Skip to main content

My Trip To Home

Coming home is always a special affair and rightly so. Everytime I come home, I feel great. This time I chose a slightly different route than the one that I usually take. Actually it was my Dad's idea. He said that instead of spending a lot on moving from Bangalore to Kolkata directly by air, I can move to Chennai by train and take a flight from there. It actually saved me around Rs. 6000!

After somehow doing my work at office I left for the railway station - the Bangalore City Junction. After a sleepy ride to the station in a crowded AC bus I reached the Majectic Bus Stand. From there I got some help from a fellow passenger to identify the road to the railway station.


The station was great. Though initially I was scared that I might not make it in time, I was relieved to find out that I was about a couple of hours before time! So I had a sandwich that sucked. Then after sometime I went to a eatery and had Veg Biriyani. They served it on a banana leaf! That was great. Rest of the time I spent in the AC Waiting room reading a chapter of the Computer Networks.

The train came to the station sharp at 10:00 PM. As soon as it came I grabbed a bottle of water from the store and boarded. The arrangement was nice - got a couple of bedsheets, a cover, a pillow and curtains to have some privacy of my own. I got my laptop and started playing some games! At 10:40 it left the station sharp on time. At about 1 I went off to sleep.

When I woke up I the train was already in the Chennai Central Railway station. The station looked just like any other old metro stations that are strewn all over the breadth of India and Pakistan. As soon as I got out I was 'invited' into a shabby taxi that took me to the Chennai International Airport in about 45 minutes. Too bad I spent the same amount of money coming from Bangalore to Chennai as I did from the station to the airport. But you gotta end up a loser while you are travelling alone at that too in the very early morning of around 4:30 AM. Yes, the train arrived before time - 10 minutes at least to be sure.


All the way I noticed a striking difference between the way Chennai and Bangalore looked. I have always said that Bangalore as a city has no life. Chennai looked like a mummy in comparison. The journey from the station to the airport was dark. The roads stank of stagnation. Though all that perception was perhaps because the Sun was not up yet. But I hoped it would look a little more inviting. It looked somewhat similar to the Kolkata of the 1980s. Never mind that I did not exist in the 80s!

The Chennai International Airport looked almost exactly like the Bangalore Airport. The same structural design and the roads and even the placement of the stalls. I got my luggage checked and got my boarding pass. I arrived at around 5:20 AM. I had to wait for around a couple of hours(or so I thought). My flight was to leave at 8:10 AM.

I had my breakfast. That was a highly overpriced sandwich that had practically nothing inside and still managed to cost about a couple of USD! Then I dozed of for a few minutes, almost checkout the pages of the 'Madras Marxist Rag'! Around the time it was 7:30 I went in for the check in. Too bad the check in was almost complete and the time 7:30 was actually for the final boarding call. For the first time in my life I heard the 'Sarthak Ganguly - you are requested to come to Gate number 9 for boarding immediately...this is the last call...I repeat....'. I did as I was told. When I reached the line I saw a huge queue, and I was almost at the last. We got into the plane from there via a Skywalk and got my window seat. As the plane lifted itself into the sky I drifted off to sleep! When I woke up I had almost arrived. That was convenient.


While in the Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport, I met a college friend of mine. We went to the bus stand nearby. I got into a bus for Tollygunge, from there took an auto and reached home. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Operational Situational Summary - Ukraine 2 March

From a glance at the map and the news reports, it appears that the Russian advance has been very slow or even checked. However, a deeper look shows the situation has worsened significantly for Ukraine. That this happened as per my expectation in the past few posts makes me feel worse. In the North, the Russian forces have already encircled Chernihiv in the past couple of days. This is not yet fully updated on this map. The two strong armored spearheads from Konotop (which had also fallen) are currently holding in Pryluky and Nizhyn. The Chernihiv garrison probably has a day or two before the Russians reach Kozelets. Then any breakout attempt to Kyiv will become extremely difficult and will likely result in very heavy losses. It is to be expected that this city too, will fall soon without affecting the battle of Kyiv. This is bad for Ukraine. Now that the International Community has rallied for Ukraine, the previous fears of Russia dealing with breakaway republics in the East should be

Growing up

Time affects everything and everyone We all grow up. After college, friends go places, to different states and far away countries. You get less and less time. Some go for higher studies, again, in other states. Parents get older. Then friends start getting married. First it’s usually the girls. One by one, your crushes tie the knot. You dismiss it, you are still young. Then your guy friends start getting married too. Your circle shrinks. In the end you look around. All you are left with are ideological nutjobs, immature imbeciles, idealistic crazies, bohemian hippies, or other misfits. Do you really belong here? Okay, that was too harsh. But you think. You say to yourself, ‘ dil to baccha hai jee ’.  Okay, fair enough. And then... Then, you see a growing pot belly. Something you always despised. Your dad had one (he still does). After taking a shower, you look at the mirror. You are losing hair. You search on Amazon for hair growing products - it is too much of a hassle. Hair transplan

Operation Situation Report Summary - Ukraine 4 March

 Defense Without Strategy Ukraine seems to be hell bent on fighting a static war without almost any flexibility. Their forces may be valiant and defiant, but without a coherent strategy, the best they can hope for is to prolong their own suffering WITHOUT significantly hurting the enemy. Here is how the situation stands as of now. Kherson has fallen. The front in the South was decisively broken day before yesterday with the capture of the railway station and port. Naturally, the Russian forces did not wait and moved straight North to Mykolaiv. All UA forces on the Dnepr facing South are likely to be outflanked. Unless the Russian spearheads are cut off and destroyed in a day or two, it will be too late. The fall of the entire South seems to be inevitable.  To extricate the forces, UA should have withdrawn forces from other sectors (including far away Donetsk front). Now, the best they can try is to win time to reinforce Kyiv. Kharkov is almost surrounded. This battle seems to be fought