FINAL DESTINATION
I must have written about it earlier but so many incidents followed after it that I did not have the time to write about this short but exciting journey rom Kolkata to Kharagpur!!! Yes Kol to Kgp- otherwise an extremely boring 3hr journey but that day, I think it was 29th September, it was more exciting than anything I have ever gone through.
I had come home after mid sems for submitting my passport application and was to leave the next day(friday) for an interview for Summer Internship with Goldman Sachs, that was scheduled to take place on Saturday. It had been raining hard for the past couple of days and on Thursday night I got reports of the railway line near Tikiapara( the station after Howrah) being under water. Anyway I expected it to be back in working condition by the next morning but the rain continued unabated. So I planned to get on to the train from Santragachi. I got out of my house at 1:30pm hoping to catch the earliest train possible. I waited for about half an hour for a bus to Santragachi but could find none. So I decided to go to Howrah and try my luck. It was drizzling and just to add some spice I decided to take the waterways to Howrah and reached Shovabazar Ghat.
By the time I got my ticket and boarded the launch it was raining torrentially and the gale force wind rendered my umbrella useless. Within seconds I got thoroughly wet. Since we were going against the wind, it took double the usual time to reach Howrah. Visibility was down to about 50ft and even the Howrah bridge(Rabindra Setu) was not visible. All I could make out was a very obscure outline of one of the towers and the "faint" red light on top of it!!! The water level was frighteningly high and all but the highest level of the ghat was submerged. Getting down from the boat was quite a trouble to the older folk and the boat staff had to help many people get down. I ran to the ticket counter only to find that there were no trains available for Kgp. Apparantely many long distance trains were stuck outside Howrah due to the submerged tracks. For once I thought of going back home but then tried finding a bus to Kgp in vain. The rain had resumed with full fury and standing in the waiting room of the bus stand to avoid the rain I made up my mind.
There was no turning back ..... I had set out to reach Kgp and I will reach it tonight, no matter what it takes. A couple of buses were leaving for Digha(via Mecheda, a station on the Kgp route) and I took one of them, with the hope of getting on to a train there.The bus stand was flooded was I had to wade through knee deep water to get on to the bus. It almost felt like escaping from a flood affected area.
The bus was fully packed and even finding a place to stand was very difficult. I somehow got in. The inside was so disgusting- damp, smelly and on top of that some lousy Bhojpuri song was being played, which was soon replaced by an equally intolerable Bengali film showcasing the "popular" theme of Sas-Bahu relation with all its petty conspiracy and tears. The rain had stopped for a while and fortunately the roads were not affected by the rain. For the first hour, the bus went on pretty well but got stuck at a culvert where a truck had overturned and the traffic had to be regulated till the truck could be removed. It was getting dark when I finally reached Mecheda. The station is a couple of minutes walk from the place where I got down. It was 6:10 and I was feeling very hungry but decided to eat only after I get on to the train. A rude shock awaited for me at the station.
The ticket counter was closed and not a single train had passed since 9:00 in the morning. I found many long distance trains waiting at the station along with many more goods train. I enquired at the bus stand next to the station about buses to Kgp but they could not give me a clear answer. A bus was supposed to leave for Midnapore(30mins from Kgp) at 6:30 but there was no signs of it. After 20 mins of enquiry I found out that the last bus for Kolkata had left 15 mins back and there is no direct bus to Kgp. It was 7:00 and still there was no sign of a bus ready to leave. This was turing out to be really bad and for the first time I felt that it is not always good to be impulsive. But I had to figure out some way of getting out of that place. Luckily at 7:30 a bus came along and I was told that it would leave for Midnapore at 8:00. Without any other option, I took a seat in it and had a cup of coffee and some cakes. My clothes were still wet and I was begining to feel cold. Finally the bus left and the driver told me to get down at a place called Mohanpura, from where I could find transportation for Kgp. He also told me that it would take 2hrs to reach that place. The bus was mostly empty and the rain had resumed, though not as heavily as before. I the wind made me feel horribly cold and I didn't have dry clothing either. The contents of my bag were completely drenched. The bus journey was uneventful and it was 10:20 when I got down at Mohanpura "bus stand". The driver told me that it was 20mins journey to Kgp from there.
The "bus stand" was a board with "Ekhane bus thamibe" (bus will stop here) attached to a disfuntional lamp post. The place was utterly dark and all I could see around me was a tree a few feet away and a dog. From what I could make out, the nearest habitation was a few km away and that too were probably shacks. I realised that it might be too late to get a bus so I started walking. After walking for about 5mins a truck went past me. Suddenly I had the idea of seeking a lift from a passing vehicle. I tried to stop a couple of trucks but they just seemed to ignore my presence!!!(the only vehicles that passed) Tired ,wet and hungry, I sat on a rock by the road and must have fallen asleep ...... I was woken up by the lights of an ambassador. I grabbed my bag and stood in the middle of the road, determined not to let it go!!
The car halted, with the driver shouting at the top of his voice!!! It turned out that the car belonged to doctor, who decided to give me a ride till Kgp bus stand when I showed him my Insti I card. At the bus stand, I thanked him and took a rickshaw to insti.
Finally at 11:30 I got down at Chedis and had my dinner.
The Kol-Kgp journey under normal circumstances takes about 3.5hrs and the only reason I don't go home frequently is due to this dreadfully boring journey. That day it took me 10 hrs to reach Kgp and not even for a single moment, I felt bored. When I went to bed that night, it felt really good!!

Unfortunately, Goldman Sachs did not come the next day. And since there was no electricity on Saturday(maintainance shutdown), we( my wingies and me) went for a wing trip to Shankarpur. It was an absolutely brilliant short trip ending in a grand dinner at T Park.