A Nightmare

Final year of engineering.... the event of an off campus in bhopal, we all were excited not because each one of us needed a job desperately but the fun of travelling together to bhopal as we did many times before this was another ocassion. We had our train from jabalpur to bhopal @ 9:30 pm.....i was back from college and told mom that there is a campus event in bhopal tomorrow....she gave me a look as if this time she wants me securing a job badly befor i finish my grads.. i was unphased as usual, when i was out of the bathroom i saw mom packing a huge luggage as i was going on a holiday... i told her theres no need of all this i'll be back tomorrow night... she said shut up! actualy these events took two days given that you clear the first round... then i saw my mom putting in 3 ties and 4 so called interview type shirts so that her son has a choice on the day..... i said no way i'm going to carry all this useless stuff.....then she suddenly came up with an example of my first campus event where i made it to the second round and would have gone to the interview in jeans and T-shirt if she would not have packed my bad.....huuuh moms are so good @ these... finally all the packing was done and dad leaves me @ the station. I cited a few of my friends... said hi...they asked me Are u going for a honeymoon? i said yes, have ne doubts? then the train arrived and we were off... morning 6:15 am we reached bhopal and then some made it to a hotel, some to their relative's place and some stayed back in the waiting rooms as its just a matter of 4-5 hours before we are back boarding the train to jabalpur @ 3:45 PM after our written exams.... around 10-15 of us went to a nearby lodge...
it was old bhopal shelter lodge i still remember the name... the owner was watching Qtv when we stepped in, he asked how many days we said one...possibly two we gave advance and got the keys but he had one room short so three of us had to share one room...it was me,gunjan and rohit in one room... our reporting time was 9:30am... we got ready and we were off @ around 8:30am then we reached the center had our exams then back to the lodge as the results were schedulded to be declared @ 5! this is where it starts RESULTS @ 5! meant that we have already lost our 3:45 train...the next train was @ 11.... sms's kept flowing enquiring about the results but without anything relevant happening... @8pm we decided that its enough now or we will miss the next train as well as theres no point in staying in bhopal without any reason...so we checked out... we got our tickets...and were passing time at the platform doing nothing...gunjan suddenly said hey.. what if we are shortlisted for the next round? i really hate this word IF...rohit said we'll get our tickets cancelled and get back to the lodge.. so simple it sounded @ that point in time... it was around 9:15 gunjan says "what if anyone of us get shortlisted?" huuh i stepped in and said dont worry we'll cancel all the tickets and go together....@ 9:45pm gunjan's cellphone lit up An SMS.... none of our branch i.e Electrical has made it to the second round... all of us justed stunned.... i had the whole paper in front of my eyes what did i do wrong? i asked myself God knows... may be there were many more better than me i said to myself....then i took my cellphone without knowing what to do.. and dialed a number that of my best friend.. i always look out for her when am in these situations....lost,dejected... then i spoke to her for about an hour while i was walking through the platform i could see rohit sleeping on a chair...gunjan disappeared don't know where.... then after having a long chat when finally found my cellphone was almost dicharged..i had no other options but to disconnect..then i went to rohit and asked what about the train? as if he was the staion master.. he said i don't know 10 mins later gunjan walks in... it was 11:20pm i said whats happening ? wheres the train? i walked across and asked a guy whats the status of jbp-bpl exp? he said its departed from platform no 3... O shitttttttt! we were on platform 5... all of us were livid...what have we done? what will we do now? these were the questions we were asking each other... then we decided to go back to the lodge.... we walked our way.. it was moharam that day and some serious celebrations were on...suddenly my cellphone rings...flashes HOME... i pick up "where are U? what are u upto?" i said ill be back tomorrow,i can't hear u and disonnected and swictched off.......then we get to the lodge the owner was furious as if he'll kill us and bury in his backyard....u guys have broken all my furniture and stolen the liquidator bottles... wtf is this guy talking about? i said.... he screamed shut up and f**k off.....bull shit! has the guy gone mad? what have we done? i asked gunjan... he said thers no point arguing lets get off from this place asap...its moharam and he won't spare us...i thought what is gunjan talking...later we found out that rest of our group and mates who were there did some nuisance @ his place.. then rohit said lets go to habibganj we can still catch the 12:15 train....bhopal has two stations main and habibganj.... we agreed and were looking for an autorickshaw...one came and stopped we asked him how much for habibganj he said 150 bucks... we said comeon man we travel everyday....he replied then go to hell...he was drunk too.... we started walking on the main road without having any clue that what were we doing....then we stopped anoter auto he asked for 120... we'll pay 80 rohit said... the u better go on foot...he told us that u wont get any transport this late today... then gunjan had his own issues... he said i wont go in an auto with those green lights...i hope u understand the meaning..i thought disgusting...then after around 20 mins we finally got one and we were off....gunjan gasped and said thank God! we are out of old bhopal its a communaly sensitive place... and we could have been stuck in there on such a day.. midway the auto just stopped... we asked what happened? the driver said letme see... after 5 mins he said i cant go ahead...what? we asked... theres some problem can't go... now i thought were are we heading gunjan was trying to escape that crowded place due to some reasons and now we find ourselves in No Man's land...where there's not a single soul...it was a dark lane...then we walked a few steps to the main road and found a bus
that finally left us our destination...but there were more things to come...there was hardly 5 mins for the train we rushed for the tickets... and got them...the train was already on platform 3 as we ran from platform 1.... i could see from the top that the general compartment was over crowded...i said i can't board this train...rohit astonished why?? i said we had such a hard day and now this i can't take this any more and sat down..gunjan followed me..rohit asked what will we do here? i said... we'll go to a hotel..stay there tonite and tomorrow will watch a movie ,visit a few places and then board the evening train..the train had a 4 min stoppage it didn't wait for our discussions to end..we came out and got our tickets cancelled and went out in search of a hotel.
we walked around 4 kms around enquiring each and every hotel right from rental 300 to 1200 a day cause now we had a definate goal to stay in bhopal...no matter what...but we could not find a single room.. they said that all rooms are booked or pre occupied cause theres some All India doctor meet or something like that..what the hell then @ around 2pm we were back and decided to stay in the railway station premises.. all three of us were so tired that we needed nothing but a sleep. rohit was uneasy about the idea of sleeping on the floor besides those beggars and all who generally don't have homes and spent their nights at the railway station....but his body was suppirting him so finally we gave up and slept.... suddenly i heard a loud voice of a policeman throwing everybody out of that place.. doing his duty... i guess he would have been honest in his other responsiblities like this one as well...everyone likes to supress poor people...however he spared us i think judging us by our clothes... then all of us were awake and we decided to have some tea... we went out with my suitcase that already has lost its handle... imagine how much we have dragged and pulled.... then suddenly our eyes were stuck on a board it was a guest house i said we can try here....gunjan said what??? we've checked almost the entire city we cant find a room here...i said lets jus give a try... we went in and imagine what we've got one that too a decent one @ a reasonable price...we couldn't believe our luck...the finally we got in and slept for hours till 12.... and then finally got back to jabalpur the next day.....
this was one of my experiences which taught me many things about decission making,how we stumble in adversity.... and the most important how to do the simple things well....
and after this incident i firmly believed one thing that you might go chasing something around the whole world...which u can find in your backyard..... :)