Monday, May 31, 2010

Two late trains and a wedding

Last week I went to attend a friend's wedding at Bagalkot (630 km from Bangalore). The train journey (Solapur Express) that was supposed to take 12 hours actually took 15 hours for no reason. Frequent travelers to the place said that the train is almost always late by at least 2 hours by the time it reaches its destination.

Reaching Bagalkot late meant that I missed most part of the wedding ceremony especially the rituals part, which is boring anyways (except for the bride, groom and their immediate families). All I could do was to have a quick photo-op with the newlyweds and lunch. Not that I am complaining, but you would expect to do more when you travel a total of 1300 km (back and forth). The good part was that we were treated royally by the friend's family from the moment we reached Bagalkot.

I returned to Bangalore the same evening. The return journey was the same as the onward journey. Only this time the train(Golgumbaz Express) was late by 5 hours. It arrived 2.5 hours late at the station and the only thing that I could do in the meantime was to listen to songs-everything from Hanuman Chalisa to Pink Floyd.

On a more positive note, now when I plan to go to the North Karnataka tourist circuit of Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal (Solapur Express can be boarded to reach these places), I already have a first hand knowledge of the fact that I have to take into account the extra 3-4 hours that would be wasted in the train journey and can plan accordingly.

Railways should either make the train run on time or change their bloody timetable to reflect the actual running time.

Oh, by the way, may D and A have a happy and a prosperous married life.
Amen!!!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

hmmm...

Sometimes you work relentlessly towards achieving something and don't get it. You just don't get it-no matter how hard you try, no matter how well you deserve it. At times things just fall in place like God\nature (whatever you prefer) had charted out a perfect dream plan for you. Sometimes life drags along like a daily soap; you can ignore the world around you for days and when you actually take notice it is all still the same. Time passes and yet is paused. At times it takes you in the fast lane like a Ferrari on nuclear fuel. Sometimes when you think that you have reached the summit, you realize it is just the base camp. At other times you reach the destination just as the journey begins.

I think in the end everything is right. If it is not right it is not the end.