My Misadventures Part - 1: Mumbai Masala

My friend uploaded a pic in his Facebook wall which reminded me of few misadventures I faced. A funny account of rather not so pleasant days :)

Misadventure 1: Mumbai Masala

Year 2000: When I was in my final B.Tech in Kurnool, I happened to go to friend's house to chill. I knew he had GRE exam the next day and I thought I could share my two cents for his preparation. It was 2 pm. I just asked him to show his hall-ticket which he did. What I saw was "Exam time: 9 am, Location: Some exam center, Mumbai" kevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv... Yes, it was Mumbai indeed, which he didn't notice.

Flashback: During the application process, he filled his first preference as Kurnool, second as Hyderabad and third as Mumbai and submitted the application well in advance; overlooked the location on hall-ticket assuming that he would anyway get Kurnool as the exam center. Yeeeehahahahahaah :D

Flashpresent: Kurnool didn't have direct buses / trains to Mumbai. Options were to go to Hyd (4 hours away) and catch Mumbai bound train and reach exam center in Mumbai by 9 am next day - which was close to impossible as all trains from Hyd to Mumbai start before 6 pm. The other alternative was to catch a bus to Adoni (a border town between AP and karnataka) which is 2 hours away from Kurnool and catch Chennai - Mumbai express which stops at Adoni for a minute at around 4:15 pm.

There started a pakka project plan :). Aunty wanted me to accompany him and I joined the adventure. 2:15 pm was the time and if we caught a bus right then, we would reach Adoni at 4:15 pm and could catch the train which could drop us at Mumbai exactly at 8 am from where we had to search the exam center (neither of us knew Mumbai). So all we could do was to hope that the train to Mumbai was late at Adoni but reached early to Mumbai :)

We started at 2:20 pm, caught the bus from Kurnool bus station at 2:40 pm. Expected time of arrival at Adoni was 4:40 pm. We sat in the first row reserved for ladies (thankfully there were no many ladies to occupy all reserved seats). While the bus driver was taking his own sweet little time at every stop, we started getting friendly with him only to describe our situation after sometime. He was sweet enough to raise the speed above normal acceptable speed. Every minute was precious for us. Every green traffic signal was like a boon. After sometime the expected time of arrival became 4:20 pm when suddenly traffic jam struck us like a bolt of lightning. 10 mins wasted. The driver almost stood on the accelerator for us and finally we reached the place at 4:30 pm. But he dropped us at Adoni bus station and we didn't know how far was the railway station. Luckily an auto guy came to our rescue and we saw God in him :). he dropped at railway station in 10 mins and the by the time we reached there with a certain mad optimism, it was 4:40 and YES..train was late by half an hour :))

We took general compartment tickets and waited for the train. General compartment was so packed that we had to hang on the footboards till Mumbai :D..crazy...we sneaked into a reserved compartment and were walking all along the train for an hour before we found a couple of empty seats (seats to be occupied by passengers in later stops). Then my friend took out his GRE Barron's to study :X...LOL

Couple of hours later, passengers arrived and kicked us away. We again started roaming all over the train careful enough not to get caught by the TC but the moment came and he caught us. We had to shell out Rs.200 (yes, corruption) to stay back in those compartments. No place to sleep or atleast lie down until 4 in the morning. Upon arrival of Pune, we could not control ourselves; we laid down our bedsheets on the walkway and slipped into a extended power-nap until somebody kicked inadvertently at 7 am (when the train arrived into the outskirts of Mumbai).

Then we stood in the queue to brush our teeth and after that found some place to squeeze ourselves only to be subjects of 100 questions by a curious co-passenger. It was tougher than GRE though. Finally we stepped our feet in Mumbai nagari at 8:15 am. Exam was at 9 am, some 1 hour away from Dadar railway station and we didn't know a bit about the city.

We asked the questionnaire guy of the train as how to go to Andheri and he asked us to follow him which we did. He directed us to a local train and we reached Andheri in some 30 mins. 8:45 am. There we took a bus to the destination and produced a Rs 100 note for 2 tickets to Saki Naka. He said he didn't have change and kicked us out of the bus. Huh..then we took an auto rickshaw after some serious bargaining and reached the exam center by 9:10 (yes thats for GRE, a clock-racing exam).

My friend entered the center and then I got some time to think about food. I roamed around, saw the area, stared at pretty girls around, had some stupidest breakfast on the roadside which was the only place available in the walking distance, tried by best to read hindi numbers on local buses, tried to decipher marathi spoken by by-passers, went to police-station (that was the only place in the vicinity with some seating area). By then, my friend completed his exam, got a decent score for the hardships we faced.

Then the siteseeing bug bit us. We wanted to see Gateway of India, Juhu beach - only places we knew in Mumbai. We asked people around us for directions, started our discovery and reached Gateway of India after 2 hours of hardwork, had some lunch, took polaroid pics (saw that pic on my friend's FB wall today), and started for Juhu beach which is again a 2 hour journey from there. After spending an hour or so, an hour long journey to reach Dadar station to go back to Kurnool (Adoni). By the time we reached the train, general compartment was again packed. Ishtory shtarted againnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...imagine how we spent next 15 hours :-|

PS: That guy never applied for US universities despite all the circus. Soon after, he appeared for GATE, got M.Tech admission in a good university and came to US on work visa much later :)

Coming soon in next parts:

Misadventure 2: How I spent 3 days and 2 nights on Anantapur streets, bus station, railway station without an accommodation.
Misadventure 3: How I spent a whole night outdoors in Canadian snowing winter at -15 celsius (5 Fahrenheit)