The Final Destination

It was a delicious menu in the house warming ceremony we attended few months back in Coimbatore. The aroma of non-veg led us to a different kind of trance. The time was exactly 1:30 PM and we had a train to catch at  2:20 PM in the railway station a few kilometers away.

I came along with my uncle and his family from Chennai, as my parents were in Trichy. After checking the PNR status just five minutes before we had learned that our tickets were confirmed. So now it was time for a hurry bury pack up. After biding a Good bye to all our friends and relatives we quickly loaded ourselves in a car that nearly squeezed us, due to lack of free space.  We were already five in number and another uncle of mine who were to drop us had a family of four. Struggling to breathe with at least one person in each of our laps along with our luggages, we strode off to the railway station in haste. The car hustled in the beginning before gaining momentum and while taking reverse, we could feel the topsy-turvies.

After a while my cousin said that her dad (the driver) didn’t know how to take a car in reverse properly even after driving for nearly seven years. I was dumbfounded at this because my uncle was experimenting with us. To the pedestrians it seemed as an over loaded automobile rolling on the road with great difficulty.

It was an inauspicious day for us as we were caught up almost in every traffic signal that day. To increase our agony two bikers nearly crashed our ways as the RTO waved his hands in both the wrong directions.

We reached the railway station just three minutes prior to the departure of our train. Our destiny was yet to be reached. In haste we unloaded and began to race for the platforms. My uncle told that the he had seen the digital board indicating platform number four for our train. Making our way through busy crowds of people we ran mercilessly in the subway with everyone staring at us. My sister had even dashed on a few people with her luggage.

After reaching the platform we were awestruck to see the site. An engine with only two coaches was settled there. My brother was screaming, “Where is the rest of the train?”

A porter came to us inquiring our misery and yelled,” Sir it is platform number two not four!!! ”

All of us turned towards platform two in unison to see our train standing there still.

My aunt groaned and struggled to take a breath. She gave a stern look to my uncle who got on his nerves now. “Platform two!!!”, he screamed.

And we cruised in the reverse path to reach our final destination. We could hear our train honking now. I was at my best 100 metre record after school athletic meets.We completed our journey to the destination and we were on the train now.

We reached our seats when the next disaster awaited us. Someone else was sitting in our seat number 42. He even showed his train ticket to us which was printed in Tamil. My uncle was fed up this time thinking now did we get into the wrong train after the platform fiasco. He went to check the charts; the train seemed ready to move now. It had already delayed its departure by five minutes only for us.  My uncle returned with a stern face claiming our seat. We again checked his ticket to discover the truth hidden it. It was his mistake. It was not the seat number but his age that was indicated in Tamil as 42!!!!

He vacated our seat and left.

Now everything was finally over. We laughed for at least half an hour recalling our hilarious journey from our home to the train.