The Third Day... Two Years Back!!!

Our two days of ‘fun’, if one can call it that, was over! Now, as the trains had started working to some extent, the ‘family’, as it was called then, was taking its leave— one person or a small group at a time.

In our two days, we had all fallen in love with this great city! I had always loved Mumbai, but my experience/s on 26th and 27th July, 2005 made it special for me! The group of 10 made the most out of getting stuck at South Mumbai, as elsewhere, rains were playing havoc. I saw Mumbai by night and soaked in drizzling rain and the yellowish light made it just so spectacular. For two nights, bus stops and Sterling steps were our over-head roofs that doubled up as our resting houses! Day time, we were back to our good ol’ Xavier’s catching up on lost sleep inside the Foyer.

But now, as Mumbai crawled back to normalcy, the group trickled down to just the two of us! Biprorshee and Blessen! One from Kalyan, the other from Thakurli. We were more than one and a half hours of train ride away from home. In simple words, we were more than 50 kilometers away from our folks! Both of us were really tired! We had gotten tired of staring at the white ceiling of our foyer! We had gotten tired of warming the Foyer benches stretching out our stinky legs to another bench, resting our head to the back-rest! We had gotten tired of eating the food at Mess!

Frequent trips to the majestic Victoria Terminus (now CST) gave us disappointing news! “No trains beyond Thane until further notice” was what we got to hear time and over again! Both of just came back and did what we could do best—“wait and watch!” It was more than 2 days back that I had last seen my the ‘Brave New India’ poster that was stuck to my bedroom. It was more than two days back that I had worn my blue shirt with dark-cream trousers. It was more than two days back that I had last seen my mummy and pappa! Ditto with Bipro for most of these things!

This is when my stomach suddenly started reacting, maybe to the drenched and soaked Pav Bhaji I ate at Cannon! But the loo at Xavier’s beckoned me every once in a while! And trust me, it wasn’t a very pleasing thing to happen! Make no mistake about it, the Xavier’s loo is clean and tidy, but a loo is after all that—a LOO! I had gotten tired of my stinky socks and shoes that I had been wearing for two days! I borrowed Bipro’s floaters to make my trips to the Loo!

In the meanwhile, the time that we were there, we had befriended this SYJC guy, Joel, who was from Dombivli! All the members of the then family had reached home, safe but not so dry! That was about the only positive news we were getting! We again went to VT and there, people were giving us different ideas on how to reach our homes! We weren’t convinced! We came back! I was tired! And weak! Drained and drenched and stinky too! And so was little Bipro! The time was way past 2 on our third day!

I got up and went over to Bipro. “Bipro, we gotta get out of here man!”
“How Blessen? Where to?”
“I don’t know, but I just can’t stay here for one more night!”
“Dude, I think it’s much safer to stay back than venture out and getting stuck at no mans land!” Bipro was making sense. But…..
“The trains are going till Thane! I don’t know, but in this condition, I don’t want to stay here. I have one of my Pastoruncle at Vikhroli. I am sure you can join me and we can stay over there for the night!”
“That’s fine. Even I have my friend at Matunga. I can drop in at his place. But are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yea man! I don’t want to be here for another night!”
“Well, ok then!” Bipro agreed reluctantly!

And we called our concerned people at Vikhroli and Matunga and told them they’ll be having an extra guest for dinner tonight!

I made my, what I thought was, my final visit to the loo. We packed our bags, the contents of which were wet and ‘stenchy’! We ourselves smelt like dead fishes I am sure! But we had lost a good percentage of our sense of smell! Our PoA (plan of action) involved first heading towards Gayathri’s PG and hand her Nokia charger back. So, off we went! Bipro turned in another direction for a smoke and told me to carry on and he’ll be there in sometime! So, I went ahead and called Gayathri downstairs! And as we both were talking, Bipro came over with a worried look on his face!
“What happened?” I asked him.
“That guy, Joel. I just met him on the way. Well, he’s alone! He doesn’t have any friends with him! And as he came to know that we are leaving, he was about to cry. He doesn’t even have a single paisa with him! I gave him about 15 rupees that I had with me!” Bipro said in a dejected tone.
“Where is he now?” I asked Bipro.
“I don’t know. He will be going back to college I guess.”
“Well, in that case. He’s coming with me! And if he’s not ready for that, then we ain’t going anywhere. We are staying put! Lets go back to college and ask him.”

So, we were back again at the place where it all began! Joel wasn’t there. So it gave me time for one more visit to the loo! As I came back, I saw Joel sitting with Bipro. I told him about my offer. He readily agreed and seemed happier at seeing us back in college! I called up pastor uncle again. Praisy, his daughter, also my friend, picked up! She said it won’t be a problem at all to bring in my friend!

So, with a sigh of relief, all of us headed towards the station. Gayathri gave us company till the station! We crossed the subway, but it dawned onto us that we might have to wait for one more day to see our folks back home!

It was nearing 4! And as we were about to get closer to the entrance, my ears went wide open when I heard the word ‘Kalyan’ getting announced through the microphone! Both, Bipro and I, hurried up the stairs from the subway and to the station! The writings on the indicator were blocked by a pillar in between! Both of us ran side ways saying, “wait a minute, waaaaaait a minute”! And to our utter disbelief, we saw what we wanted to see! In red was written, “3:51 K” (Indicating, the train will leave at 3:51 PM to Kalyan). We didn’t know how to react! “Yahoooooooooooo! Wohooooooooooo!! We jumped hugging each other! We did not care if people around us termed us as “whackos”! We were definitely whacked out then! Even Gayathri gave us her blank expression!

We wasted no time and hopped into the train! I fell in love with Mumbai’s local train again! I smiled at my co-passengers! Bipro and I, even got seats! Surprising, because it was only the second train to leave out of VT after the deluge! I guess people who were stuck, were yet to be informed! Joel stood by the footboard! He came in for a brief while and with a little smile on his face, I saw him giving Bipro some money back, saying “thanks”! Bipro smiled back! My stomach now was behaving quite alright!

We had updated our “family” about the latest! A few of them called back to check on us! Matunga passed! Bipro sat still in his seat! No ways was he going to get off now! Vikhroli passed! I stayed put too! Prince and Praisy will have to wait for me some other day when I will at least be better dressed!

It took us around 3 hours to reach home! I got off at Dombivli as the train wasn’t going to stop at Thakurli! Joel got off with me! We walked back home!

There was no electricity as I reached home! But it didn’t matter! My cell rang. Birporshee! “Yea Bipro?”
“Yesssssssssssss! Home Sweet Home!!!”