Memoirs of a Manali Trip (incomplete Journal)

 06th December, 09:40 PM

6 of us are in a cab to Yeswantpur Junction. We're supposed to catch the Delhi train and reach there by 8th morning. All our plans of spending the next few days in North India depended on this very train.

All of was in a hurry, except the person whose hurry was the only thing that mattered; the Cab Driver.

It's still a myth how the phones of Bengaluru Cab Drivers ring non-stop, especially when time is of the essence. He was talking on his phone, all the way from Brookefield, the very place we got in.

09:45 PM (Scenes at the Station)

Sampark Kranti 12649 is at Yeswantpur Station No. 6, set to depart in 15 minutes.

Well, if it departs now, it'd have to do it with 6 passengers less.

09:50 PM (Scene shifted to the Cab)

We're still in the Cab, and the driver on his phone. There still exists a remote chance that we could board the train.

While all of us have made peace with the possibility of us not making it on time, Some even made plans for the next few days in Bangalore.

You could see darkness looming in everyone's faces, even darker than the light.

09:55 PM

Now we could see Yeswantpur Station from a distance. Even on a well lit Bangalore night, the Station's lights dwarfed that of it's surroundings.

Orchestrated by Bengaluru Traffic, Google says there is no chance we'll make it on time. The night gets darker.

Chris tells the driver to stop blabbing on his phone and push throttle instead. We paid him 1.5x the Cab bill, just to keep him in this race and find that little push.

09:56 PM (Yep, all that happened within a minute)

Well, it worked. I'm not sure what, him cutting the phone call or the extra payment. His inner James Hunt came out.

He raced past traffic and pedestrians, taking roads even Google Maps dare not mention. Somewhere near the Station, he takes an unexpected Left, and later a U-turn.

All of a sudden, Google maps showed just one minute left to destination. Darkness retreats, dawn looms.

09:57 PM

The Cab stops and we were ecstatic to see we're at the station. Our luggage and slingbags were out of the trunk and on our shoulders in no time. We were already on the overbridge, panting and running to Platform 6.

Hashim tripped and fell down on middle of the overbridge. Us being the bestest of friends, forgot our troubles and took a moment to laugh at him, and then continued running.

09:59 PM

We've boarded the train!
Everyone was sweating and celebrating. Except Hashim, poor guy couldn't even stand.

But we couldn't care any lesser, we were overjoyed. The whole plan which was on the edge of scrapping, was back on in full swing.

Even Edmund Hillary wouldn't have felt this happiness.

08th December, 09:30 AM

The train's purpose hath come to fruition, We have reached Hazrat Nizamuddin.

I thanked all the gods, even though I believe in none of them.