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Written by Subho
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Saturday, 01 August 2009 |
 Heaven is not so Far!!! - We were in the train. Waiting for its leaving
of our beloved city. Bidding adios to otherrelatives, who were there.
Suddenly found some curious faces, some imergency inthe securities and
other rail staffs next to our compartment. A littleinvestigation
revealed, a former central minister and a political leader ishappened to
be our co-passenger, travelling just next compartment to us. Thedoors
to that compartment was locked.
This imposed a little problem into our journey. All of our team couldn't manage same-birth ticket. Just one of us had to go to another compartment. Previously we decided, uncle would go to his seat in the other compartment after dinner. But due to this, as the doors were locked, he had to leave now. He now didn't have the option to avail the passage from ours to his compartment through the compartment of this minister.
In the meantime, there came a person, some rail staff, who supposed to be in the charge of ours and the minister's compartment. As per our request, he atlast managed the securities, so that, my uncle can use the passage till 9pm. We were happy enough. And our train started rolling!!!
 Our coach was an AC 2tier. Me took the side upper birth. Others have their respective births. We booked a total of 6 births in that compartment. 2 upper and 2 lower births were there along with 2 side births. We also found our co-passenger in that compartment, a family known to us. So, it took very little time to start discussions on various important or unimportant matters.
At that moment, uncle came to me and asked me to take down notes on each expenditure to be made throughout the complete journey. I accepted readily. I decided to have my tiny office at the side-upper birth and started to manage the complete accounts.
We took our dinner by 9:30 and went to our individual births. The train was running fast, I like the soft jerks of train. It actually was enjoyable to me. And very soon we all slept.
The next day started inside the train. Train was running fast. It was 8 am then. We found the former minister left the train at dawn. I was in my small mobile office, with my laptop, a small diary, a pen and my ipod. I was listening music and sometimes was playing some strategic game in my laptop. Sister was with the camera, looking out of the hazy glass of the compartment. The elders were busy with cards. We took bread and banana as breakfast. These were the last food we had, except muri, we brought from home. We still needed to stay till next morning. We ordered budgeted meal for all of us. It costs a total of Rs. 120. In the evening, we took "muri" and "chanachur", we brought from home. After dinner, we went for sleep nearly at 9:30. We had to wake up about 5:00am next day. It was a tensed night, as I always had to think of getting up early. About 4:30, we all got up, and arranged our luggage. The train was on-time. It reached Kalka at 5AM.
Suddenly we felt the change of weather. It was hot in Kolkata, but at Kalka, we could not stand without sweater, muffler and gloves. We covered our body as much as possible. Uncle called a number. It was the number of our driver. Uncle had booked this person for the whole tour to Shimla and Manali. But he asked us that, he was not permitted to come to Kalka Station. We had to take some transport to reach the bus-stand of Kalka. We rushed out of the station and almost 30 cars were there. We took a tata sumo to reach Kalka Bus Stand. It took only 30 minutes, but cost us Rs.200.
The driver, Sanju, was waiting there for us. As soon as we reached there, he welcomed us with a cordial innocent smile. He was there with his tata sumo, resting beside the road. He jumped upon it, and asked us to give him luggage. He put all our bags over there, and tied them all with some strong rope. We entered the car, and found ourselves in a well-decorated car with nice music. Sanju came down and took control of the car. We were ready to leave Kalka for Shimla.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 11 December 2010 )
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