Bangalore -------------- Delhi (Flight at 1930 hrs)
Ever since childhood, I’ve always dreamt of flying a plane. Well, I will have to wait a little longer to fulfill my wish. Maybe I would buy a small Cessna one day!!! I dream a lot :) . At least for now, I had the opportunity to fly on a plane :)
This was my first flight and the only one till now. As any other normal guy, I was very excited and anxious. I wanted to sit in the window seat :p and watch the land below throughout the journey. I don’t know, I have always wanted to sit in the front row of a car by the window while traveling. I guess this is what they call male instinct :) . I remember innumerable fights I had with my cousins on who gets that treasured seat in my uncle’s Ambassador!! Back then, whoever could identify the most number of car models coming in the opposing direction was the winner. Now I can’t do that on a flight, can I? :D But I got lucky. I think the flight attendant noticed my curiosity and gave me the window seat!! YAY!!!!!!!!
Hanuma was sitting 2 rows behind me and was trying very hard to flirt with the airhostess. I seriously have no idea why else would anyone want to remove the jacket from the bag, put it back, remove it again and put back again over a short 2 hour journey (Bag was in the overhead luggage holder which only the airhostess could access during the flight, now you get an idea what I mean here :p ).
6 guys, who left by train reached Delhi safely, collected the bikes and proceeded towards Chandigarh. It is a very good stretch of road lined with dhabas on both the sides. The guys must’ve had fun riding this stretch. Worse road conditions were awaiting us. So maja maadodu maadkolli ille :)
Delhi ------- 200 kms ------ Ambala ------ 40 kms ----- Chandigarh
However, they couldn’t cover the entire stretch by nightfall and stayed at Ambala for the night.
5th July 2008:
Delhi --------- Chandigarh (Journey by train)
Me and Hanuma landed at Delhi a little after 10 in the night. Until then I had the impression that Mangalore is the hottest city in India. The moment I landed, this perception changed. Next time if I hear anyone complaining about weather in Bangalore/Mangalore, I will surely bash him up :p . I guess the temperature was around 40 degrees. We had to catch a train to Chandigarh at 4 AM. So we decided to roam around Delhi. (Rather the taxi driver persuaded us to roam around in his AC fitted WagonR - finally relief from temperature)
He took us to the usual places – Parliament, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Birla Mandir, India Gate etc. and so many other places. Since it was late at night, we were zooming past entire Delhi. To be honest, I don’t remember most of the places he took us. We were just glad to sit in that AC Car – heaven at that moment :) . At connaught place, we drank ½ litre milkshake from a ‘world famous in Delhi’ bakery. Yes, ½ litre milkshake!!!! This is the standard quantity they serve. There were some guys gulping up 3 servings in one go!!! Hey Subbu, can you beat that? :)
Delhi darshan took shorter time than we expected. He kicked us out of his car at around 1 AM at the Railway Station. We were back in hell :(
Ours wasn’t an AC reservation seat, so couldn’t get into the AC waiting room :( . Phew, I can’t even imagine how we spent next 2 hours or so in the general waiting room. Finally after a lot of negotiation with the gate keeper (or whatever) and a little bribe (of course this works most of the times), we entered the AC room!!! Wooohoooo….
The scheduled departure time of the train was 4 AM. But as usual, it got delayed by 30 mins. Ah nice, only 30 mins to go. Little did we know that loooooooooooong wait was imminent. As the time passed, it was very hard to sit there. There was no proper place to sleep. However we managed to sit awkwardly and have a small nap. In between every 20 mins or so we would check whether the train had arrived. This could very well be one of the longest nights I ever had.
Even at 7 AM, there was no sign of the train – a delay of more than 3 hrs. Finally, we decided enough is enough with this bloody train. Thankfully there was a new ‘Shatabdi Express’ which had been introduced some days back. Since this is an AC train, the tickets were really expensive. The departure time was at 0745. This is a special train which has proper seats and no berths as such. It even has plug-points, wi-fi etc etc. They provide everyone with Breakfast, Newspaper, Tea, snacks…. what not??? Royal treatment!! Lalu-ji ki jai!! We showed our ‘chathri buddi’ there too :p . We both took 2 newspapers each :) and ordered for extra butter, extra sugar etc.
At last we had good sleep in the train. We would reach Chandigarh by noon, by then other 6 chammans would also reach the railway station and our journey would resume from there.
