My Misadventures Part - 2,3: Homeless @ Anantapur; Kitchener

Preface: This is the second part of my misadventure saga which I started in My Misadventures Part - 1: Mumbai Masala

Misadventure 2: Anantapur, AP, India

It was 2001, the year I completed my bachelors from GPREC, Kurnool which is affiliated to SK University, Anantapur. Everybody was planning to go to Anantapur to obtain B.Tech certificate in May, 2001 but I couldn't join my friends due to prior commitments and hence planned to go in June. Since the planned day to go there was saturday, I forced my friend, a Kurnool localite to accompany me with a promise that we would return by saturday night.

All went well as planned. We reached the university (outskirts of Anantapur) at 9 am on saturday and started certification formalities which went on till 2 pm. We were asked by the staff to wait for some time till the controller of exams signs my certificate. We went to university cafetaria, had lunch and returned in 40 mins and started waiting for a call. 3:30 pm, 4: pm, 4:30 pm, 4:45 pm - nobody called despite my reminding the attendant every 10 minutes. I got worried because the next day was sunday and I would had to waste 2 more days in an alien city where I don't know anybody.

At 5 pm, I raised my voice against the kind of delay and brought this to the notice of a higher official who promptly followed up to see why was there a delay. Shock of the day -  The controller of exams who was supposed to sign the certificate left for the day earlier ( 2:30 pm) due to his personal reasons. My mind blocked, tongue tied, blood boiled, fist closed, frustration mounted...didn't know what to do :X

Anantapur to Kurnool was a 3 hour journey in APSRTC bus and traveling back and forth for a day sounded very boring and tiresome. Then the only option was to stay in Anantapur for entire sunday and come back on monday morning to SKU to get that stupid sign before I could take my certificate and travel back to Hyderabad.

I felt guilty to have brought my friend along with me and hence asked him to go back to Kurnool which he did after some dillydallying. I promised him that I would spend the remaining time somehow as its only one day. What I didn't know was that interval between saturday evening and monday morning would be a hell for me :)

Reason: There was some political rally or meet scheduled on sunday and people from all over rayalaseema districts were supposed to converge in the town and literally take Anantapur by storm. Hence all hotels, lodgings, rooms were booked well in advance.

As soon as my friend left for Kurnool, my eyes accidentally glanced through a local newspaper edition which bragged about the never before never after rally to be scheduled next day. Then I slipped away from the bus stand, approached the nearest lodging, asked if he has an AC room to hire for a day. I still remember his surprised expression when he said "ipudu yaada untai abbi roomsu, entha lekka ichinakoodka dorkaaavu" - means you can't find a room now even if you pay more. I tried my luck at few more hotels but in vain. Its already 7 pm. Squeezed myself into a C grade roadside food-joint, waited for 2 hours to get a table and chair. Somehow had my dinner.

The only place I knew in the town was Bus Station. Went there, tried to find some place to sit and spent time till 12 midnight, but it was getting too congested and packed. I felt I couldn't spend the whole night sitting in one position. Then I got to know that railway station is a stone-throw away. I took my bag, started walking to railway station through a narrow road. Amidst curious passers-by, I reached the rlwy station, purchased a platform ticket, went to second class waiting lounge, found a comfortable chair and slipped into slumber.

Just when I was about to get into a deep sleep, somebody patted me on my shoulder. Yes, that's a ticket collector. He asked me why was I in the lounge. I told I was waiting to receive my friend who was arriving from Vizag (thanks to railway platform announcements, I knew that a train from Vizag was supposed to come at 2 am). TC guy said ok and stayed back in that lounge. 2 am train arrived, TC was staring at me suggesting to leave then. I came out of the lounge, mingled among passengers, went out only to return after 20 mins to take another platform ticket which would be valid for 2 more hours. I also took care to know the next train arriving at 4 am. But it was a Tom and Jerry game between the TC and me for the whole night :(

Finally, it was dawn. Freshened up in waiting lounge and left the railway station for a looooong day to go. By then the town was buzzing with activity thanks to the political meet. Again my destination by default was the bus station :D..went there, ate some breakfast at the bus-stand joint, bought times of india newspaper, filmfare, sportstar and swathi magazines because those were supposed to be my company for the whole day.

Thankfully the previous day, Nepal king and royal family were massacred by their eccentric prince and newspaper had enough fodder for me. I spent till noon somehow and by that time, the newspaper and magazines were borrowed by people of all corners of the bus stand and I never bothered to get those back. A series of forced conversations with co-bus standers started who had all sorts of questions for me like "babu, chala sepati nundi choosthunna, ikkade unnav, em bus ekkali nuvvu ?", "babu, nuvvu edo badha lo unnav, naaku cheppu, badha thagguthadi" :O

Fed up of this unwanted attention and concern, I decided to make a move and see whats around. Humidity was crazy and temperature was boiling. I luckily found some internet center where I planned to spend some 2 hours. But to my horror, the computer there was infested with all XXX pop-ups and videos saved all over the desktop. Adding to my woes, all cubicles were closed and occupied by college going couples busy in their own world. I was the odd man out there and was looked upon as a disturbing agent :-| ..after spending half an hour and not even able to check my email, I shelled out some Rs 30 and thanked myself :)

2 pm, terrible heat, crazy population, nobody to talk, nothing to eat, nowhere to spend time, nothing to do, interfering and intruding co-passengers in bus stand - I wanted to vent the frustration which I did by shouting aloud in a public washroom until others who entered there saw me with disbelief and contempt :-|

At 6 pm, I checked all theaters around and found one movie which was worth watching "priyamaina neeku". I had to wait for 1 hour for a ticket for a movie released more than 3 months back only to find some place to stay for the next 3 hours. How pathetic. Was out by 10 pm, didn't dare to cool my heals for 2 more hours for dinner, rather lived on fruits etc and made my way for my night destination - railway station again :(

I thought that's the worst day I've seen until 2007- when another dreadful situation happened in Canada. Continued below

Misadventure 3: Kitchener, ON, Canada

I arrived to Canada in Aug 2007 and wanted to apply for permanent residence which supposedly needed IELTS score too. I booked for an exam slot in Toronto in Feb 2008 which got canceled due to snow storm and was rescheduled at a town called Kitchener which is some 100 kms from Toronto. It was severe winter. I spoke to a friend of mine who lived in Kitchener and he said I could stay at his place for that one day. I also asked other locals who said I could find some hotels around railway station.

Exam was on Saturday morning at University of Waterloo and I booked a Via rail from Toronto to Kitchener the previous evening so as to reach Kitchener at 8 pm (I didn't have car or G2 license then). After reaching Kitchener railway station, I called that friend who never answered. A slight disturbance kind of feeling crept in.

Then I came out of the station, walked around for a couple of kilometers on one direction. Found no trace of a hotel or any kind of temporary accomodation. I thought I was searching in the wrong direction. Then I caught hold of a pizza store, had pizza and asked the incharge if I could get an address of the nearest hotel, he said he didn't know any (weird !). Its already 10 pm, there was no activity, no buzz, only few stores far from one another and mostly auto repair centers, industrial equipment shops, small factories and  garages. I thought it was a safe bet to spend the night in that VIA rail station (thanks to my earlier experience in Anantapur). Everything went on fine till 11 pm. At 11 pm came an announcement that the station will be closed as the last train just departed. And the temperature outside was -15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit), fresh from the snow-storm of earlier day.

I didn't know about dial services or any other ways of obtaining help in such situations as that was my first winter and never did I face such situation. Also it was 11 pm and was too late to call anybody in Toronto which was 2 hours away. Then I came to terms that's going to be a tough night for me.


11 pm, shivering chill factor, hills of snow all over, hostile ambiance, nobody to talk or direct to. I went back to the pizza store which was open till 12 pm. Once they displayed their closed board, I walked out in pursuit of some hotel. I walked for 4 kms (around 2.5 miles) on 4 sides of the railway station and all I found were industrial workshops, production machinery etc. That was depressing. I was panting in cold and couldn't afford to stay or sit anywhere on the road due to safety issues. I returned to the closed railway station and decided to spend the remaining night in the premises (a bench at the railway tracks). there was no provision to sleep on the bench as it was divided by arm rests (as seen in the adjacent picture - taken recently as a memory of that day :D). So I had to sit along in the open air only to get panicked by hoots of goods trains which pass by occasionally. After 3 am, it became exceedingly cold and hostile. I could not withstand the wind chill which could as well murder me if I stayed there for long.

I went to the main entrance area where I found an arch with a semi-covered pillar / wall (as seen in the pic). I chose that area as that wall could block cold winds blowing all over. So I sat there till 6 am. There was a public telephone in the vicinity and every now and then, people came to use that. If they saw me, they would have got panicked thinking I was some anti-social element and hence I had to hide myself..huh :)

At 6 am, I woke up from my sitting slumber with an expression of triumph as I knew the railway station would be opened at 6 am. I took my bag, reached the main door and saw opening timings as 6 am on every day, but 8:30 am on saturdays. Another 2.5 hours. That was so dejecting. I literally counted seconds till 8:30 when I rushed even before the station master realized that she opened the door. After freshening up, I asked her timings of train to Toronto. She calmly said "9 pm tonight".Kevvvvvvv...I was ready for another adventure that day.

Took a cab, reached the exam center, finished the exam and luckily found few Toronto bound guys who sympathized with my last night plight and offered to drop me to Toronto. Finally I reach home unscathed.

PS: After getting reasonably good score in IELTS and submitting it along with immigration application, I was told I didn't need that because I already crossed eligibility points without IELTS :-|