Not the whole trip (Holi vacation, in which I went to Allahabad then Ghaziabad and finally to Rajasthan) but a part of it was really a FILMY one, that is, Trip to Rajasthan.
My journey started from Ghaziabad Station on 12th morning. At New Delhi station, I was just going through the reservation chart and I found that again my reservation had been upgraded to AC 2 Tier from 3rd AC. This was not the first time that this happened to me but last year too I was privileged to have the same experience in the Rajdhani. Actually it feels wonderful to be traveling in a higher class when one had paid the fare of the lower one (please don’t forget I’m a Baniya).
Anyways I reached Gangapur City @ 1:30 in the afternoon. Then I called my friends (Rai & Piyush) to inform them that I’ve reached here and then only I came to know they were caught by the TC at the station because they didn’t had the Platform Tickets. By God’s grace, Achin was also with them, who with some of his contacts, was able to help them in getting out of that trouble.
After clicking few pics and waiting for an hour arrived my Bua’s train. We were almost ready to board the taxi when Bua remembered that she had forgotten the Prasad’s (sweets meant for the Kaila Devi) bag in the train itself. Three of us (my Fufaji, Coolie and me) ran towards the train. Till the time we’ve reached that coach, the train started speeding. We weren’t able to do anything except for just standing there and see the train speeding in front of us. It was a situation similar to what we frequently see in our Bollywood movies.
But the drama wasn’t over; suddenly I saw that our Coolie boarded the moving train and was assuring my Fufaji that he’ll bring that bag back. Fufaji was shouting the coach and the berth number to him and now we had a ray of hope that he’ll go to the next station and will bring the bag back to us. We all waited for him on the platform, approximately for 15-20 minutes and then decided to continue our journey towards Kaila Devi.
Once again, we were about to sit in the taxi, when two people came and asked us that do we have any problem? We said yes and told them the whole story. They told us that they are Railway officials and they will try their best to help us. Fufaji went with them to the Station Masters Room and from there they called to the next station Shri Mahavir Ji, where train had a stoppage. They even asked the station officials to delay the train (Bayana Jaipur Passenger) coming from there to Gangapur City by few minutes, so that the Coolie may come back by that train itself. As a backup plan, they even called up the second station (Bayana) officials to check in the train for our bag. Meanwhile we got a confirmation from Shri Mahavir Ji station that the passenger train coming from there, left 4 minutes after our train left from that station towards Bayana station. We all were really thankful to them for all their efforts and help. And then we all were fully optimistic about getting back the bag soon.
But as we all know that life always don’t shapes as we want it to be. The same happened in our case too. After 50 odd minutes, came back our Coolie with nothing in his hand. He told us that he didn’t found anything in that coach. We were disappointed once again. Minutes later, Station Master told us that even the railway personals at the Bayana station also didn’t find anything in the train. Hopelessness was again the expression on the faces of everyone, present inside the Station Masters room. Then Fufaji and station master enquired the Coolie that whether he checked properly or not? Then we came to know that by mistake he had checked 2nd AC instead of AC 3 Tier and the railway guy at the Bayana station had checked S1 coach instead of AS1 coach.
A ray of hope was there again that the bag should still be at its place, since it was an AC coach. The Railway Officials now dialed Bharatpur Station’s number; they explained the details and requested them to check for the bag. My Fufaji had already told them that they shouldn’t worry further as they have already tried their best and much more than expected. But the Station Master said that now it’s an ego thing for them and they will find the bag in any case. Anyways after thanking all of them, we finally left for Kaila Devi. Before leaving we gave our mobile numbers’ to the Station Master and also to the Coolie, he promised that if the bag comes here then he’ll bring it to our Dharamshala.
As it happens in most of the stories, there is a twist in our tale too. We may not have traveled more than 10 kilometers also before which we got the news that our bag had been found at the Bharatpur Station. A goods train coming here will be bringing our bag back, around 1730 hours.
In the evening, that Coolie brought the bag to our Dharamshala in Kaila Devi. Bua and Fufaji were able to offer those sweets to the Deviji next morning.
In all these Filmy events, we learnt few things: we should not panic at any moment and try to think out of the box too. The officials or people in authority are also helpful at times; actually we have a misconception that these people will never ever help anyone. But Humanity still exists in this world…
