Life goes on making you experience things which can be sometimes very strange. Something I got to see last evening. I was in Delhi & was returning home. So, I went to railway station to get a train which I usually prefer for this journey. The line for general was upto the station gate & at the reservation window, the guy before me got the last ticket. Can say was a hint of a bad start to a journey.
30 more minutes to get the train & I was sure that in general ticket lines, each line containing approximately 250 people, it was quite impossible to get the ticket on time. So, I decided to take the next train but from a small station following Delhi. I was hopeful to get fewer crowds on ticket window of a small station. The station I chose was Anand Vihar. It was 3.05 pm.
I decided to take Metro from Delhi Station to Anand Vihar Terminal & get the train. In Metro, as always, the scene was worse with crowd literally bursting out of the window glasses. When I was leaving the train, a guy tried to take out my wallet. Though my alertness didn’t let him to get it but due to dense crowd, he escaped. This was the second hint that something was going in a wrong way.
It was 4.05 pm when I reached Anand Vihar & got myself onto the station. Sometime later I realized that it was actually a terminal & I would get the train from the old station which was behind the new station. I found no notification about this anywhere. I think this is the way things work out here.
By the time I reached that old station crossing the rail track (it did not have any passage), it was already 4.30 pm. I was a bit suspicious whether I would be able to catch the train. Anyways, I found a small ticket counter far behind this old station in a hut like room surrounded by trees. I got an old kind of ticket printed on very small rectangular cardboard sheets. The guy there said that I will get my train at 5.00 pm. It was soothing because I still had 20 minutes left.
It was a very small station with just two platforms for two directions. Though there was quite a good crowd. Suddenly I saw a train coming on my platform. I checked my watch, 10 more minutes. The train is early. I was relaxed as I thought the problems ended for the day. I will catch the train & will get home. People ran towards the train including me. Oh!! It was a local train, red coloured. It was not my train.
One more train got past before 5 pm. I was now anxiously waiting for my train. Finally at 5 pm I saw a train coming. It was surely not a local train. People seemed happy & convinced this time. The train came & slowed down. We all rushed again to find it was Rajdhani Express. Whoa!! What the hell it was doing at such a small station? It stayed there for 15 minutes. I knew unless this train leaves, no train can come. After it came another Rajdhani Express of different route than previous one. It again stayed for 10 minutes. Again came a luxury train & stayed for 15 minutes.
This time all the people standing there were surprised. Something was wrong. No one could figure out what was happening. Finally we got to know that our train is standing behind this train. We waited for this train to go & first time in my life I saw two trains running so close to each other. My train followed this time. I was happy to get it finally at 6.30 pm.
I hoped it was the end of my problems, but I was wrong. I think its quite enough for this post. Will complete the story in my next post.