The Chalukya upper berth !

Okay here I go, 3 days after my first visit to Mumbai (I like to call it “Bombay” though) I have decided to ink the whole story, rather the whole deal; as it was my first official trip too. I took time before I sat down for this. It was for the only reason that, I did not wanted this to be another quality process, you know, just for the sake of documentation. I wanted this to be on white for the sake of the great time I had in Bombay and to cherish it for the rest of my life.   

10^th December it was when my colleague (Anuroop) and I boarded the “Chalukya” at Yeshwantpur Railway station to Dadar, Bombay. At 6:30 in the morning, on a Saturday, God! When you wake up just about at the right time to get ready for work everyday, it is impossible to sleep on a Friday night hoping to wake up to the cock-a-doodle-doo on a Saturday.  After giving my parents a doze of anxiety of missing the train and consuming a small portion of it myself, I made it. Was never more glad to see anuroop standing outside the compartment and waving. It kind of was a confirmation that the train has not left still. Excited about the train journey; it had been a long time, and that it was for a good 24 hours, the wheels of the “Chalukya” started to roll without a second delay.

This was the time for anuroop and I as team mates to understand each other completely so that we could go ahead doing our work in much better co-ordination. It started off with such perfect signs though. But the doodle in the morning that woke me up had its after effects too. I just did not stop yawning, god knows when I started. Sleep always tops the list of things that generally I am not in control of. It just took minutes to realize that nothing is in my control and reach to the upper berth in the compartment and happily sleep. What a drowsy start!

 After, quite a good sleep, I woke up to the sound of the mysore-arasikere train passing by, when we had stopped for its crossing. Refreshed and with excitement still in the stinky air of the compartment (3-AC class that miserably failed to be a class apart) took out the book I had brought as an alternate company during the travel. “AaDaadtha Aayushya” by Girish karnad, a Jnanpeetha award winner.

It was for the first time though I was opening it. Bits and pieces of Curiosity had scattered all over me about this book, when my brother (Shashidhar) was racing through its pages. Anyway I opened it, surprisingly, to see a chapter named “Mumbai”. Pages started to roll as Chalukya was on schedule. But the stops for crossing of trains annoyed me. It was like how Karnad felt when his bhaiyya (brother) was reluctant enough to switch on the electric fan to save money. Karnad goes to the root cause of this whole issue. He identifies that the problem is not with the reluctance of his brother, rather with the high rise buildings of bombay. I did not bother to take his approach. I was just annoyed at each and every stop we made at the crossing zones. But at the end of it all, Karnad’s root cause analysis made me more eager not to just visit Bombay, but to experience it.

And to document this day in my history book, one more chapter should be added; that of the lunar eclipse. I had received some clear instructions from my mother not to eat or drink anything during the event of lunar eclipse. I could have involved myself into a debate on should we eat or should we not during the event of lunar eclipse with my mother. But with absolutely no defense strategy in place I decided to blindly accept and try to follow whatever has been said. All said and done, it was up to me to live up to my words. It is when someone tells you not to do something, you want to do it that much more. Anyway with a bit of difficulty and a little nap helping me out, I was able to survive through the event without anything to eat and drink.

At last after the eclipse had passed, it was time to munch. It was time to slurp. It would be a crime if I am not appreciating the efforts of my mother in preparing mixed vegetable chapati’s for me and anuroop. This definitely added to the whole experience. The taste of the mixed vegetable chapatti with lime chutney was truly brilliant; the taste for which I would give up anything (quite literally). All is well that end’s well, nevertheless I take this as a nice start, with the end being a good week far.

MORE ON OUR TRYST WITH BOMBAY AND ITS HIGH RISE BUILDINGS IN THE FOLLOWING POST.