Even if it’s coming my way, I’m gonna look elsewhere…

The Journey

The scheduled start of my journey was on the 6th…well, I thought it would be nice and comfy to go home and stay a night there and then leave for the airport after a hearty lunch on the 6th…on the 4th at 10pm, I get to know that my ticket I booked for the 5th at 7.30pm. here we are having booked the auto at 5am on the 5th so that I could go home and all…then it struck me…at around 11, i woke the poor auto driver up to tell him he just lost a fare…and as dumb and stupid the plan may sound, I decided to go by the 2.20 train from olavakkod. With no auto or any mode of transport anywhere in the vicinity after 9pm, I decide to walk all the way to olavakkod from my place…it’s around 3kms I believe…with a not so ergonomic bag weighing over 15kilos, it was fun…

The First Route.

The first route I took was quite hostile…all the dogs in the area seemed to hate me all of a sudden…as I approach the almost out street lamp, the he stands, the alpha male, signalling his minions to chase me away..I who son…ha-ha…I walked away with my bhandakkettu…it was more like a scared retreat…or even a extremely cautious, god fearing me walking away in the opposite direction that I set up on… :)

The Second Route.

After the slight set back, I chose the second route…hoping it would be less erm vigilant…but, there we are…we have the alpha female!!!But she just looked all bark and no show…I decided to go ahead… but she too had a pack at her command…all bark and no show pack of mongrels!!..I passed the dangerously guarded territory on chitra…my desperate hopes of finding an auto there was crushed by an empty haunted lonely auto stand…

The Walk…

The walk from my hostel to chitra had taken its toll…I was sweating like a pig (pigs in reality, don’t sweat :) ), legs like I had walked a long way into mars…and by this time, the duffel bag that I had, became a back pack..Its ears became the shoulder straps… :) walking my way through miles of the deserted once busy roads, I understood one thing…it was a revelation…it came to me as a wave of cold cruel reality…I made a very, very stupid move..:)

The Ray of Hope…

As I crossed the railway gate beyond which another 1 n half mile of treacherous walk awaited me, I saw this beacon of light…a green neon light coming closer to me…I thought I was getting delusional..I rubbed my eyes…saw it again…I cried out loud (within myself :) ), “my saviour I here”…as fate would have it, there was a passenger in the ape… :) I resumed my monotonous walk… a few more minutes and I saw the green light again, behind me this time… :) I waved it down….”oh good heavens…it’s slowing down” but noooo…it sped up again once it was clear of the small pimple in the road…”oh crap”…I still kept waving like crazy… “Yes it’s stopping…ha!!!” sitting in it, I felt I was on my way to heaven…well no…I reached the station at 1.10…had another hour to go…

Apppom kadalem…

Went into New Something hotel…had appam and kadal-a…but maaan…the food was heavenly…partly because I hadn’t eaten since morning…got the tickets soon after and began the long wait for the train…it came…I went in…And I found an empty spot!!!!!!In general that too…!!! :) I asked the guy sitting opposite to the ‘empty spot’ if that seat was occupied… (Not coz I couldn’t see it vacant)…he says “go ahead, its all yours…” and goes back to sleep…I sit there all pleased with myself…coz there were people sitting on the ground and I got a spot coz I asked…:) a couple of minutes into my attempt to sleep, I was woken up by a man with the news paper..Told me to move…I move so he can sit…but not so comfy…he asks me to get up…I’m like “why?” and he’s like “what why? Did you happen to think I might have been sitting here before?”  And I was like “err… :)” so there goes my seat..!!!

Well, finally made it through the seat issues and reached some place…I woke up and saw a lot of people leave…it was 5.15..by the time table the train was to follow, it would reach Ernakulum town by 5:15..i asked the gentleman opposite to me if it was Ernakulum town…he says yes..I asked again to be sure…he still said yes…I get out…start walking through the dark station towards its entrance…the train started to leave…”hmm that’s strange..The train was to be here till 5.45 not just 5.20…”I still walk out…I walk about 30m and I discovered what that gentleman(for the want of a better word) had put me up to…

it was aluwae…!!Then began my walk with the terribly uncomfortable bag towards the bus stand…not a single ksrtc bus going towards Ernakulum!!!! Got a private bus…20 minutes for it to leave…omg!! The bus was unbearable…the songs in it reminded me of my stay at P.C Thomas!! It was around the right time too…5.30…screwed!! Would reach kaloor at 6.15…i get down there…arm paining like hell…I thought if I was taken to a doctor “your arm has started to mutate…we will have to amputate it to study it more closely…” I get into an auto…you wouldn’t believe what I saw in it…just like in the cartoons…a swarm…a SWARM of mosquitoes flying around happily in the back of the auto…I told the auto guy to take me to a pharmacy that might be open around that time..

Obviously none were…I go to Lissie hospital…Damn it it’s a hospital they will help me out…I go to the pharmacy there…nurse there asked me to go casualty “your arm has … … … amputate … … … closely” I said no thanks and left in the auto to ksrtc bus stand….I’m going to alappuzha…guess how many busses were there to go to alappuzha in the near future….

:) Yup…none!!!

Got into a kottaym bus that goes via cherthala…got down there got another bus went home…had enough time there just to do nothing…left soon after to the airport…

ran to catch a kothamangalm bus…it’s bound to go to Ernakulum…but nooooo…it takes the bye pass…so I spent the next half an hour thinking of whether or not to get down at a inhabited place than the on the bypass…then I realized it might as well go to aluwae..It did…finally something right…!!! I got down there made a mental note to find a print out place there at aluwae to print my ticket an entry permit…but as things have it, too many things went right…found a bus to angamali as soon as I got out of this one..:) I forgot about the print out in the pain of holding the bag and running to the ready to leave bus… :)

Walking around in angamali looking for a cafe to print it out, I realized my bag was quite really heavy… and my arm might indeed be mutating coz soon my left arm too started to pain…found a place, printed it out… discovered that I’m an alien, and set off to the space station I mean airport nonetheless…

 

 

I told myself as I pushed my trolley with one hand, “It’s all over…you are going home…rejoice!!”…just then I got Haris’s message asking me if I made it…I braced myself…:) as I dropped of my luggage, and just then, found that my fight was an hour late!!! :)

the phone was out of juice…there are two charging places near the terminals…one close to my gate and the other half a mile away..I walk towards my gate…go to the charging spot…I was hunting for my charging pin…I found everything else…and a charger with no pin…just the wires…I gave up!

I walked the half mile and put the phone for charging and started working on this…I told myself…this is it…no more misery..Even if it’s coming my way, I’m gonna look elsewhere…