Saturday, April 5, 2014

Trip of events or should we say rip of a trip

Tripped Journey




It all started with the Good news of our Good friend getting hitched. Being married myself, I wanted to alert her for the probable danger zone she was about to enter all awakened (pun intended). However no matter how much you want to rescue someone from the threat, anxiety makes the person jump into this marriage yacht. It is only after sometime that they realize that it is not a yacht but an ordinary boat with a hole.

Anyways, we all got ready and excited for this trip as it was a long time that we all didn’t go for any vacation. We started with the train bookings so to get confirm reservations in advance. We (Pooja, Ramya and me [Jia]) are based of Delhi and our journey was till Chandigarh, home town of Ananya, the bride). All ready and geared up with all the preparations in place (ticket confirmation / wedding dresses / bags / gift for the couple), we were waiting for the formal wedding invitation card to knock at our house. We also kept lot of woolens as it would be too cold in that city in the month of February. 

Jhatka number 01:

 
One fine day, Ramya called me to tell this shocking news….”Jia, shadi Chandigarh mein nai Ludhiana mein hai” (the marriage is not at Chandigarh but at Ludhiana). All our trip plans were shattered in an instant. Our confirmed tickets were for Chandigarh and its only 2 days left for the wedding. There was no time to cancel the old tickets and book the new ones till Ludhiana. Sob sob sob…. I told her that lets cancel the plan and we will courier the gift and wishes to the couple. However stubborn Ananya (the bride) insisted rather urged very potently that we take the train and come to Chandigarh. From Chandigarh station, she will arrange a cab till Ludhiana who will drop us very safely at the hotel aready been booked. We were annoyed as she didn’t even consider this important to inform us regarding the wedding venue but you know how girl friends are. They forget to mention important things but they will never forget to mention petty things like, don’t talk to strangers during your journey. We will definitely not forget to keep our lipsticks in our bag but we will definitely forget to keep the train tickets.

This is how we girls are especially when the girlie gang is together.

Now 1st half of our journey was in train and next few hours in a cab. Ramya and I were scarred to travel the 2nd half of the journey as we suffer from motion sickness (travel sickness and is caused by repeated motion which aggravates in a long car voyage). We thought that we will be reaching the shadi wala venue with vomiting all over the place. This was too much of a shock to handle for fragile girls like us, that too before boarding the train :P

Time finally came, it was the day of our travel. I woke up at 4.30 to catch the train at 7 o clock. Scarred of missing my train (inspired from Jab we Met), I tried to reach the railway station early. Also I got serious threatening from my friends because of my image of reaching late everywhere. So here I reached half an hour early standing alone at the station. Lot of uncles around starring and wondering where I would be heading alone with all the heavy bags. I didn’t want to put my luggage on the filthy floor and was standing and waiting with 1 of my bag lagged on one shoulder and 2nd bag on another. Slowly my shoulder started to ache. I didn’t have the tickets and so I didn’t even know my coach number. So standing and waiting for Ramya and Pooja was the only option.

Finally shouting from the distance, they reached me and we hugged each other (kumb ke mele mein bichri dosti).

We boarded the train finally, all settled down, pretending to read the newspaper waiting inquisitively for the breakfast (kuch nai khaya hua suba se yar…). Here came the breakfast but before taking the bite we promised each other that we will have lots of fun in this trip as it was a long awaited trip (aish karege puri trip mein – we will enjoy to the core). With this pledge, we ate the first bite…it was bad and hard. The cutlets were cold and so was the tea… unpalatable food. We tea addicts didn’t even get a good hot cup of morning tea… we called the manager and told him to replace our breakfast. Its only the tea which got replaced and that too bland. What service man X-( … cribbing and quarreling we reached Chandigarh.

Our cab driver was supposed to be there waiting for us but Ramya told the driver to wait for the instructions and then come and pick us from a place we will tell him later as one of her friend was coming to pick us from the station.



Jhatka number 02: 

As we were deboarding from the train, Ramya got a call from her friend saying, ‘tell your cab driver to come and take you from station and drop you at gurudwara wali road as I am unable to come to the station’. WTF!!!! Pissed…. irated… we called the cab driver to come and pick us from the station itself however he informed that he will take half an hour to reach the station as he is somewhere far. We had no option but to wait for him. As we were waiting, her friend called again and said, ‘tell the cab driver not to bother as I am coming to pick you guys’…. Ramya’s anger reached all time high…. It was already 10 min that we were waiting for the cab and this friend is informing us now that he can come to pick us???…Furious Ramya told the friend that we are coming by cab only and reaching the gurudwara wali road. Finally the cab arrived and we headed towards the road where the friend was to meet us. Unnecessarily we waited for more than half hour at the station carrying our entire luggage. Fought with him, went for a ride and then again back to our cab towards Ludhiana…hoping and praying that the motion sickness will not sick too much this time.

Jhatka number 03: 




Finally reached Ludhiana and we were told to reach the beauty parlour directly as there was no time left. However we insisted on stopping at the hotel to get fresh atleast. Shall do all other things hurriedly. As we entered the room, we started to flaunt our new sarees that we would be donning at the wedding. During this process, I opened the packing of my saree and realized that I was not carrying my petticoat (underskirt for saree). My saree was of net clothing and so it was impossible that my petticoat could be replaced with some other cloth of different color or length. It had to be shimmer blue petticoat matching my height. Ufffffff hhhoooooo ooouuuuuuuu. Shits…. Why did this happen to me. With great twinge in my heart, I told Ramya and Pooja that I will not go to the wedding and will wait in the hotel. They both scolded me and told me to take your clothes and we will see what could be done. They suggested that if we do not get appropriate petticoat then I may wear my old suit. 



Hearing this, I went into depression. All other girls are rouged as a glam doll wrapped in beautiful sarees and I am wearing an old suit. I will look like a maid to someone..  




Then we decided that we will seek parlour wali lady’s help. With all broken heart, I sat in the cab and we headed to the parlour hurriedly as we were already late. As decided we asked for the lady’s help asking for a spare petticoat. Tried matching 2 to 3 but none was suitable. She then told me to call my cabdriver so she can explain the way to the market as fetching readymade petticoat from the nearby market was the only solution. As we reached the market, I immediately started to flock from one shop to another asking In Punjabi, ‘virji, shimmer da blue petticoat chaida hega?’(brother, I need shimmer petticoat in blue color). One sardarni in Punjab and what waste if she doesn’t apply her Punjabi charms and put Punjabi tadka in her speech. Sabko pata chalna chaie, Delhi ki sardarni in Punjab now (everybody should know that Delhi’s Punjabi girl is in Punjab now). The shop owner replied, ‘bhehenji, us dukan to milega’ (sister, u will get it from that store). After flocking 2 to 3 stores finally I reached the right store. ‘Virji, shimmer da blue petticoat hega?’


‘Yes 1 minute…’, ye yippee… he has it he has it he has it!!!!! However from the far corner I could see him bringing the unstitched cloth,,,, ohh no, ‘I don’t have time for this. The marriage is in another half an hour and I have to rush get ready and reach the venue on time. pls get something which is already stitched,’ pat came my reply. The shopkeeper apologized as he didn’t have anything stitched L I requested him if he could stitch the petticoat in another 5 min and this was his reply …. ‘Hahahahahahaha, you must be joking’. After he was finished with his laugh, I asked him how soon could he be able to stitch the petticoat. He said, 1 hour… I don’t have time… ok half hour…. no 20 minutes….. The shopkeeper agreed finally… hhhooooo. I was bargaining on time as if I was standing in some fruit market arguing on apple and mango prices.

My eyes got glued to the wall clock watching every inch of the minute and seconds hand. 

My heart was pounding with each moving hand. 06:00 pm, 06:05 pm, then 06:08 … 06:12… time was running very fast and I was getting numerous calls from Ramya to come back soon. As the clock showed 06:30, I became frantic and got up from my seat to ask for the status and suddenly the owner (virjee, brother) handed me the packet of my stitched petticoat…. Ohh thank you so much. You are no less than a God to me. I could not wait to reach the parlour now. Hastily, sat in the cab, reached the parlour (very crowded by now with lot of weddings on the same day), got into my attire and sat on the available seat for my hairdo and make up. Quickly we got everything done and asked the parlour lady to bring our bill. We were not very happy with our makeup and hairdo still we thought to leave from there as we didn’t have any time left for alterations and the lady was doing a hash hash job on everyone due to the overload of customers. 


The boy then told us the bill amount, ‘it is 6.6’. We asked, 6.6 per head?? (we thought its Rs 660. that is so reasonable). He clarified its for 3 of you (my goddddd, I will always come to Chandigarh for beauty parlour, Rs. 660 is so great). Then again he clarified, watching our glorious faces, ma’am its six thousand six hundred. Our glorious faces turned to gloomy… hawa nikal gai (voooooooffffoooo). We would be bankrupt now for paying a bill of Rs.6600 for this shoddy job. 

Anyways we paid hurriedly accumulating all our chillers (pennies) and left. Reached the venue obviously late, ate snacks (damn hungry), clicked pictures (want to milk our money as much as we can coz we knew that we paid a huge amount) and met the couple (joked with jijaji and teased the friend). Things finally were falling into place except that it was so cold and we were scantily clad (wearing cut sleeves backless saris :O). Its ok, fashion is also important.

Ohh it was so cold that we were literally shivering and half of the area of the wedding was in open. After having dinner all we wanted was a warm blanket and a bed to sleep.




JHATKAS ARE STILL NOT OVER. THE BIGGER ONE WAS STILL WAITING FOR US.

Jhatka no 4: 

Time to go, we called our cab driver to come at the entrance gate to pick us for the hotel. (A reminder: he has been excellent till now during our trip in taking us to all the right food joints and hurriedly helping us in picking our luggage’s etc., so options were bleak that he will put us in any kind of trouble). He didn’t answer the call. We thought that he must be somewhere away from the phone and so he will call back in 2 minutes. 10minutes passed and no call back. We called him again and still no answer. We called thrice and still no answer. Ramya, me and Pooja started to make him unlimited calls, redialing his number again and again with no answer. The scene was same until the clock showed 12.30 am and we started to call him at 12:00 am. Ohh shits… what is happening yar. We didn’t want to disturb Ananya’s brother because of this foolish thing and they have been already doing so much for us without us even asking. We went to dinner area to check for him where we last saw him. We went to all other places but he was nowhere to be found. Wearing high heels and saris made it difficult for us to walk so much. 


We kept on calling him as our luggage with our night clothes were lying in the cab itself. Then after awhile I realized that my wallet is also there in the cab. After few seconds, Pooja also made a confession that her jewellery is also there. Its not like that we are doubting him but you never know… anything could be possible at that moment. These last minute confessions made us worry even more. We also had to wake up early to reach Chandigarh on time to catch our return train. We were tired, upset, sleepy and shivering in cold.  


Time was running out and we would not be able to get a proper sleep in order to wake early. Without our stolls, and night as black as coal, we started to feel colder with each passing minute. We went to parking area to check for our cab if the driver could be sleeping inside but to no avail. It was 1 hour of searching that we gave up. We decided to call Ananya’s brother and asked for his help. He immediately called another cab and instructed the driver to drop us to the hotel. Thank god, atleast we could remove our sandals and would be able to get inside the blanket now. As we reached, we started to get even tenser as our bags were still in the car. We again tried to call the driver and this time finally he picked the call. Hello Madam, yes I am coming at the entrance. Ramya scolded him and told him to check number of missed calls on his cell. He apologized and said, ‘Madam meri aankh lag gai thi (madam I slept)’. We didn’t say anything else to him as we were glad enough that atlast he picked it. We told him to reach the hotel soon as we didn’t have any other clothes other than the one’s lying in the cab.

Me, Ramya and Pooja (typically prim, naïve and movie buffs who are charmed by prince charming coming on horse type stories….) said, “Please God, ab aur koi excitement mat dalna is trip mein, boring krdo is trip ko ek dum” (Please God, don’t put any new excitement in our trip, make it as boring as possible) – famous Kareena Kapoor’s dialogue from Jab we met movie… 


My story ends here coz seriously nothing happed after that. Rest of the journey was usual without any jhatkas as happens with rest of the world. We reached home safely after that too without any hassle. But all three of us experienced various moments of fear, shock, dilemma, disappointment, annoyance, betrayal, deceive, miserable at the same time feeling excited, cheerful, happy, emotional and spirit of friendship in a single trip which has made a casual trip to an unusual one.


No comments: