Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Vacation once again...

Back on a weeklong vacation and in my sister's home with nothing to do actually. So you know why i am typing this now. The trip was in fdoubt till the last day, since there were too many issues on my plate to finish. Burnt a lot of midnight oil on thursday, transferred a few cases to few kind people in the team :) and i was on railway station to catch the train. Boarded S7, and got an unexpected welcome. Looked like Mom and Dad have already given a good introduction about me. Even if i travel for 4 days, there is a very little probability of getting friendly with someone. The same does not hold good for my parents. Two days of little sleep pushed me to sleep in few minutes. Thought of setting an alarm, but once i saw the tiny toddler in the lower berth, decided not to. Knew he would wake me up at 4.30 or 5.00. He did not disappoint me, and he let out a loud cry at 4.30AM. Now i had 12 long hours to kill with very little options. Tiring, boring, sweating, disturbing, thats how the journey was.

When i started browsing the pages of Anantha Vikadan, the expected problem in this train has already started. In the south, boarding the Reserved Compartment with open ticket is not approved and the rule is strictly adhered to. But it is the reverse in North. So it happens in every train running from South to North. The issue was resolved soon. Anyway coming back to Anantha Vikadan, looks like i am reading it after 36 weeks. Think should start the habit once again as it seems to be more informative.

Found a lot of people to be sleeping and tried it. But could not since the train was more like mobile oven. What else can be expected during Indian Summer ? The tiring journey ended finally at 4.30 and now i am once again bugging you people with this post :) One guy warned over phone not to post about this, but i had already drafted spending my valuable time. Anyway BFN :)

What awaits in office after the vacation, is a bit scary to imagine. Lets see how it goes.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Rail Payanangalil

Policeman: Is there a round table conference happening ?
We: No sir, just a small chat
Policeman: Dont feel sleepy ?
We: No sir. We will not get opportunity to meet only during train journeys. So just having a little chat. We will sleep in another fifteen minutes.
Policeman: Ok. Keep an eye on your belongings.
We: Sure.

Hmmm, things like this happen when you stay awake and keep chatting even when the clock ticks 12.00 or 1.00 in train. Though it invites cold stares from most of the policemen and ticket examiners we choose to ignore them and continue. Anyway thought these train journeys deserved a mention. Journey to hometown nowadays resembles a mini tour, with ten to twelve of our friends in a single coupe. It is a heterogenous crowd consisting of juniors, seniors and colleague friends. The discussion starts with update on what has happened to each and every guy since we last met. What could have happened to a bunch of s/w engineers who spend most of the time in front of the computer. So it is always the other guy who talks about his friend, with imagination playing a major role. The noise we create is at its peak, since most of the times all people talk together or laugh together. The crowd slowly disperses after lights are switched off in all coupes. But it does not end there. Only after 12.00 people get realization and start talking about company, present situtaion, future plans, recession, india, world, college etc etc inviting cold stares from the roaming policemen. Trips were boring when i used to travel alone and books usually help in passing time. Now i take books but seldom read them. I dont feel bored or dont have a feeling that there is some time to kill. Hope it continues.

P.S. For those who donot understand the title, it is a title of a famous tamil movie which roughly translates to happenings in train journey.