17th june, 2009

We had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the train to reach Calcutta- 2 nights and 2 days in the train - the sweat and the stickiness and the heat, it seemed like a never-ending journey. We met a very varied bunch of folks in the train, most of who had gone to CMC,Vellore for medical checkups all the way from north-east . Our weekly express from Bangalore to Guwahati went via Chennai and Vellore To kill time and divert attention from the hotness of the heat,we tried playing dumbcherades, antakshari, book cricket, cross and knots and all those long forgotten childhood games using a  pen and paper  :) As we entered West Bengal the weather started getting better. We ate the local favourite - ‘moodi’ which was puffed rice with sarson ka tel, being sold by local vendors. Tasty. And then there were  traditional ponds near all the huts made of mud and thatched roofs(These huts are made by using the mud that comes out of digging a pond where pisciculture can later be practised. Effective or what!!).Bengal is green.
Meanwhile we were constantly talking to Mina di and Shruti’s mum to find out how to get to Baruipur. We seemed to be  getting indefinitely delayed with halts at random stations to let other trains pass by.When we  reached  at 6.30 in the evening it was  raining pretty hard- a huge relief from burning Andhra!A cab was waiting for us at the station, the poor driver had had to wait for 7 hours. Unfortunately, the relieving rains mad it futile for us to even try to travel to Baruipur which was two hrs away, where even if we reached, mina di wouldn’t be available . So we decided to spend the night at Shruti’s. After that 44hr long journey in that burning iron box; home with clean bathrooms and good food…just couldnt get better. We were done cribbing about the journey, looking forward to Nishtha the next day