A Memorable Journey

Hmm...me and my friend Isha wanted to go for marriage in Tirupathi and there was a single day before us. We thought of many ways to reach there. At last, Isha came up with the idea of going by train…Ya….Wonderful idea. I did not travel by train before. Now by train….after that I will be travelling by plane.

Anyways I was so excited and prepared myself to take a train. I told Isha for booking the ticket. Isha did a sudden investigation about the train timings and trains to Tirupathi. She found out the interesting news that our friends from Technopark, Hyderabad were travelling on a train. They had asked to book the same train. This again intensified my excitement. Nimisha booked the ticket for the same train on the same day.

The dee day came. We reached the railway station by 10.30 pm. The time, date and place were correct. We cross-checked the tickets in the inquiry.

 

I held the ticket so closely frightening they will fly off and spoil my travel. We stood near the platform and fixed eyes on the direction where the train would come. At 12:15 am I heard the buzzing sound of the train. It halted within 5 mins. The passengers rushed towards each bogie.

Intelligently we made our way through them and entered the train. When we found out the seats we had booked, we saw two people already owned them. The heartbreaking thing was that both of them were sound asleep. Isha suddenly awoke them and told them those were our seats. They suddenly showed their tickets. All my excitement got vaporized into thin air. They too had tickets with similar seat numbers. They again started to sleep.

Isha didn’t leave the matter so suddenly. She began to scream like anything. At last our hero Mr TTR came. She explained our situation and bargained for our seats. He thoroughly inspected the tickets and looked at us in suspicion. We smelled something spooky.

He revealed to us the truth about our tickets. The train we got in was started at 7 pm on 11th from Hyderabad and departed at Tirupathi at 12:30 am on 12th. But we booked the tickets for the train that arrives on 11th at 12:30 am. So we had the last day’s ticket and now we were travelling without tickets. Mr TTR demanded we pay the penalty so cruelly. On hearing, this Isha’s blood started to heat and she said she had no money and was not willing to pay. At least he agreed to leave us without paying the money and allowed us to have his seat. We became happy. But the happiness did not last for a long time. The dreams of having an enjoyable trip were destroyed by hearing the boastful stories of our TTR. He also said that he gave us the seat upon sympathy. We were really fed up and somehow reached Tirupathi.

I remembered Alan Rickman's lines…..

“Nothing gives me as pleasure as travelling in Train without Ticket with TTR……”