My Travel Diary

Monday, September 11, 2006

Arnab's Marriage

14/07/06

Conversation on Train : (Bangalore-Guwahati)

Passenger 1 (P1) (army wala muslim banda from south) (I guess this is politically correct)
Passenger 2 (P2) (oriya mid-aged man with oriya accent)

P1 : Bhaisaab mutton khaiyega ? Mutton khate hain kya ? Maas .. bakre ka maas khaiyega kya ? meri biwisaab ne mere safar ke liye pack kar diya, main raste me bahar ka khana pasand nahi karta hoon .. is liye. arre thodahi khaaiye :)

P2 : Nahin bhaisaab, thank you thank you .. he .. he he.

P1 : Kyon sirf vegetarian khana khate hain kya ?

P2 : he he ... he ... nahin aisa nahin hai, main niramish bhi khata hoon. ab main aap ko ek sachchi baat batata hoon. mera vishwash kijiye, abhi mera beta humko apna maruti van me chchod kar gaya hai ...(.oO .. ok .. come to the point :) ), aur ... 8 baje humara khana ho gaya. aaj humko orissa wapas jane ka tha isliye shaam ko bahut fish le ke aaya, to hum bahut achcha se kha ke aaye hai. aur isse pahele dopahar ko chickan le ke aaya tha to aaj pura din niramish .. non-veg khaana khaaye hain hum (.oO aur uncle kal kya khaye the ? ).

.. by the time this statement finished the first passenger opened his food packets.. (conv.continues... :))

P1 : Theek hai koi baat nahin ... (gyan on packing food) Meri biwi ko khana pack karne ke baare me bahut knowledge hai .. khane ko yadi hum plastic me is tarah se pack(and he shows the packing) kare to khaana bahut time tak fresh raheta hai.

... I was over hearing this conversation .. and I was wondering what on earth is going on .. where am I ? do I have to listen to this kind of comical talk the whole of my journey ... since the train was starting in the night, the introduction was short, with talks ending as soon as the first passenger finished eating. and I could sleep. Later the next day...

some mobile vendors were selling guavas, and I felt like eating so, I stopped one and asked for a guava. Each one costed 2 rupees(...why am I mentioning this!!), no sooner I finished eating the first of the four part of the guava, I notice the same oriya uncle, getting excited and confused, I guess he was trying to read gestures on my face. Finally he was not able to hold himself and came near me ... and asked "Amrood achcha hai kya ?"

I said : "Fal hai, to achcha hai.. aur uncle achcha bura khud pata kar lijiye :) .. 2 rupaye me kya jaata hai?"

That guy never tried to be funny again till I alighted from the train.

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On the way from Chennai to Visakhapatnam ... there were few station name which were amusing like "TADA" "ODUR" and I should mention this small station near Visakhapatnam. The train incidently stopped here on red signal. The name of the station is "TADI", I was standing at the door, and I could see the station from some distance, I was wondering if it really mean what it reads, my question was answered instantly ... the train stopped there and in no time I saw a man and a woman rushing towards the train, with a bag filled with bottles .. I thought they may be boarding the train to go to the city and sell it but I was surprised to see them selling Toddy to the passengers, and they were left with just few bottles before the train moved on! :) [ Natural Beverage .. can help you eat heavy and get good sleep:D]

Just after the train left Chennai, A ticket checking squad got in and, was checking the tickets and one of them asked me my ticket, and after I gave my ticket he asked me to prove my age (Can I sue railways? .. lol)!!! I could see the embarresment on his face after he saw my Driving License .. eh ah aah :D

Infact I never expected that I would be reaching Chennai at all, till I was there at Chennai station. I kept thinking the train would go via Secunderabad :) In the train time table, the train was suppose to be at Secunderabad in the morning and I woke up in the morning at Chennai. And because of too much of humidity at Chennai, I was almost gasping for breath. Such a lousy station, with not even a single telephone on the platform, doesn’t tell good about a Metro.

[ End of the Journey B’Lore to Visakhapatnam]

Calcutta needs a special mention here, because of its sweets and food :) ... this was my first visit to Calcutta and I always desired to be high on Fish and sweets there. And since, I went to a marriage of one of my friend, I didn't missed these two most important things that I always wanted to have in Calcutta as a first timer. Sweets are priced much less than what one can get in metros and A/B class cities outside WB/Jharkhand/Bihar/East UP, and the quality is extremely good. I rate Bengali sweets made out of milk the highest. At my friends house I had Hilisha, Rohu; Steamed Hilisha in Mustard, Hilisha in gravy, Rohu ... fried, gravy, shukhto, ummmm ... my mouth is already watering :). Shukhto is cooked out of fish's head part, and as the name suggest, its dry :). Apart from this I also had Jhal Muri ( kind of bhel ), Ghugni ( Chole like preparation), Puchka (Paani Puri), Singada (Samosa), Momo ... yummmmmm :) ... I was on cloud nine

22/07/06

Incidents/Conversation on Train:(Tata-Alleppy)

This is "the" train unchanged in past 20 years. (Prior to that they used Steam Engine to pull the train). Actually it should take only 14 hours max to reach Visakhapatnam from Jamshedpur, but it takes 18 hours. Ridiculously long stops at stations where the number of bulbs lighting up the place would not be more than 4, 2 on the display boards, and one at the ticket counter cum signalling room, and one more bulb lights up the ticket counter from outside. There were 4 guys from Jamshedpur travelling adjacent to my seat and were playing cards. Because of the train stopping at unusual places .. one of the guys got pissed off and says, "Abe saala, E kahan aa gaye hain ?" his friend tells him "Abe patta phek, Ye to apna ghar hai, ghar me bhi koi bolta hai "kahan aa gaye hain" ?

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