the mall and tried taking a rickshaw to Bawarchi’s. But strangely, all the rickshaw wallahs refused! A little more digging revealed that Mr. K. Chandrashekhar Rao, in his fast unto death for a separate Telangana state had slipped into a serious condition, giving his goons the license to run amok through the city. We were told that Bawarchi’s had become a target of their ire and had shut down. Not the ones to be disappointed, we settled on going to this other place called Paradise. Only problem was that it was in Secunderabad! Suman soon found a rickshaw willing to accommodate the 5 of us (for an extra 10 bucks of course). We drove all along the beautiful Necklace road and as soon as we entered Secunderabad…Secunderabad
…we were pulled over by traffic cops for overloading the rickshaw. Some deft bargaining by the rickshaw driver ensured that he was let off just 50 bucks lighter, but this meant that we had to pay extra for our ride. Now I don’t know if this is normally the case or because there was tension in the city that day, Paradise was being guarded by an army of bouncers, complete with black t-shirts and all. But I must say, after enduring so much, the reward came in the form of the awsomest , lip smackingest chicken biryani that I have ever tasted. And they were pretty generous with the quantity too…neither of us could finish his share. After this gastronomic gratification, it was time to head back to Rukku’s, say our goodbyes, pick up our luggages and get going. But judging by how the day had panned out so far, would that have been so easy? You bet not.
Rukku’s house is a long way from Secunderabad and the best way to reach it is by bus. But that day, everybody was in a hurry to get home, so all the buses were overloaded. Suman, who has lived in Hyderabad for some time now, found this unbelievable. He then concluded that it was impossible for us to reach Hyderabad in time for our onward travels, if we continued waiting for the bus. His solution (after consultation with a very helpful traffic cop) was to take the local train.
Hyderabad’s local train system is very different from Bombay’s. Strangely, tickets have to be bought from the platform itself. But again, since that was a special day, everyone wanted to get home as quickly as possible and so there was a long queue at the booking counter. Rather than risk missing the train waiting in line, we decided to risk it and travel ticketless. In hindsight though, it would not have made any difference even if we would have stood in line for 20-25 mins to buy our tickets because the train was late…in a major way. Finally when it arrived, it was jam packed. Fortunately being a Bombay boy had trained me well for this part and we were able to get down at our destination, albeit with a little help from a friendly local.
Once we got out of the station, we saw huge lines at ATM’s and petrol pumps. We were now beginning to realize that the situation was indeed serious. But it really hit us when during the rickshaw ride back, the rickshawallah informed us that there would be a Hyderabad bandh starting the next day and would continue indefinitely. At this point, we realized the prudence of having booked our tickets in advance. Anyways, as we neared home, the possibility of being stuck in Hyderabad for the duration of the bandh was looming large in our heads. More so when the rickshaw driver kept updating us with news of sporadic incidences of violence from the city.
It was a bit of a fight finding conveyance to take us to the bus stop, but with a little help from Rukku’s father (Rukku had already left for his in-laws’ place), we managed that. The scene at the bus stop was more peaceful than we imagined and as we had time to kill, had a few sweets and picked up a few savouries that would last us through the 12 hours that it would take us to reach Bombay. The bus arrived, we found nice seats for ourselves (one of the advantages of being early birds), and we sat down recollecting a most remarkable day in our lives.
But it’s not over yet…
We were supposed to reach Mumbai by 9-10 the next morning. However, it was the day when the Pune city marathon was being organized. So all the major roads were closed to traffic and we waited for an hour and half before getting the go ahead. The fun simply refused to die down.
The end
All said and done, I have realized this...some journeys you plan, and some you don’t. It’s the unplanned ones that give you so much joy...and memories :)
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