To Rajdhani on a Rajdhani

My Little Trip to Delhi

This was not my first visit to Delhi but it was my first on a Rajdhani. Due to a lot of unavoidable circumstances my wings were finally clipped and I was forced to use this mode of transport. The beginning wasn't that great as I had to travel to Mumbai Central on a Local Train. After the huffing and puffing I was stopped and searched by the RPF at Mumbai Central. When I finally got on the train, I realized this was slightly different from the usual trains.

The ambience was good with a light music in the Trains Speakers. There were periodic announcements resembling those of an airplane only difference was that this was prerecorded. After a long journey, (yes 20 hours is way longer than the usual 2 hour flight!) I reached Delhi! Ah... the familiar chaotic scene, then I realized I was too young to get nostalgic. I went to Karol Bagh... hired a Hotel/guest house. On the train I think I managed to catch an old friend... the common cold. I was sneezing pretty badly but somehow made it to the office and struggled through shouting for a whole day!

I wasn't required the following day but I just stayed in the office for the heck of it. Almost forgot to mention, I made sure I rode the Metro twice! Then I started back to Mumbai but this time on another Rajdhani from Nijamuddin. I made it to the train in time and got to my seat. I got used to the train now. I wasn't surprised by the announcements and amenities. This time around I had an interesting lot of passengers with me. There was an elderly retired Tamil Headmaster, a US return Bihari Doctor, A Cute Rajasthani Management Student, Couple of Guajarati Employees, & a young Gujarati mother with her kid. Till then, I was under the impression that you could see the whole of India only in a Sleeper Class compartment.

The journey began with the elderly person not allowing the doctor to put his luggage under the elderly man's seat. The doctor was about 27-28 years old with a typical American Accent (I wasn't sure if it was fake or not). He's got all the latest possible gadgets with him (A Vaio, a video iPod, a Sony PSP & O2 Apex PDA phone). Pretty impressive!!! It was even more impressive when he started the GPRS on his PDA to help the Rajasthani Girl. Speaking of the girl she was very traditional, beautiful, well behaved & pretty innocent. "Beautiful & not arrogant!!! Tough combination to find" was my thought. She was either that innocent or that stupid not to get the actually ticket. Instead she brought a photo copy of it. I almost had to bite my lip from not laughing out loud when she said, “My sister thought that the original may be lost in the mail.” BTW, I showed off my internet knowledge by producing the e-ticket to the TC.

The elderly man was prompt enough to instigate the TC against her & the TC was equally prompt to try and bully this girl to get a bribe. Lucky for her the rest of the lot stepped in. The TC went on for another round and by the time he came back, I and the Doctor managed to log onto the railways website to see if the ticket was still a valid one. The TC was disappointed for not making anything out of the situation but let the girl go off with a warning. Thanks to this incident everyone in the coupe started talking to each other. The topics ranged from corruption to politics to spirituality to astrology… and what not. I have travelled a lot on Train but never have I met a group of interesting strangers totally absorbed in a conversation. While everyone was speaking, I was trying to analyze what kind of people they were and also busy playing the PSP :D . The Headmaster went on & on and on… with his experiences and shared his 60 plus years of knowledge in one night. Phew!!! He can sure speak a lot. He went on till about 10:30 in the night and started off at 6 in the next morning. But thanks to him I found out the girl’s name, P**** very strange but very interesting name & definitely suits her.

After the interesting conversations and boring ones, and me trying to talk to the cute girl & playing the PSP, the journey almost ended. The Gujarati gentlemen got off at Vapi, about 150 Km from Mumbai. The train was approaching Borivali, my station but the girl had to get of at Mumbai Central. Damn it! Just when I thought she was starting to take interest in me. I desperately wanted to give her my card and ask her to call me. But then I realized, I didn’t update my card in 10 months and none of the details except my name are correct. Another missed chance!!! I got of the train in the rain… Hey that rhymed… any way… I went home and suffered from cold for the rest of the day and the day after that. But now that I look back at the journey, I am happy that I didn’t give her the number, or else I would have never met the girl of my dreams… I think that’s another story to tell on another day… Me signing off

P.S: Got off a Local Train in Mumbai just now!!! These trains do give me a lot of inspiration to write… I started this in Sep 2006 :D

My First Date ever


All this began with an innocent looking hi on a social networking website. The ‘hi’ led us to an instant messenger which in turn led to an SMS. About 6 months later it turned in to a phone call. Well the rest as they say is history.

2007, the year I was finally going to meet her. She was a little shy and a little too awkward in the beginning. She started scheming this meeting for about 2 months. The place was set and the time was right. Luckily for us both, we were having no over-protective parent problem. I came a little early and made the initial arrangements for the day (A Movie and a lunch). She finally came and she brought a ‘hi’ with her. She was pretty much as I imagined. Except that I wanted her to wear her hair open. She said I didn’t change a little bit in years, which was kind of surprising to hear.We spend a little while enjoying the moments and talking.

The movie began and it was a fun movie. However I felt very awkward sitting next to a girl. The movie made us relax a bit more and we went on for a little walk before the lunch. I finally had the guts to hold her hand. I did expect a slap though, but she managed to smile and walk. We reached the restaurant and we had lunch with a slight breeze blowing on us. It felt like the air around us is also romantic. She just couldn’t stop smiling and I just didn’t want her to stop smiling.

About an hour later we were done eating and we were gazing into each others eyes. I finally got the courage, took her hand in my hand, kissed her gently and said the magic words, “I Love you!!!” She was about to reply… “I love...” All of a sudden I heard someone calling me. Wake up! Wake Up! It’s almost 9. It was my mother. The girl disappeared and my room came into light. I was thinking, “What the Hell? Where is she? Why didn’t she finish it? Was it really a dream? It seemed too real!” Oh! By the way “HAPPY NEW YEAR” 

Anesthesia 2.... I just love sequels

OK... OK this is not just another boring narration of a medical process, it just got interesting. Where do I begin??? Its been a while.... No way!!! I am not going to start another blog like that. OK OK I will begin anyway.

Sunday 19th November, the day 2.19 lakh students' fate is half decided, me being one of them. After a euphoric 2.5 hours I finally came out of the hall grinning ear to ear and at the same time praying for the VA cutoff to be below my score. Then I had a good sleep and waited for the D- Day. Wait a minute, I just said that D-Day was over. What I said was that the exam was over. The D-Day was the surgery I was waiting since my last visit to the doctor.

The situation in the office wasn't that good either. There was a solid Cold Mail War going between me and my team. I finally got that out in front of one of the senior persons, set my mailbox on auto reply and took off for the day. That night I could hardly sleep. Not that I was pumped up for tomorrow but I had to catch an early morning flight. After a miserable night I managed an to get out of home at 4 am only to find a long deserted Road ahead. Then something happened which made me rethink my views on Mumbai!

Airport- 0430! Damn it!!! Early again! OK! Now its getting way too long... I will cut the scene to the Hospital in Hyderabad. Me had my preliminary exam and photographs taken. Then I was to take a intravenous shot of Antibiotic to avoid any infections. 3 doctors, 4 attendants tried for 30 mins, left 7 puncture wounds on my hands, fingers and arms, and finally got the liquid in. FYI, the final shot wasn't even one tenth painful as the previous ones. Now that the pre-operation stuff was over, the actual surgery began. It started with the doctor putting a lot of warm clothes and plastic sheets on my back. From what it felt like he made a nice little table on my back.

The Needles are loaded and the doctors are ready... the first needle pinched. I wanted to scream but controlled. The next 2 were worse. Finally the pain is gone and all I could hear is sound blowing through a tube. The doctor used scissors/ a knife/ a blunt hack saw/ don't know what but I could feel the skin being cut. Blood flowing down my ears. After about what felt like an hour, the thing was over and my head bandaged. But unfortunately that was only job half done. I could see that my head was one and half times the normal because of the anesthesia.

After a loo break, the rest of the surgery was done under more anesthesia. This time beginning from the eyebrows and going up into my forehead. The doctor almost called me a sissy. That made sure I didn't scream. The doctors had a lot of patience, they did their job with precision for about 2 and a half hours. I even dozed off during the thing and might have even kicked some when when I woke up. I walked out at 2:00pm and enjoyed the feeling of being numb. The numbness didn't last long and the pain made sure that I didn't sleep for the next few weeks. What ever be the thing, it will take another 6 months to find the result of the surgery.

Damn it. My blogs are getting boring and boring. Note to self: Stop writing Crap!!!