The tour begins

The day began with a feeling of bliss, the kind only seen at the end of a long and arduous yet fascinating waiting period. To say that this day was eagerly anticipated would be the understatement of the decade and that is saying something considering the decade is about to end. A lot of high spirited people made their way back to the holy city of Varanasi. Others, who had stayed back in college, matched their zeal as the preparations began for the take-off. A little bit of packing, a lot of shouting, a lecture from Prof. O P Sinha and even more number of jokes later everyone was ready. The train was scheduled to depart at 1630 hrs and everyone, that will now mean 38 students including 5 girls, 2 lab assistants and 3 teachers, had reached the station by 1615 hrs. Some trickling in late after some 11th hour realization of things left behind while others looking smug after arriving early only to panic later after remembering the things left behind.

 

 An idea was brought to tie a red ribbon on everyone’s luggage for recognition. Though being a nice thought the last minute conceptualization resulted in only half the people getting the ribbon. World AIDS day had been celebrated only 3 days back and many travellers and most students thought this was one of those anti AIDS campaign gimmicks.

 

The Indian railway was surprisingly benevolent throughout the tour and our train from Varanasi wasn’t late by more than 30 minutes. With a lot of hustling and bustling everyone was finely settled in the train and the long journey towards Secunderabad began. With the thought of a 36 hour journey looming ahead, everyone switched to their time-pass mode. Some didn’t have to change anything and continued with their little chats, quite a few simply decided to sleep but easily, the most popular choice was playing cards. A lot of games were named but surprisingly all 4 compartments where cards were dealt resulted in the same game initially, bluff. A handful also tried reading some novels though without much success. As the night wore on, many retired after being bored only to be replaced by others. Other games were tried and some others like 29 just mentioned but found to complex to be played (later it would become very popular but that’s another story).

 

I found myself continuously rejecting invitations to play bluff but later succumbed to the temptation of playing teen patti. Hiral turned out to be more than just a good hand at the game and had soon robbed everyone of some amount of money (Oh yes…we played for one buck per chance!!). Me, Gautam and a few others kept playing (and losing!) in the hope of getting her to lose. The games were accompanied by a lot of jokes, singing, phonecalls(!!!!) and were in fact great fun.

 

Most people were asleep by this time and game shifted from cards to dumb charade. The gossip also covered a lot of ground, from first crushes to horror stories. A seemingly dull journey had been turned into a fun night out. There were squabbles like the one over who would watch the luggage (come on Paras and Jain….I will watch it next time!!), but overall it was a great start of the tour.