Country roads take me home ........

Though the distance between Kozhikode and Rishikesh is only around 2600 km but seemed like eternity to reach there. The journey was the longest ever. I booked my train tickets from Kozhikode to New Delhi. Since the train starts from ernakulam or some other place south it was full of south Indians mostly keralites. And as expected they were all talking in either tamil or malyalam so I was like a stranger in my own country. As the tradition goes by I checked the reservation chart before boarding for checking how my journey is going to be and was disappointed to know that I will be accompanied by all aged people ( doesn’t matter male or female). One was Mr Kapoor, a supplier from New Delhi. The first words that he uttered to me were “ do you want anything to drink ?” .. and after noticing my facial expression he added “ water or cold drink .. I have all” .. And as expected he opened his bottle of whiskey at night. Though he was cautious enough to hide it whenever some policemen passes by and then he will tell everyone that you should not drink in front if them as you may get caught… as if we cared if he is caught or not. Another one was one old probably retired armyman. Mr Kapoor in a very blatant sense asked him “ don’t you know how to speak in English” and it infuriated the armyman .From then on it was a tense air between them. Night passed by swiftly. There were four kids in the next compartment and they made the train their playfield. Running from one end to another of the bogie. In the other compartment was a couple with a kid. Though the man looked weak but he was carrying himself well. After getting bored for the whole day I went to my friend who was in another bogie. At around 8 pm I came back and was sitting near to my berth reading magazine when I felt some kind of restlessness in the family in that compartment. I could not understand the reason. After sometime I turned back and saw quite a number of people standing in the compartment next to me. The atmosphere was becoming gloomy. I could sense something is wrong. I tried to ask but the only clue I get from Mr Kapoor was that someone was ill in the next compartment. I went to see it was the same man I noticed earlier. After sometime I could hear his wife crying but the small kid was playing a very brave role. There was no good doctor in train it seemed. After another half an hour a good doctor came . He did his check up an uttered those words “ He is no more” …. I felt like crying for that family. We called the TC to know what to be done and he unaware. Train stopped at the next stop that was “Ratnagiri”. The station master their was equally unaware of what is the procedure. The railways doctor came and confirmed and the body was taken out of the train. “Ratnagiri” happened to be just in the middle of “Ernakulam” and “New Delhi”. Only one thought was crossing my mind what will the wife and little kid do at this place where they don’t even know the language of people. Somehow I reached New Delhi. I asked my friend who happened to have worked in New Delhi for quite some time that “Saray Kale Khan” is on which side and went on as he pointed out. After he left I realized I am on the opposite side so went back to the other side. Caught a bus from there to “Inter state bus terminal” . The bus conductor was filling people as if some farmer is stuffing as many sheeps in a truck. Earlier it was better with a lot of private players. But Delhi certainly need a better public transport system. As I reached ISBT two buses were ready to go to Rishikesh with their conductors shouting for “Hardwar- Rishikesh”. One was UP roadways. My previous list of bad experiences with UP roadways prompted me to take a seat in Uttranchal Roadways bus though the former was leaving before the later. The conductor kept on shouting for passengers. The UP roadways bus left. The conductor kept on shouting and the driver also joined. No one boarded the bus for half an hour and it seemed no one from Delhi wanna go to Rishikesh. As the driver started the bus all the clever passengers boarded and soon the bus was filled. And my wait of one hour at ISBT ended. Traffic congestion at New Delhi has reduced considerably now and it didn’t take much time to get out of Delhi. But as soon as we entered Gaziabaad (UP) the appearance of Indian village started to develop in my mind. Roads were made of tar but the dust that was everywhere made me feel as if we are moving on some “kaccha” road. Traffic was moving at the speed of 10Km/hr. After that another industrial area Mohan Nagar and then another Modinagar . It took a long time to reach Meerut – the place from where independence revolution was started in 1857. Driver was trying to cover the delay but there is a limit ti which he can be rash in driving. Finally the destination was coming near. After we crossed Muzaffar nagar the bus was stopped by some people. We came out to see whats happening. Holy cow .. they were a bunch of Kawariyaans ( the disciples of Lord Shiva who take water from Hardwar and serve it to their God in their temple). They were trying to sleep outside some hotel and the owner asked them to go. When they denied he beat them up so they had to leave. And so they were angry. And so they were blocking the road. Wow the holy people……… what a holy job they were doing at 11:30 pm. We tried convincing them but blocking roads and burning vehicle is the most popular way to protest in India. Finally it crossed our limits and we threw their stuff and crossed them. But they ate up half an hour. Finally we reached Roorkee. And a policeman in the most antipathetic way showed the driver some other direction. The driver still tried to push through the blocked road and another infuriated policeman came and started scolding the driver. So without knowing the reason we started moving to a diversion that will take one extra hour. Somehow we managed to reach Hardwar. Now I was the only passenger with them to Rishikesh so they seemed unwilling to proceed. But being a manager I managed to convince the driver and he waited and took some other passenger. Finally I reached my place. The journey was indeed long .