20 February 2012 (shivratri)
My brother and Dad was to come Patna and their arrival time
was by 4 o’clock morning. Yesterday night I couldn’t sleep well as i was very excited to go Chennai as government
employee, as this was my first job. So my eyes was red and burning more over
tension increased due to not arrival of brother and dad at given time. He was
to bring my documents required at the time of joining . I tried his phone but
his phone was switch off . I got very anxious and worried. What has
happen. The distance from my village to
patna is of 12 hours, but recently bridge in koshi river was opened and made
distance shorter by 5 to 6 hour by the route of dharbhanga. I was little bit
tensed, just moving two and fro in room from window to bed. Suddenly his phone
ringed , i asked him what happened bro..? where are you..? he replied iam near
mahendru post office will be in room within 5 minute. I felt relieved then.. After
sometime they arrived and we had lot of arrangement to make. We did our usual work
and started to prepare for going.. To get exact location where my office
is in Chennai i went to cyber cafe..searched google and came to know that it is
just 15 minutes distance from Chennai central. I noted all information from
google map.
My train was at 8 o’clock and distance from my room to station was of 20
minutes but the traffic of Patna is very
busy and disorder i cannot take that risk and 5;30 we started from house. My
brother’s friend vineet called him and told i will also meet you . I told ok
will meet at station.. That day there was no rush in traffic and we reached
station very soon. We came to know that train is 1 hour late. Oh no .! i had to
wait at least 3 hour there.
PATNA JUNCTION
We kept
sitting at platform no 1 Now my dad was expressing unhappiness about why should
I go alone in a big city like Chennai, how will you go there and make your all
arrangement..? In that 2 and half hour dad wqs trying to convince me that I
should n’t go alone you must take me or Mukesh (my small brother) with you as
it is your first time. But i was
obstinate. In middle my cousin Bhanu called he also told me you should not go
alone there. You will face many Problem and you cannot deal it alone.But I did
ot yield to their pressure, i said no Iam going alone nothing will happen to
me. Why to worry. As i have 2nd class AC ticket And Ac coaches are
quite safe compared to other compartment.
Sanghmitra express has arrived at platform no 1.announced. suddenly there noise increased and everyone was busy to
board the train. I also boarded the train....
Now my heart started to beat very hard. My mind started to ask question
to itself....what are you doing,? Where are.you going..? After this you will
not be able to live and enjoy life as it was here...Any way i controlled
it but my eyes was filled with tears . I
was about to cry..!But i couldn’t drop out tears in front of dad because i knew
if single drop of tear felt out than dad is not going to allow me to go . Just
got down on seat i told dad now you can go . Iam fine and need not worry my brother
touched my feet i gave him blessings.
And i also touched feet of my dad and gave blessings. My dad got down
from train and sat infront of my compartment outside..i was watching him...his
eyes was also filled in tears.....but what this is life...!I i said you can go
now but dad replied in negative and said let train depart. It was very painful moment ...of my
life.....within few minutes train started and I started to cry internally and
feeling helpless. Anyway i controlled my self.
While i was arranging my luggage as
my birth was upper a man whose birth was upper just behind me asked where are
you going i told him Chennai..? Again
questioned why ? i replied single
word....job! again asked private or government
..i replied central governemt..but by my expression he understood that this is my first trip to
Chennai....
Though i was
not interested in him but as formality i also asked his whereabouts and came to
know that he was going banglore and he
is resident of Kolkata...further he asked me what salary will you get..! i told
him approx 20k...i don’t know what he thought but i felt he thought it is to
low...and gave me a piece of advice that...chennai is very costly city how much
will you save there..is it beneficial to go that far distance....
I old him that i need not save money just i wanted to stand
on my feet and going to prepare civil services exam..Iam not
from poor family just middle class....and i have no pressure from my house to
save money.....Again he adviced me you should give some part of your salary to
your mother.....i felt irritated......because what was he thinking of him
.....i understood....i did n’t reply ..keept quite and started to keep luggage
below meanwhile a boy and a girl
came to our compartment and agrued with that man on exchange of seat. Well he
nodded positively and went to next compartment.. Now i felt hungry as it was
time to dinner..but i was feeling shy to eat alone in that compartment. .so
finally i decided to go for sleep....than immediately a boy asked me it is to
early and will you not have dinner. I replied in negative.. I took out my novel
wings of fire..As pages by pages i was reading the book i came to know that
this book will give me some information about Tamilnadu as APJ abdul kalam was from South After short time ticket examiner
came and asked ticket to each of us i took out my pan card to show him but he
was not interested to see my id just he was eager to see my e ticket and ticked
on it. From side a girl hinted me that its ok you can keep your id. I kept it
and. just don’t know when i slept i ....While travelling we don’t
sleep as at our house. Always cautious
and whenever any person entered or noise was heared we get up as at that time our ear is as sharp
as street dogs.
.........................Suddenly an old man entered our compartment and cried a you get up
this is my seat...lady immediately woke up and left the seat...i understood
that seat below my was not of that lady..it was of that old man he arranged his
luggage.....pushed my red trolly by side...i kept watching..but i pretended to
sleep.....after that old man slept....i did not know which station was that but
time was 3 o clock Am..might be Allhabad (i guessed)
If i know any person well than iam very talkative and he
cannot bear me but if someone is strange that iam very reticent. Also iam very
amiable and i like to dissolve with everyone very quickly. Night we didn’t talk
much with all guys as they all were strangers and just all time i was thinking
of Chennai..how to go there what to do there where to live....these where
question which were moving round in my mind...
21..February
I woke up 6 ‘ o clock morning....As i follow the rule of
early to bed and early to rise. Got down arranged my bag properly took out
brush become fresh and climbed back to my seat. As i didn’t take my dinner
night i felt hungry, i took out snacks which mom gave me for way..it was
khajuri ( sweets made in bihar) and nimki (salty item made in bihar) ate and laid on seat. 8 o’ clock a boy
infront of me and girl below him got up
..I also descended down and sat near old man he too go up ..After all become
fresh we slowly started to talk each other......A boy gave his introduction as
Rangnath Mishra.....from katihar..i asked what are you doing he
told iam pursuing BCA from katihar DS college...i asked him mishra or misar
as in north bihar it is misar and in up
it is mishra.....he told me that yes it is misar but written as mishra....so
whatever it is ok....and from side a girl introduced as a Reshma sinha.....pursuing computer engineer final year..in
Chennai resident of Gaya(Bihar).
Rangnath asked about me i told iam Rajesh kumar jha. From supaul.just then he said what a co
–incident jhaji’s and mishraji’s is here both from mithila belt..of bihar..
..mean while uncle introduced himself as Ahmad khan from Banglore Karnataka. Well here was on election duty as
iam engineer and works with EVM
machine....Uncle told us as you both are Brahmin....tell me what actually
Brahmin means...
Rangnath hinted me to give me views...i hesitated to give
answer as i fight shy of discussing religious matter in public but Rangnath was
bold he started Brahmin means Brahma,
Brahm, who is learned and able to give knowledge...His only purpose to chant
Vedas mantras.....who knows Brahma Gyan...
But uncle was not quite satisfied with answer and he elaborated
it in deeply. Similar discussion was on many religious topics. The series of
question and answer, jokes was going on. Then we came to know that khan uncle
is a great story teller. He used to act while saying stories, he used to give
facial expression, action in a such way that it seemed that actually it is
going to happen. I will describe one story which he told us. I may not be able
to create same environment and may not be able to write same word to word as
uncle said but i have tried my best as per my memory power, here is the story.
“The road was lonely, it was cool morning. Gust of wind was
blowing and i was walking on straight path ..the path was very straight..slowly
and slowly i was moving forward .....Suddenly i saw ...beauty...amazing...wonderful....mind
blowing...wow!...It felt like i was in heaven..i slowly and slowly moved and
moved beauty was coming close and close to me . I was very excited and what a
sight it was....iwas thanking to god....nearer and nearer that beauty
came.....it was very close to me ...closer and closer it became and passed me
... I kept watching and wondering there.... . I went home told that like that
beauty..i love .....please dad have talk..that is everything for me..i will die
without........is my dream. Dad told him
ok i will fulfil your wish but there is condition you have to bring first class in your board exam...Boy was
excited to have.....he started to labour hard and hard.he studied day and
night....and finally the day of result declaration came and he got first
class...and dad fulfilled his wish ....there is ..son saw..expressed
beautiful....wonderful....my dream ....my everything...my love...yes
...yes...this is...my love herohonda moterbike.!
Let me tell me one thing when i saw first Rangnath and Reshma i thought they are couple...but later on
while interacting with them i came on conclusion that they might be good
friend..ie bosom or colleague. But after
introduction i became confused i mean
how they are friend ....let it be i will deal on this later part ...mean while
there came a boy don’t know what to address him he was in IRCTC and giving
blanket and pillow to passengers....initially i thought that he was with
rangnath as he was very close to him but after sometime rangnath said just i
came to know him on train and he we are youngsters and friendly we allowed to
seat with us.. When he heard that Reshma is from Gaya....i saw a brightness in
his eyes...he was quite interested in her..he further increased conversation
with Reshma....as .....i (that boy) also live in Gaya..my ancestoral village is
in gaya and presently in patna. Where do you live in gaya.....i don’t remember
all the part of conversation but that ward boy was very interested in here .
Triple R (Rajesh,Reshma,Rangnath) uncle used to address us....we three were
very amicable and as was khan uncle..we dissolved in each other..Rangnath used
to play song. He had fine collection of song , which we all liked very much and
uncle ofter used to praised rangnath for that...just chating was going on than
that ward boy entered in our compartment again he was good looking boy but had
gloomy face and was sad with his life. Always he used to blame to his fortune
for his miseries. He started to narrate his story. He told us that he don’t
want to see his father. He hates him very much though his father used to call
him and requested him to be back at home but he didn’t like his dad. It thought
that he thinks if he is not going his house than he is punishing his dad.
Everyone will praise him. We tried to persuade him that you must go home. Khan ucle told him that forgiveness is all
than precious things in world. Forgive him he is your father not you are his.
You must yield. Dont be obstinate, we all suggested him many phrases and idioms
were used to make him understand
but sadly no effect on happy.. Also our joyous moment converted into gloomy
environment..moreover when he said that his mother is dead and father doesn’t
cares him i had sympathy for him....but while he described all the circumstances we came round that he
is wrong some event has occurred but he has to leave it , forgive it and move
forward but he was obstinate.
Suddenly we arrived big station i don’t remember which
station was that might be vijaywada that
ward boy went to look for other passenger. We had our talk again uncle started
to say sher and sairies (poems and
proverb) Rangnath mishra was very
comfortable in ser and sairies. He use to give quick and proper answer of all
the question hidden in uncle sher&sairies..i and reshma was not very
comfortable in that but some time very little but spoke...but reshma
never...uncle told that reshma is miser girl he only wants to take with us and
she don’t like to give anything...she is miser in chating....She refuted no
uncle iam not...look that rajesh he is also not responding he is also miser but uncle supported me and said no he says
sometime very little but speaks..and also he is child...again reshma refuted
and said no uncle actually i don’t know sher and sairies.... whole environment was cool and we were
enjoying ....when day passed we didn’t know. It looked like as we were at home.
In that compartment only ours was chattering, gossiping, talking
loud..singing,, having fun.
Khan uncle said he liked Bihari. He also praised our hardworking,
honest welcome attitude. He also said one poem he made regarding bihari....i
don’t remember it now... He narrated some of incident of his stay in Bihar
during election. He was little upset with the people of up as some has not
treated well with him. I asked him one question as this question was in mind
from quite long time and was not getting proper person to ask such type of
question.. The question is......uncle as
there is rumour everywhere created by media and some of loosing candidate of
political organization...that EVM machine can be tempered....is it possible..? Uncle gladly replied that yes there is rumour
about tempering of EVM....but i work in this department with EVM and i know
that EVM cannot be tempered there was many objection.....them to clear this a
team of engineers and scientist from
many abroad countries such as usa , briatin..germany..etc came on inspection..and randomly he selected
our EVM machine..and we gave him 1 month time period to temper it but they couldn’t temper it and finally declared
that our system is full proof and it cannot be tempered. Now from this
inspection we benefitted international organization certified our machine and
now we are importing to several other countries these services..
I got clear answer.Some of question which uncle asked us
which i felt very hard nut to crack ....one is...Head is tail tail is head u r
in the middle tell what your are?
We
started to solve this problem but this was not an easy task we exhausted our
brain but to avail nothing.Uncle gave us this problem and slept ( pretended to
sleep) We requested to him tell
answer...but didn’t reply we were tired.
And also we cant sleep without solving ....after long request uncle gave
one hint that is name of building....just then we started to give blind guess
we wondered in our imagination we started world tour of famous building i went
to Twin tower (USA) ,Affil tower (France) ,Burj(dubai) while others were
roaming in India Tajmahal, Redfort, Indiagate, Golden temple but non was correct. I have one bad habbit whenever someone gives
me challenging question i have sleepless
night, restless now what to do we
all were guessing....than again came that ward boy...said what is going on let
me know...Rangnath said no we want to sleep now .you can go ..suddenly uncle
got up and said that question to him solve it and Asked with Reshma to give pin
and pin up the cloth sheets so that he
cannot interfere..and also gave one more hints
that it is religious place...just then what..? we all started Imaginary
tour of religious places Rangnath went Amarnath,, jammu Kashmir..i went benaras
, allhabad...devprayag..and reshma..kanyakumari ..rameswaram and so on..no part
of country remained not only country international religious places such rome,
macca etc were also guessed.but none of answer was right. Finally i requested
uncle to answer it but uncle slept, now what to do Rangnath, Reshma both tried
to wake up uncle but he was not in mood to give answer as he wanted to sleep
cool and leave us wondering. This was a big riddle for us. Now Rangnath started
to plan “Ok wait you old man i will show
you morning, i have also many puzzle for you. I will ask you morning.” He then
discussed that puzzle with us and finally i took out my wings of fire , Rangnat
took out munshi premchand and Reshma the Geeta and started to read but we could
not concentrate on novel as question was moving around in our mind. Any how we
slept.
22 February
Morning got up became fresh now we were only 6 to 7 hour from destination. Two of us i and
Reshma was to go Chennai and two khan uncle and Rangnath mishra was to go
.banglore...We were first to be departed from train. So what now time was
moving .....we had little time..left compared to them.....i was viewing scenary
outside, i said to rangnath what a scene but in middle he intervened and said
no it is not as beautiful as Bhagalpur one...i said him ok but it is also not
too bad. We all are nostalgic and little bit prejudiced in related to our
native place but i think rangnath was little more. Mean while uncle came to us and we requested
to tell answer of last night riddle....he simply said answer is church......i
amazed.....great ...
Now rangnath asked his question to uncle tell the English
translation of Ram KO KHATA Hai and Ram ko JATA hai.
Uncle could not we were happy that finally we trapped
uncle..uncle was making eating ram ram
eat etc.....he said wait for a while i will smoke after than i will say answer
rangnath said( laughing) yes smoking increases mind power...as in north chewing
tobacco increases memory and know as BBC budhi bardhak churn.......Smoking is
band in public places...if caught ..fined...so uncle went toilet smoked and
came back and gave answer RAM HAS ACCOUNT. It was correct but how could uncle
give answer..? Rangnath guessed i think
uncle listened our conversation last night...as he was not sleeping just
pretending.
Yes it was right uncle said i was pretending and listened all
your conversation. I asked what about second question....he said don’t know
what mean is jata....i said that is grinding machine...up Rangnath making fun
you uncle in our north(showing horizontally hand round) pishing and pishing
this way and you in sound( showing vertically hand round) pishing and pishing
in this way but doing same thing grinding wheat to make flour....One more thing
Rangnath often used to say that Iam the second oldest here my age is 27 as he had brought voter id passport where
his age was 27.......truely it was not his
correct age....just than topic picked out about photo of voter id....all
showed true to say if you want to see
the actual photo of any person .....and worst.....photo of anyone than see his
voter id... uncle asked one question to us and said take it in positive way
don’t think of negative..question was girls have two round thing left and right
when se moves both moves while walking
what is that...? i guessed rings of ear...but uncle said that no it is not
rings of ear not always round...finally uncle said answer that Bangles in both
hand..
Khan uncle his very friendly. He Adept in language he knew many language ..Initially we thought
that he is from up or bihar by facial looks...and language..he was using but
after introduction we came to know he is not
. Rangnath said you oldman you can adapt any where in country. You will
not be in any trouble anywhere in country.
Than uncle asked us how many of you can speak your language fluent
,pure,errorfree, i kept silent, Rangnath replied no one in world no one can..we
all speak impure......our toung has adapted to such error language...so Uncle
replied i can i can talk my mother toung absolutely correct .. But how to test
that....Rangnath said hey you man don’t joke
ok here i don’t understand your language..whatever you will talk we will
have to accept whether it is correct or faulty....But uncle refuted allegation
and emphasized that i can ..we finally agreed with him.
As
everything was going fine ward boy came back again with gloomy face and said i
want to commit suicide. Please uncle tell me way...i want to die. Iam tired of
this life. Now environment changed just we was bearing him anyhow..just that
everyone started to inform about there birthday...18 april my birthday reshma
said...i replied yours is fools month and laughed....mine 5 february already
passed...and i don’t remember birthday of rangnath and uncle i don’t know they
said or not...or might be we didn’t discussed on that much...but there comes
uncle message ..uncle called ...tweeted
something and at last said I do...I understood that uncle is having chat with
his wife and final words might be I love you and uncle I do...i guessed but
when asked with uncle he said all about there story....i thought what a good
couple...uncle also told that he have one son working with arlines company
, and smallest daughter to whom he loved
very much and grand sons and grand daughter....i might be wrong here i could
not remember properly.........
Uncle
also told us that how was condition in his days how he struggled and finally
today he is at this place and leading a successful life...I don’t want to write
about his personal life what little he described us as that is his personal and he may not wanted
to share that with everyone. I learnt
many thing with his life of struggle and came on conclusion that now its our
turn.. One more thing i liked that about knowledge of mother tongue with
accuracy . Really unless we know our mother tongue how can we expect
others to regard our language..
Our Launch came hurriedly i had my launch ..was getting ready ...
We entred South early morning...from vijyawada and further
everything changed people , culture, environment, language....
Here on station i saw beautiful ladies, young girls in
beautiful south attire and having flowerband (
known as phul ki gajara in north)
which was compulsorily. Rangnath mishra told me that in south keeping flower
band is famous . .it looked so attractive.
After than uncle said i will show you one magic he took out
one coin and inserted slowly and slowly in his arm and it vanished ....i was
surprised where the coin has gone i
asked uncle how you did it...but said it is magic...and after some time hi
pulled my nose and took out coin from my nose ... great magic...
Rangnath palyed one song in which it has world Reshma oh
Reshma...this was very famous song uncle also liked it...i told Reshma don’t be
so happy Reshma is famous dacoit of India...are you a dacoit.....just she
laughed...
Now reshma said we are very close to Chennai station so take
out your goods..and where you wanted to go call your friends...called one
friend he said go to your department first now iam in office ..i called PDCAMAB
Chennai sir i came to Chennai....what to
do now sir replied no need to come now your any work will not be today...better
come tomorrow...
Then we started to exchange our number..i gave emai id to
them they gave to me ..i wrote in
Rangnath‘s book...he was irritated that
why i wrote in book.....i said that this is my old habbit i do write in book ... give me yours in my
book i said ...Reshma also gave her
diary i gave to her my mail but i dared
not to ask her number.
Each of three had novel for this journey ...but we could not
complete it as ours journey was going to be a part of novel...not famous novel
but for me this is a novel .This was my maiden journey.
Suddenly my phone malfunctioned...it was not working nothing
was it showing i got shocked....what to do now. Now I am 3 thousand kilometre from my home town
and here i do not have any contact some contact which i had due to
malfunctioning of phone i lost it i could not call anyone what to do.!
I kept quite...i said uncle again please give me number in
written...huged uncle and came down.. large platform of Chennai central.....now tears started to roll
from my eye as i was leaving such good companions till here God was with me in disguised
form(uncle)..but now what to do no phone ....only....i......in this city....i
hugged to uncle and Rangnath in platform controlling my emotions....as i...
We both (Reshma and I) took our bag and started to leave
station as everything was new for me i was following her........she asked me to
go roadway...there you can get necessary transport to go your
destination...outside the station of Chennai there was huge crowd....i asked her
can i get telephone booth here.....she said not.....i didn’t asked her to give
me phone i will have to call someone......but what.....i said nothing kept all
in my heart....i told her it is ok you can go....now i will have to struggle
here ..
And what struggles starts here........bounty of problems
faced at station...roaming here and there my searching phone booth and
searching bus no....to go ....thinking where to go...what to do .....because no
one is to come here no w to co operate me......
CHENNAI
To be
continued..........................................................
Mid noon Probably 1:30 was the time ..I arrived Chennai
Station. It was very hot here completely different climate compared to north.
As in North we were facing severe cold and with contrast here it was extremely
hot and humid. Every thing was strange for me here. As i heard about south Indian that they are
dark skinned and compulsorily they keep long moustache and it was true. I
followed Reshma as i didn’t know any
thing here . She took me to exit gate and asked if any help you required...as
she was about to complete her sentence i nodded my head in negative and she
told me ok! I will take an auto from here.....and she departed.......
Now
here starts my struggle in completely unknown city,completely unfamiliar
culture and language...I was unable to take any decision ..and stood for one
hour thinking what next step to take.. I was panicked ..nervous...My innver
voice started to say me you are 3000 km away from your home town...alone...how
will you make all arrangement here....you have no phone...no address except of
department....friends on whom you counted have deceived you...these questions
were puzzling me...finally i decided to go out from platform and find out any
STD Booth . As i steeped out i saw heavy rush of vehicles and it was quite
impossible for me to even cross road here And Stood there and
started to think what to do.. I had address o fmy department in my
Pocket. This was only thing which i know here. I stood 45 minutes there
thinking what to do next and started to walk here and there. 5 to 6
time i moved too and fro carrying my
luggage in platform . Many person started to stare me suspiciously . Then i
remembered my one of my friend who had
told me that whenever you get confusion ask with policemen. I took my envelop
on which address was written and showed policeman he looked it and said nothing
instead went to his colleague and consulted with him but to avail nothing Sadly
i took my envelop.
In front of Chennai central station
there is bus stop , many buses was arriving and departing..11m,11d,29..18c
etc..... I started to ask about bus no..to take to go my destination but i came
to know that there is many person like me..they too were strange here.. i met
with one student he too was roaming here and there , I asked him he replied me
that he too was new here but will help me as some of his friend is coming.
After a while his friend arrived as he was in bus and he also rode the bus and
gone i kept looking. Now i become
nervous more than two hours has elapsed kept wondering what next..? now also
panicked...I controlled my self and said to nothing will happen u have the
world most important thing “brain” and ofcourse money. Be cool and take wiseful
descision. I thought that i will take any lodge and reside here nearby station
but suddenly something striked in my mind. I f iam not able to find address
today than of course it is no guarantee that tomorrow from here i will reach
the office in proper time once again i took my luggage and started to ......
