From: srik@cs.arizona.edu (Srikanth Raghavan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: GRE FEVER should have been Trains thread continued (staccato narration)
Date: 13 Aug 92 18:28:29 GMT


This has been written in a hurry, in one sitting actually  so please excuse the
spelling mistakes. This is my second such posting in two consecutive days
and I would stop if someone wanted me to. Have fun!

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There were four of us and we did most things together. The final semester on
campus and GRE fever is in full swing, leaving some confident and some depressed. The four of us had more reason to be depressed than confident or even happy, 
we were afterall the only unlucky souls on campus not to have got Pilani as a
centre for GRE that October, the year being 1990.  To think that we posted our
 applications by speed post from Delhi and a week ahead of most students, seems
to say we were jolly well running out of luck way before schedule. Note, I do
not criticise the Indian postal service, as a matter of fact I think it is one
of the best, maybe I am biased becoz traditionally there have been many people
in my family who have worked their way up in the postal services. The centre we
got was Allahabad, the location of the confluence of the Holy Ganga and the
Mighty Jamuna and the Saraswathy which locals say comes up from below. Our only
consolation when we thought of Allahabad was it is a "Holy Place". If I remember
right GRE that year was to be held on October 13.  Pilani being totally cut off,
people do not venture outside Pilani unless it was an emergency as the only
mode of transport in and out of Pilani was by bus, though now those journeys by
bus seem heavenly, the fact remains when you actually did journey by bus you
ended up with a sore butt! This said a trip to Allahabad required a lot of 
planning to say the least.  We sat and broke our heads for more than a hour (a
very long time if u r in college, if u can do anything for more than an hour u
had to be a genius, alas we were no geniuses) and came to the conclusion that 
we should leave well in advance such that even if something drastic were to
happen we could atleast walk our way to Allahabad.  Our lack of travel 
experience showed, we had made the fatal assumption that we could buy second 
class tickets across the counter just before boarding the train to Allahabad.

Thusly we left campus on the afternoon of October 10 1990.  Before leaving 
campus I walked upto all the huge statues (which seems to have caught the eye
of some other person too!) and said "gandhi gimme ur blessing!" "nehru gimme
ur blessing!" "patel gimme ur blessing!", well coming to think of it I should
have done exactly that, for as i like to put it ,"stepping into deeeeeeeeeeeep
shiiiiiiiiit!!!!".  We left Pilani with the blessings of our wingies or so I
like to believe and a spirit of adventure, we were afterall venturing into the
 unknown.  Choudhury Bus Service was among the most luxurious of all the buses,
and being a private owned bus was slightly more expensive. A lil extra money,
for a lil extra comfort. It however had its drawback, being private owned there
were no fixed timings and he would stop as and when he pleased just to get an
extra passenger onto the bus.  Surprisingly the bus left on time. As the bus 
meandered  through Loharu, Bhiwani and Rohtak to approach Delhi, we kept 
pondering about what lay in store for us.  Thankfully Octobers are pleasant and
we reached Delhi two hours later than we should have.  It was around 8 pm when
we reached Delhi and the Prayag Raj express left New Delhi at 9:15 pm. We 
hurriedly grabbed our belongings and hailed the nearest auto and made a break
for the station.  

It is at times such as this you wish the platforms and corridors of the station
were empty.  I being the most athletic of the four it was decided that I sprint
to the ticket counter wherever that was and buy the tickets.  The years of 
smoking thankfully had not started telling upon my health. I sbegan sprinting 
down the corridor hoping that the ticket counter would be in that direction.
In retrospect what I did seemed dangerous, dodging huge steel trunks being 
carried  by coolies,  trying not to run over children, and trying really really
 hard NOT TO MAKE BODY CONTACT WITH ANY WOMAN, u know that is one thing u 
learn  from being an Indian male. I dashed down the stairs right into the hall
where they sell tickets. Each queue was atleast 20 people long! To stand in the
queue would be hopeless the train left in 30 minutes. Not enough time to think.
After certain unsuccessful attempts at trying the guy in the front of the queue to buy a ticket, my attempts being thwarted not only by the person in the 
queue but by the railway security force guy trying to whack me with his lathi.
After artfully dodging a few blows, I went up to him and in my broken Hindi,
began, "Bhai saab mein college student hoon, mere saath theen dost bhi hai,
aur hame prayag raaj express se allahabad jaana hai! kal hamare liye ek bada
exam hai, aap madath kar sakthe hai kya!" , i don't know how intense i was
but it worked, he took me behind the ticket counter and got us four tickets.
I thanked him profusely, his parting words were, "aap ne reservation kyon nahin
kiya?".  It was then that it dawned on me that the dickheads that we were 
could have reserved tickets.  It was too late for crying over spilt milk, and 
i began sprinting back. 

My friends were waiting for me on the platform. The look on the faces said it
all. They were standing in front of the unreserved compartments, it was 9 pm
the train left in 15 minutes, that meant we had 15 minutes to get into the
compartment or even get a foothold. A herculean task lay in front of us is
putting it simply. First we  tried evoke some sympathy, it did not work. They
stood blocking the door and just would not budge. From outside we could not see
through the windows, the openings were obscured by the back sides of men and
women, i hate to think that at even such a time I had the audacity to admire 
the derriere of a female,  but however that was just a momentary lapse in
concentration and there was just 5 minutes left to get into the compartment.
Finally one guy a huge guy for that matter, opened his mouth and said, " I
will not get down or even move from this place, but if you can get through,
go right ahead". Hey! man that was our only choice. Sure we went for it.
Two of us were puny, I was medium built, and the fourth guy was huge.  A moment
later it was decided that we push the puny guys in first and then the remaining
two of us try to get in at the same time. It was our only hope. We gave the
puny guys instructions on how to position themselves lest they dislocate a
shoulder while entering. Placed the first guy, and puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush!,
we heard him screaming but no time to listen to his screams. Suddenly it was 
silent. Truthfully I was scared for a second, what on earth happened to that
screaming bundle of flesh! Praise be to Allah! I thought and soon the second 
guy was in. Two minutes for the train to leave the guards were already 
signalling, of all the days it had to leave on time today!  We hastily grabbed 
a foot hold knowing fully well we could not get into the compartment before the
train left.  Precariously hanging we tried desperately to get in. Our efforts 
were of no avail.  The train started inching out of the platform. It picked up
pace. I thought this has all the elements of "Hotel California", ah hah! "Cool
wind in my hair, voices from far away (my friends howling chcecking to see if
we made it"), we sure didn't expect to get out of it alive". We must have hung
out there for about half an hour. When we discerned a slight movement in the
feet of that behemoth blocking the door.  Maybe we could get in after all.
After a couple of hours we somehow managed to squezze in. My friends were
huddled near the narrow passageway leading to the toilet. People all around.
I was stepping on somebodies foot, nobody seemed to mind. Each time a person 
had to use the toilet he would have to step over my friends, However hardened
they were I could see them wince when the peron stepped over them on his return
from the toilet, almost always with a contented look on his face and a beedi
at his lip.  Soon the entire arm of one of my friends was covered with cigarette
cum beedi ash. College life had taught us to be opportunists, so we had to find
a place ensconce ourselves. Gave comforting looks to our pals and started making

our way in.  

We knew we could not get past the first berth or the first cabin , whatever. 
People were eyeing us strangely, clad in jeans and jackets we were definitely
out of place. Some eyed us sympathetically, some with triumph, some with plain
surprise. I have a resilient nature and do not blow up easily, the entire 
episode was amusing.  All the time I kept thinking now I have something to tell
my father who kept saying, "Son u had life easy, made for u types!".  
Unfortunately my other friend was not like me, he had already had too much and
was liek a dynamite waiting for the fuse to be lit. The moment he saw a guy
sleeping on the berth, (a berth all to himself) he promptly nudged him awake.
The guy was huge, looked like a jawan, I sensed trouble brewing, despite my
efforts to make may friend "Stay Cool (a la Icarus)" he asked the big guy to
move over. My guess was right he was in fact a jawan returning home after months
of duty. The jawans reaction was simply unbeleivable, like a giant eyeing a 
mosquito, he looked at my friend, gave a funny smile, and just turned over and
slept. My friend irked tried to rally support from the people, again his
eforts went to nought! After hurling abuses he grudgingly sat down at a place
given to him by a person who feared for the safety of my friend if he shouted
some more. Meanwhile I stood there taking it all in. My friend would not talk
to me becoz I did not do anything to help him. Poor guy never realised it was
futile and also dangerous to try what he just did.

After sometime, a guy , youngish looking guy, sitting on the berth right above
my head, pulled me on top and gave me a place to sit. The fact that he liked
me seemed to irk my friend even more.  He went on "I from University Of Allahabad, 
come to Delhi for Mandal strike, ur friend thinks only he knows english, i
simply watching, even i say bastard and ....". I asked him if he smokes, to 
which he replied in the affirmative, then i realised that i could not reach 
below into my jacket pocket. it was so goddamned jam packed in there. realising
my plight he took out a packet of Red & White, and with a beam on his face 
offered me one, hell even Red & White tasted good that day. Later I made 
friends with a villager who went into splits on listening to my hindi. I guess
the people on the top berth in cabin 1 in the unreserved compartment liked
me. Somebody would suddenly pass me a clay cup of tea when the train stopped 
at a station. I was immobile. The villager made me try out his beedies.  India
is probably the only place you can smoke in a place so full of people and still
get away with it. Morning came and soon we were in Allahabad. 

As I stepped out onto the platform I knew I had experienced another facet of
Indian Life. Now it seems to me as though it was a healing experience.  My friends 
were tired and we reached the nearest hotel without much ado.  I actually ended
up with a fever on the day of GRE. God knows why! probably exam fever. It would
be a shame if I did not write GRE then after so much labour, i just went ahead
and wrote the exam.  coming to think of it i did ok!

-srikanth

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