Head and Tail: The two faces of my trip to Mumbai.

DAY 1 (14-04-2010):

So I was flanked by my parents and Mr. MU, as we reached Howrah station. The HWH-CSTM special was standing there waiting for people to board. I was in the B2 A.C. 3-tier coach with my berth being right next to the door. As the train rolled out and I bade farewell to my escorts and then settled into the upper berth. Soon we were supplied with blankets and quilts, although I didn't think that they would be necessary. I mean it was almost 40 degrees outside and the A.C. would have a huge task even cooling to 20 degrees, what with the constant manner in which the door was opened. Boy, was I wrong. The temperature was soon low enough for me to start shivering a bit, and the fact that the duct was right above my head didn't help either. I could barely hold onto the Paulo Coelho book that I was reading and decided that it was high time to put the quilt in use. The railways, it seems, do supply good quality quilts as it was pretty warm inside it. Since it was night and the compartment had tinted windows, I could not amuse myself watching the view outside. I entertained myself reading the book which was slowly beginning to get interesting and the Phillips GoGear mp3 player was working like a charm. I noticed that the rhythmic motion of the train acted as an excellent sleeping pill and I found myself drifting in and out of sleep. Only at about 9:30 p.m. did I make way through the train to find the pantry car to order my dinner. Wow! The rest of the train was like a furnace. Had rice and chicken curry and went off to sleep.

DAY 2 (15-04-2010):

Woke up to find the almost empty compartment to be almost full. There were people chattering all about me and I could smell the aroma of ghee-coated parathas and the mouth-watering smell of mango pickle. I bought tea from one of the vendors going around and sat by the window looking outside. The tinted windows perfectly filtered out the heat and the glare so that I could see the view outside. A short trip to the bathroom proved to be quite eventful as I found that the bathroom was not smelling, but the water almost burnt my fingers. I found an ingenious device atop the commode called, automatic janitor ,which leaked out a steady stream of water and perfumed disinfectant onto the commode. Back on my seat, I returned to the book and delved myself into the illusion filled world of fashion and films. The winner stands alone, by Paulo Coelho, portrayed a vivid picture of the celluloid world and the not-so-known facts about it. I said a small mental thank you to the girl who had given it to me. Now Mr.MU seemed to be keeping a constant tab on me, calling me at almost every third hour. I had to often search for a proper network and most of the time my phone showed no network. And boy was the roaming charges burning through my pocket. Still the book and the headphones kept me busy for a long time until I had lunch. After lunch I went looking around the compartment and saw how clean it was. There was always an attendant waiting right outside the cabin door (since attendants don't need A.C.) to cater to the needs of everyone. All you had to do was ask. I had an early dinner and slept a disturbed 3 hours worth of sleep. The interview at hand as well as the fact that I had to go about an unknown city alone was a bit intimidating. A previous discussion with fellow passengers had convinced me to get down at Dadar. When I woke up we had already reached Kalyan.

DAY 3 (16-04-2010): 

I got down at Dadar and went straight to the first-class waiting room. It was 3:30 in the morning and I had to wait until at least 4:30 to board the next local train to Vikhroli. The wait wasn't too bad and a trip to the toilet did little to freshen me up. At 4:30 I went to the ticket counter and asked about the details for the train to Vikhroli. The man at the counter gave me a ticket for a slow local (since the fast would be too fast for me) and I made it to platform 1 where the train was due to arrive. The train resembled the metro trains of our city minus the automatic doors. A man helped me get down at Vikhroli from where I took an auto to NITIE. The night ride was exhilarating and after 25 minutes and 61 rupees I stood inside NITIE. Although it was dark, it was hard not to notice the winding uphill road which went though the institute. I made my way to the top of the hill to find the MDP hostel where I was put up at room 304. To my surprise there was someone present there, and I kind-of kicked him out (he was leaving anyways). The room was, in short, awesome! Spacious, clean, double beds, T.V., A.C. and most importantly a nice bathroom. I had my first proper bath in two days and boy was that necessary. I cleaned up and got ready for the interview. I even ran into one of my friends from college and together we made way to the academic center of NITIE. Darshan and his team did an excellent job in keeping us entertained throughout the process. I really liked Mr.Basu, whose quizzes kept me awake (come on I hadn't slept the last night) and after my GD my body seemed to be giving in. But I managed to keep my wits about me and quite soon after lunch my PI was completed. I could finally go back to my room and give in to exhaustion. I slept till 9:30 in the night and then went down to the mess to have dinner. The food was nothing short of wonderful. At 35 bucks you had a buffet and I settled with 4 rotis, a mixed sabzi with eggs, two types of dals, a papad and a rasgulla (I was ravenous). I even took up a bottle of Thums up to down all the gourmet in case they decided to explode in my stomach. I even got a chance to chat with my friends from the free cyber-room on the ground floor of the MDP hostel. The night proved to be lucky too, as I sat watching LOTR: The Fellowship of The Ring on T.V. with the weather quite cool (thanks to the A.C.) and it wasn't until 1:30 a.m. that I went to sleep.

DAY 4 (17-04-2010):

It was my last day in Mumbai and I had to see the beach. So I got dressed and did the necessary research to reach Juhu beach. Then I walked down to the main gate of NITIE (which is around 2-3Kms from the hostel) and took the 186 bus to Andheri West. The bus ride took me through Andheri East and I couldn't help but admire the innumerable buildings of magnificence. The huge complex of HUL, the shiny building of YES bank and so many more. It was a sight for sore eyes. Once at the Andheri West Terminal, I had to ask a lot of people to point out the way to Juhu. I crossed the entire station and on the other side took an auto which took me to Juhu Beach. To say that it was beautiful would be an understatement and I had a nice walk, a tasty paw-bhaji and a few peeks at bikini-clad women in the resorts nearby. I made my way back to NITIE in the same way and packed my stuff for I had my train scheduled at 8:30 p.m. I was sorry to leave the place and as I found out later, it was also the start of the bad-half of my journey. I inquired about the best way to reach Lokmanya Tilak as it was from there that Howrah-Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Fast left from. I found out that I had to make way to either Vikhroli or Kanjurmarg and then take a train to Kurla and from there take an auto to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT). I walked down the winding road from the NITIE gate to the nearest crossing and asked a policeman for the bus-stop to go to Kanjurmarg. Instead of pointing out the way, the radical policeman gave me a lift on his bike to the stop (he was going there anyway) and I had my first ever police vehicle ride. At the stop, I asked a man about the bus, and I got a detailed analysis of the bus ride to Kanjurmarg. Of course the buses were super-cramped and unlike the buses in Kolkata, they hardly cared for the passengers. I couldn't make it to the bus the man pointed out but got up onto the next one (since he said that most buses went that way) and guess what, it didn't go to Kanjurmarg. On top of that the conductor was outraged at me traveling to the next stop for free and demanded that I take a 3 rupee worth of ticket. I wasn't in a mood to comply and I haggled it out with him and got down at the next stop. There I got up onto a proper bus to Kanjurmarg. At the station as the train arrived I saw that it would be difficult for me to get up since it was quite crowded. I had to run with my luggage and barely managed to get up on the train. There was also a mild bomb scare as the owner of a small bag couldn't be found. Later the man, who had gone to hang out of the door to chill out, came to claim the baggage just as it was being decided to throw it out. Somehow I made it to Kurla station and then to LTT. Then I got quite a nice news, I didn't have a confirmation on my ticket, it was an R.A.C. and that too in the sleeper class. This spelled D-O-O-M. I saw that there was another person on the same berth as mine (S5 63) and I had to share my sleeping space with some unknown bloke. The inside of the train (sleeper class) was a complete reverse of what I had seen in the A.C. compartment of the previous train. It was dirty, the toilet smelled and I could even see the omnipresent stains of the worst kind. The 6 berths next to me was filled by a family of the minority kind, which constituted the father, the mother, the uncle and 9 kids and a baby. One of the berths housed three of those kids. There were also those people with W/L tickets who thought it to be their birthright to sit anywhere they liked. In all the place smelled, was crowded and dirty and of course mother nature didn't make it any easier. I didn't even feel like opening the book which was left unfinished. I settled with listening to music and looking outside, letting the blast of somewhat cooler air calm my nerves. I was pissed off to say the least. I had a rough night too. For the first time I understood fear. My nerves were already frayed with anger as well as disappointment. The one who I had hoped would call me, didn't, and I spent a sleepless night. The train kept true to its name of being superfast. It moved at a blinding speed and I don't know why I feared that we would crash. I could see in my dreams how our train collided head on with another one. Sometimes I would hear the shrill noise of a similarly paced train blasting by in the next track as if missing by mere chance, and my heart skipped a beat. It happened again and again, to my left and to my right, and my heart was definitely doing 150 or above. I feared, not death, but disappointment. I feared that if it ended now I would break all the promises and dreams. I feared failure.

DAY 5 (18-04-2010): 

The new day brought new passengers. Ones I would call the hooligans. They were a batch of freshly graduated students from an unknown college for P.Ed. students and the word rustic would be equivalent to genius to them. To them "hey man" was "oi gud marani", "what are you doing?" was "ki bal chirchish", and every word , as a rule, had to followed by "bara". I was more disgusted with the fact that I could perfectly understand their conversation, but never had I been in such company. They had luggage which would put to shame the collection of a film star. They had to sacrifice two bunks just to stash in their trunks and satchels, and I was lucky that I had few luggage which lay cornered under my seat. Of course they were dirty, they ate without papers, soiled the floor and then threw the empty(or not so empty) foils straight out of the windows. Then there were those who slept on the floors. These were the ones who had a ticket but they were all wait-listed. Legally they are not eligible to travel but dare you explain it to them. They made motion between your berth to the toilet difficult. But once you visited the toilet you wouldn't want to return so that wasn't much of a problem. I kept myself busy listening to music and looking outside the window. Fortunately the person sharing my berth was a good guy, definitely clean and he was even gracious enough to let me lie down while he spent most of the night sitting by the window. Then came evening and she called. It was like throwing a lifeline to me. It was like seeing a lamp at the end of the tunnel. The change in my mood was literally visible and I kept telling my mind that the end of this hell-hole was near. I had a sound sleep that evening, even though the conditions had not improved. I understood how much of a control the mind has over your body. Even though the train blasted through on the tracks, even though there was a huge din as it crossed another equally speedy train on a bridge, I didn't feel any fear. I was at peace and I slept well. I woke up when we were just entering Tatanagar and I knew that in another 3-4 hours I would be home. I spent the rest of the time watching the hooligans debate as to who could drink alcohol the most and about the funny things they had done in hangover period. Soon we passed Kharagpur and I got ready to get down. As the train eased into the station I could not help but jump down from the litter bin and ran all the way to feel the Kolkata air. I was home, I was happy, no more could I get lost, no matter where I was.

DAY 6 (19-04-2010): 

This is just in continuation of the previous day since I had reached Howrah at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. There weren't many means of communication available at that time. I lugged my luggage onto a bus that would take me to Sealdah station from where my house is a walking distance. As I walked down all the known streets and saw all the known buildings I couldn't help but feel the security. It was like a protective shield around you, the promise of familiarity, a place where you couldn't get lost, a place which is your own. Back home I took a bath at the wee hours of 4:30 and I had to shampoo my hair or else I could not even pass my fingers through it. And as I went to bed I thanked Mr.MU who had been by my side from start till the end, albeit on the phone. I thanked her because she had called when I thought she wouldn't. I thanked the mp3 player which had given me steady service throughout my journey. Although I was quite pissed off at my parents for not getting me a proper berth in an A.C. coach, still I couldn't blame them fully because they couldn't help if tickets were unavailable. And as I lay in my bed I could see the sun rise through the window, the sun which had remained the same lighting our day. But I wouldn't let even the sun to ruin my dreams. I wanted to sleep, and so I did.