It’s June 2014. The flight to Delhi was long. It had a stopover
at Mumbai. Total flying time may be around 4 hrs. But together with the check
in it was a long journey. I left home at 9 am and by the time I reached Delhi
it was 4 pm.
As planned, Bru was there at the airport. Though there was
some initial confusion with respect to arrival terminal we managed to find each
other. The only problem was the heat. The temperature was around 40 deg C, dry
heat. Though you don’t sweat like in the south, you will feel like you are
walking in an oven!
The little time I spend in Delhi, I did not enjoy it. The crowd, the dust and the people - not my idea of holiday conditions. We decided
to go to the railway station to check for the train timings. Our booking said
the train is from New Delhi (DLI). But when we reached there they said it is
from old Delhi! I think it just the beginning of what is to come. We took a
taxi to old Delhi. Since Bru is a white guy he immediately became the magnet
for people selling things and beggars. Also the prices for everything we asked
shot up in split second. Taxis, shops etc charged more than double. And that
made my bargaining attempts tighter. As the money without bargaining was not
much in foreign currency, Bru was not much concerned. But for my Indian salary,
it was not a comfortable number. So I had to do the donkey work of bargaining
with these greedy vultures all the time. Na! I didn’t enjoy that either!
We reached old Delhi railway station at around 5.30 pm. Our
train is only at 8 pm. So we thought to have some food and Bru suggested
McDonalds! Not our favourite, but somewhere clean and air conditioned. We got
into the train in time. It was very very crowded and noisy. I couldn’t find our
name in the reservation chart. I had booked the tickets online – first time I
did that in ages. I decided to wait for the ticket controller and check it. The
train was full and we waited in the corridor with all our big backpacks. The
train started moving. I went to the next compartment and checked with the
controller regarding our reservation. The all the trouble started. He said the
number on the ticket is just waiting list numbers. Though they have charged for
the ticket, it will be refunded to my account as the ticket is not yet
confirmed. Or in other words we are completely screwed! I asked the controller
if he can help us in some way, by paying fine or by extra charges for atleast a
seat instead of a bed. But he was very
rude. He said we are not supposed to board the train without confirmation and
we should leave the train in the next stop! Even after repeated asking he was
not ready to help.
We got down at the next station. Some small unknown station
in the outskirts of Delhi. Then Bru started vomiting. It seems the food from
McDonalds didn’t do good to his stomach. I started getting worried. As per plan
we have to somehow get to Dharamsala next day. I walked to the ticket counter
to check with the station master for options. Since it is a small local station
we can only get general class tickets for trains. Also our next train is
atleast 3hrs away. Nothing looked good.
Then someone suggested going to the Metro station nearby and
catching a metro to the Kashmiri gate which is 3 stops away. From there we
could catch interstate buses. We went there and purchased a ticket for a bus
though a ‘backdoor’ ticket agent in a non A/C bus. The tickets for A/C buses
were not all available and our only option was to take a bus to Jalandhar in
Punjab and from there take a bus to Pathankhot, and then one more bus to
Dharamsala. I think its one of the worst bus routes we could take and at this
last moment that was the only option available. Nothing sounded good.
The bus driver said the bus will leave in ½ hr. It was
already 9.30 pm. In India if one says ½ hr it has a completely different
meaning. By the time the bus left the station it was 1 am!!! These people are
born cheats. They simply say ½ hr to get customers and wait till the bus is full.
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