1st vacation to Baroda frm Mangalore

This is dated long back in August 2005.. I was working in Mangalore and it had been a "long" 2.5 months since I had been home with my family :-)... E = MC² is all there was! I was very excited to go home; my first little vacation from work...

My flight was supposed to take-off at noon reaching Mumbai at 1:30 PM. From there, the next lag of the journey was to catch Mumbai Rajdhani from Mumbai Central. My adventure began at Mangalore airport itself! Unfortunately the flight was delayed!! Not by a few min but by a few hours! My heartbeats had increased considerably... I had no idea what I'd do if I missed the train... I nervously sat biting my nails having no clue on what was in store for me! After a while I checked with the Indian-Airlines staff - "What is the matter here? When will the flight be available for boarding? I have a train to catch in Mumbai and like this I'm losing hopes"... "Madam - the incoming flight has been delayed, causing this flight to be delayed as well. We will start the boarding in a few minutes after the flight lands here"... I reluctantly go back to the seating area... tic tok tic tok tic toc... The estimated departure time kept changing... They hadn't even started the security screening and my adrenalin was rising with every passing minute... Finally after a long wait, they call the security screening; I feel hopeful again...

The wait time in the security screened area seemed even more than that to get in! They kept stalling everyone inquiring and my nervousness kept rising... Finally they make the boarding call... Now while I was boarding - the attendant was like "Madam - you'll need to check-in your bag, it will not fit in"... I asked with a rather annoyed look "why!?? this is a normal carry-on bag" "Yes Ma'm but our overhead bins are full" I'm now on the verge of losing my patience "I don't care I have no time for baggage claim because I have a train to catch and thanks to you all I would barely be able to make it"... With a little more persuasion she let me keep the bag with me but made me sit on the last seat!! Freggin last seat! With the bag near my feet... Finally at about 2 PM the boarding process concluded and the flight was about to take off... I gave my dad a quick call with the latest update and that I will call him as soon as I land in Mumbai... Now was the perfect time for prayer because - I did not have a backup plan and neither could I think of one...

At last (what felt like eternity), we landed in Mumbai around 3:30ish... That was a little over an hr before the departure of the train and I had no idea how bad/worse the traffic might be... I was freaking out and was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown I guess! Coz from what my dad had told me, Airport to Mumbai Central by road would take 45 min or so (i.e. not considering any traffic-jams) and that was cutting too close... So as soon as the flight stops I get up and hurry my way out (remember - last seat was where I was forced to be seated?)... Midst numerous excuse-me/weird look + "I have a train to catch, sorry" etc, I made my way out of the flight fairly quick.. I called my dad on my way out and he said "make sure you get into a prepaid cab, so later you don't run into money related issues".. I'd have done the same, coz, at that point, I was a little apprehensive about traveling in a taxi by myself... Of course it sounds funny... even to me while I was typing it... But that's the reason why the initial plan was to catch a rick/bus to Santacruz Rlwy Stn and take a Churchgate train and get off at Mumbai Central... Considering the luxury of the 4 hr time gap that would have been available to me, it was all supposed to be SOO easy... anyways that was all then...

So I quickly got into a prepaid cab and called my dad - again... He calmed me down, said "take a few deep breaths, there is still a chance that you'd be able to make it... Just tell the taxi driver to hurry up as much as he can coz you've a train to catch by 4:20; keeping a buffer of about 10 min.. they all understand".. I followed his instructions... the driver seemed a very nice fellow and he was totally sympathetic about my situation "theek hai madam, mai koshish karke aapko jaldi se jaldi pohachata hoon" (ok madam, I'll try to drive you there as soon as I can)... Now it was the prayer time - yet again! The driver was making his way as fast as he could with a magic combination of the accelerator & the honks... We then came fairly close to Mumbai Central... There was 5 or 6 lane signal crossing and my courageous driver, in the hurry of dropping me on-time, broke the red light... I agree it is not a big deal to break red lights in India but I knew it is in Mumbai! And a traffic policeman blew his whistle and came towards the taxi running... I told myself "Oh lord... I'm done... I wouldn't be able to board the train". The driver hurriedly instructs me "madam, aap plej apni ticket nikaal ke batana sahab ko warna woh nahi jaane dega" (madam, please have your ticket out to show to the policeman otherwise you'll miss your train). The policeman comes and talks in Marathi the gist of which was "can't you see the damn red light!? Why did you drive when the light was turning red?? get your car papers......" That is when I interrupted "Sir please jaane do, mujhey rajdhaani exp pakadna hai... nahi pahuch paungi.. meri flight late ho gayi isiliye inse jaldbaazi mein galti ho gayi, yeh dekhiye ticket" (Sir please let him go, I've to catch rajdhaani express, my flight was very late that's why in a hurry he made this mistake, please see the ticket) saying that I handed him the ticket... He looked at it for a few seconds and said "jaao bhaago warna train choot jaayegi!" (go fast otherwise she'll miss the train!!)... I was both surprised and happy...

While continuing to drive, the driver said "madam agar aap ticket nahi batate toh yahi 2 ghante nikal jaate" (madam if you wouldn't have showed your ticket, it'd have been 2 hours here! ).. Finally I can see the entrance of Mumbai Central Station!! But, oh dear Lord!!! There was a decent bunch of taxis queued in front of us! It was a few minutes before 4:20 (the departure time that I had mentioned to the driver).. I opened the taxi door and told him that I would get down there itself. He asked if I was sure (I think he was still planning to find a way out of that queue); I nodded, he said "theek hai madam jaldi jaaiye" (ok madam go fast).. I smiled and say "ji thank you"... I knew that I'd be able to catch the train (thanks to the buffer time!!) I hurried towards the platform area... My boogie was 8th or 9th and the moment I get on, the train starts!! SUCH a relief; I called my dad and told him that I had boarded the train and slept like a log for the next few hrs :-)...