Road to Dehradun - I

Dehradun, a beautiful valley located at the foot of the Great Himalayas in the Northern India. I had been there from Chennai, almost the other end of India, the past December. I was accompanied by a few of my friends doing their Masters with me. Though the trip was quite official, it turned out to be a memorable one. In total, there were two girls (Anjana & Jeyasaudha) and four guys (Me, Sachin, Abu & Venkatesh). The trip had a messy start due to the "most responsible" Sachin. He was supposed to make a poster for his presentation at Doon. But till the morning of December 9, the day we had to leave for NewDelhi by TamilNadu express at 22hrs, me & Sachin were very busy in preparing his poster. Everytime after it was done, he would rush to his Supervisors (unfortunately he had two Supervisors) and both of them were making corrections all the time in his poster. Finally, we landed up with the poster which was certainly not the one we started with. It was around 11hrs, we left for Mount road to print the poster, the busiest road in Chennai.

We found a poster printing shop but the guys were out for Namaaz. We were asked to come in 30 minutes. At that point of time, half-an-hour seemed to be a hell lot of time. So we went out in search of other shops. We walked, walked and walked... landed up in shops but ended up in vain. At last back to pavillion...to the first shop after an hour (though we thought 30 minutes was a lot more time to wait) and gave the stuff that we had taken in USB drive for printing. The printing took hardly another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, we went to a hotel near by and had some snacks though having quit the lunch. I got a call from Jeyasudha and Abu saying that two call taxis were booked to pick us up by 1830hrs from our hostels. Sachin grew angry as he had to pack up things still. We collected the printed poster and rushed to the campus in auto as it started drizzling. On the way, Sachin called Venkatesh, who booked the taxis without his & my permission, on his mobile and asked him to cancel one of the booked taxis and to let us come on our own.

Reached the department by 1630hrs and Sachin rushed to his supervisors to show them the poster (hopefully with no more corrections). He came back to the lab with their positive feedback. As soon as he entered the lab, Abu became a scape goat for us. We started asking him as to how can they book a taxi without our consult, though he claimed he was unaware. Venkatesh came to us and said he cancelled a taxi. But he along with Anjana, Jeyasudha and Abu would go in one. Now Sachin and myself started bugging Abu to come with us. He said he would. Sachin left for his room to pack things and promised me to come to my room by 1900hrs. suddenly I got a call from Abu by around 1730hrs saying that he booked a taxi for himself and would reach the station directly. He didn't want to go with either of the teams. It seemed to be ridiculous at that time. I didn't want to sit on his nerves anymore.

I called Abu by around 1830hrs to confirm his position. By then he had turned cool. He agreed to come with us in our taxi. So I cancelled his booked taxi and asked him to come to my room. He and Sachin came to my room by 1900hrs and we started our journey to NewDelhi, my first time journey to North India... my first time very long distant journey in train(ofcourse the one I like the most in all modes of travel). I was also scared inside for one thing... that was for my favourite South Indian idly and sambar... which I would certainly not get for the next 20 days. Still I was dare enough to face North India for the first time especially to face Jodhpur all alone.

When the train started with a jerk, we were over joyous. We were thinking about our journey being started with a jerk. We occupied almost three quarters of that cabin leaving the two side berths for others. Sachin started his work.... calling and buying anything and everything that passed-by our cabin, needless to mention food stuffs. Though blamed, he never stopped buying and never paid too. In fact everyone of us enjoyed eating all those one day & two nights journey but neither stopped blaming Sachin nor eating. The first night(well...its the first of the two nights journey) went peacefully as we didn't cross Andhra border. Let me explain the reason for the previous statement in my forthcoming parts.