Guess it was around four weeks ago, it was my best friend Genius' birthday and we planned to celebrate it in Chennai with my other best friend who was back from abroad. So we planned to meet at Babes place for lunch and then head out for some shopping. That weekend was awesome and I just can't forget it. I envy Genius for having to get her birthday celebrated with both her best friends. Damn man! If life was so simple, I and Genius traveled on the same train to get to Hyderabad from Chennai - The Charminar Express, but while coming back we couldn't get on the same train. I was travelling by Chennai Express and she by Egmore Express. Both of us felt very bad for not having to travel in the same train again.
So, there began my journey on the Chennai Express alone. Okay, not quite alone! My parents with my grandmother were there on the same train but in a different compartment. I tried to time pass for sometime sitting alone, I opened a novel, closed it; started listening to songs; stopped. Finally, bugged up, I called Babes just to time pass for a while. I spoke to her until my balance got over. It was time the train started to its destination. The berths beside me and opposite to me were empty. The side berths were occupied by two guys who were eating since I boarded the train and still wouldn’t stop. Finally a guy came and sat opposite me, at 5’9 and very fair he seemed kind of cute. Finally, again bugged up I plugged in my ear phones and started singing out loudly. The guy opposite to me started at me as if I were a buffalo, as if I cared.
He gave me small smile, a smile that read she’s-a-kid-smile and I gave him a look saying mind-your-own-business-pervert. But then after some time due to dead bore-ness I smiled again, and this time he stroke up a conversation. We went on talking and then at Secunderabad my inter friend boarded the train. He called me up saying he’ll come to me after the ticket collector verifies his ticket. So this guy opposite to me, his name is Pavan and we went on talking for what seemed like hours and then my inter friend, Vijay Anand, came and sat with us. Three of us chatted for what seemed like a few minutes and then we were joined by Vijay Anand’s colleague Narasimha. Four of us had loads of fun talking about stupid topics.
Then finally rats were running around in our stomach’s and we realized that we were damn hungry. But our luck was so bad that no vendor came to sell anything and we starved for a while, until Vijay Anand remembered he got dinner of four chapathi’s and it was in his bag which was in another compartment. So he went and got his bag and opened the chapathi’s and all four us huddled together and ate them. Each of us had one and then relaxed for a while, resuming our talks. After a few minutes, the vendors came n we got a lots of junk food to eat. My aunt who lives in Guntur which is like mid-way between Hyderabad and Guntur promised to provide me with dinner. So I promised my three friends that we can share my dinner among ourselves.
All four of us were eagerly waiting for Guntur to arrive so that we can eat the dinner. My aunt promised me a delicious dinner over phone. So, our minds made up the most delicious dinner’s of all. Finally Guntur arrived and my aunt got my dinner. It wasn’t the most luxurious as we imagined, but was the most simple and delicious of all. We ate it until we couldn’t eat any more and finally we completed whatever was there in the packet.
A journey to take me back to the corporate world, gave me two new friends. We exchanged numbers and e-mail id’s and promised to stay in touch. A week after that, Pavan made me his darling little sister. Well, of course, I am the Princess, but I had no idea that people found me so annoyingly cute and like a kid. People might question me, how can I trust a person I met on a train! But, I don’t trust everyone I meet, I just ended meeting a cute brother, who cared of me as much as an own brother does. So I can never forget that journey on THE CHENNAI EXPRESS.
