The excitement of a journey usually starts with the planning, plotting your rail routes and traveling finances. I had none. I was left only with excitement.
So I reached the railway station.
The place was already full of travelers, men, women, children, foreigners, security personnel and many more. Coolies in kurtas, with brass badges displaying their numbers tied to their forelimbs were approaching travelers. I didn’t know where I wanted to go. There I saw a train on platform 1 (where I was standing). I decided to board it.
My decision was a few seconds late. The train had already started moving. I wouldn’t find it odd to compare myself with a Bollywood’s actress who runs after the train. YES…it happened with me. I acted a bit melodramatic and ran to board it.
While covering this distance of platform to train door, I came across people who were finger-brushing their teeth with red tobacco paste, voices of chai-wallahs and samosa wallahs, some people holding hot coffee in paper cups while rubbing their oily fingertips on their trousers. Anyways, by then I almost reached the train peripheral. I threw my luggage inside the boggy and literally jumped in the ‘moving’ train. Trust me- I was lucky. Also, for those few seconds almost every eye on platform was on me.
See my destiny; the final destination of the train was a small village. Damn! This village was my would-be groom’s hometown. WHY DID I EVER TAKE THIS TRAIN?? Scared and pale, I was afraid to meet his relatives in the train. Interestingly, every person in this boggy was looking like him. Interestingly. I waited for the chance to slip out of this train. At last, next station came….
(to be continued…)
*For the Lehenga that the bride wore, go to http://www.indianweddingsaree.com/product/66206.html