It must be their day.. Was it really ours.. ??

Every Diwali has always had something interesting for me. Neither did this one disappoint me.

Going home during Diwali in train in an unreserved compartment is a hell of a task. Thanks to the idea of catching Intercity from Perambur, I got a seat. Though not a window seat, I am happy that I got me a seat at least. There were as many people as the compartment could hold with no space even to move.

When the train was about to start, came those two guys aged around 20, rushing. They kinda stood near me. They looked restless ever since they came there, as if some1 poked their asses with a needle.

Train started. They kept calling friends asking for a guy. They were expecting some1. At times they started conversing in some foreign language, definitely not Telugu for I ve seen a lot of Telugu movies. (சீக்ரட்டாமா ..)

Some half an hour passed by.. 2 things happened – 1 unexpected and 1 obvious.

Unexpected: People in the compartment started flocking around an unwelcomed guest with something common in their hands – tickets. (i ve never seen a TTR in an unreserved compartment in Intercity)

Obvious: Those two guys, like I expected, were missing.

10 mins later, one crossed me but the other guy was missing..

 5 more mins. Oops..! Nature’s call.. I was heading towards the restroom and there he was.. the 2^nd guy was coming out of one of them.

Oh yeah! Atleast I was correct. It was the TTR whom they were expecting and the poor TTR missed his Diwali bonus.

The rest of the journey, they travelled with some sort of fear n caution. They sighed with relief only after getting down at Salem station.

Lucky chaps... 

It must be their day...!!

5 hours back..

10.15AM - CEG – Kotturpuram gate...

“I don’t think we can catch west coast. Its getting late. I cancelled my tomo’s ticket to go earlier. Lets hurry pls.. ”, I told P.Karthick (a.k.a P.K).

“We ll give it a try, if not , Intercity is there”, Chandru to me.

With the late comer Jai joining us, the four of us ran to Madhya Kailash MRTS station bought tickets to our respective cities. P.K n me both being from Salem were given a single ticket. It was 10.55 when we reached Central and west coast was bloody full as expected. The unreserved compartments’ doors looked like squeezed toothpaste tube’s nozzles with people's back squeezing out of the doors. People were hanging to doors n windows with hardly a space to breathe even. We dropped our West Coast plan at this very sight. Pragathesh joined us there.

Now what.. Intercity was our next hope. We planned to get into reserved compartments early and stand/sit near some door so that we wont be bothered by the rest of the crowd. Plan looked perfect.

We had 3 more hours to while away. Meanwhile a guy came to us saying that some1 stole his purse n he had no money to go home. We gave him some cash to buy ticket. At that time we never knew of the disaster that was ahead of us.

Train was arriving. We got ready to race to catch the seats and P.K ran through his pockets to check if he had everything. To his awe, our ticket was missing..  Neither did I have. Damn...!

We had no time to buy another ticket n TTR would definitely ask for ticket in reserved compartments. (Its Diwali time..) we had to act .

What now? PLAN-B. My experience in Intercity unreserved compartments told others that TTR wont come to unreserved compartments.. that too in such a huge crowd.. (Bingo... Presence of mind...!) . So we sort of split up. Myself, P.K n Jai went to unreserved compartment. Chandru n Pragathesh to reserved. We lost Jai amidst the crowd. We found some place to stand in a full packed compartment.

All set, train started.

Meanwhile we confirmed with other guys in other compartment whether TTR asked for their tickets. N occasionally planned for an explanation about the loss of ticket if caught. In order to avoid suspicion in the compartment we made our conversations in Kannada..

Everything went fine until 3 P.M.

A boy came rushing past us, opened his bag n took something, exactly resembling that cursed thing which we lost earlier that day. And to our horror, TTR was standing there checking tickets.. (FUCK...) Only then we realised that our compartment was directly connected to the last reserved compartment.

The next moment either of us was in a restroom each, for we had no cash enough to pay any fine.

And the next fifteen minutes were the most horrible minutes I ever experienced. I called Jai, P.K. Nobody could be reached.

 Msg’d.. No replies..WHAT THE FUCK...I was having a blessed day.. !!

I froze when some1 tapped the door, but dint open. Atlast P.K attended my call told that TTR went and asked me to come out, and it was that idiot who tapped my door... Crap again..

The rate of my heartbeat never came down until we reached Salem..

And now the question is..

Was it really our day????

At home.. I charged my mobile which got switched off n turned it on..

Rain of msgs from Jai n P.K started flooding my inbox.

Where are you? Looks like TTR went.

Sender:Jai Sent: 3:05:01 PM”

“TTR crossed your compartment.

Sender:Jai Sent: 3:07:23 PM”

“He went away. You may come out now.

Sender:P.K Sent: 3:12:23 PM”

“Come out.

Sender:P.K Sent: 3:13:41 PM”

Damn my mobile..