This was supposed to be my 100th post, but a ‘Russian problem’ [soon you will get to know about it] made it 99th. A week in November and no post yet. Am sure you know the reason [the ‘Russian problem’ also contributed partially to the delay]. In all these days I wrote a review of ‘Body of Lies’ [which got deleted, courtesy Russian hacker, the above mentioned ‘Russian problem’] thinking it will be an end to the bloc, but no use [this is one desperate attempt, lets see what happens].
Just a day before Diwali, I got a chance to visit Hindon, a small city in Rajasthan. The city is known for its stone market of Dhaulpur sandstone. It is like any other town of rural India; nothing unusual. Moreover my stay there was not long enough for me to notice anything peculiar about the place. So the post is not about Hindon but the way I reached there, and my journey back home, which was once in a lifetime experience.
We were supposed to catch a train to some place in Rajasthan and then from there a bus to final destination. But as luck will have it, the route of the morning train was changed some days ago. Our backup plan now was to catch a train to Mathura and from there a bus to final destination. Call it bad luck or whatever you like, from Mathura no direct bus to Hindon.
Plan C, catch a bus to Bharatpur and from there another one to Hindon. But you know what? History repeats itself; after waiting for an hour at Bharatpur we got a bus to Byana and finally from there one to Hindon. But when it ain’t your day, problems never come alone. They do so in bunch. On this day last thing which I wanted was a flat tyre, so I got one. After a wait of 30 minutes I finally reached Hindon at 5:30 in the evening.
If I had boarded the Kota Shatabadi [famous superfast train of Indian Railways] from Delhi in the first place I would have reached Hindon by 5:00 p.m. But it was not wise to wait for Shatabadi [it leaves Delhi at 1:30 in the afternoon] and reach so late in the evening. In order to reach early I exercised my brain and adopted the above mentioned means.
The real fun in all this exercise was travelling in the bus. As soon as the bus entered the depot, all the waiting passengers attacked it like bhookhe bhediye [hungry wolves]. Getting into the bus from windows [also door], travelling on top of the roof, travelling while hanging on the side of the bus is a common show. Places where you can not imagine [even in your wildest dreams] people were occupying them.
This was not what I had in mind when I set up on the journey. It was not comfortable and annoying at times. But at the end of the day it was fun, near to nature [all that ‘dhool-mitti’ I ate en-route], a new learning experience which is not possible at place like Delhi and a new picture [for me] of Bharat which I saw, is truly unforgettable.
