Nuances of a trip - I (The journey)

Some people have wheels(or wings) attached to them, which always keep compelling them to remain restless and search for even the slightest of opportunities to put them (wheels/wings) in use. And for such people opportunities come, but always with a difference. Bottom line is: its never really easy for a globe trotter to plan a journey with ease. Mine case isn't very different. Last 2 trips of mine(1 to Kasauli in June and other to Jaisalmer/Jodhpur more recently) have been like this. I wasn't willing to go to kasauli, but God had other ideas. And for Jaisalmer trip, I was an outsider in a group where only my sis was the one whom I knew. And more importantly, I was working like a maniac in my office even 1 week before the trip, and my chances of joining the group were almost next to nothing. But again, God had other ideas.

So it was just on the Wednesday morning(the trip was scheduled for Wed 01/10 to Sun 05/10) the day of trip, that I got my leave for Fri approved, and here I was on my way to Rajasthan(where I had previously never been). While leaving my Gurgaon home, I was having mixed emotions. The excitement of seeing "the unseens" was mixed with the caution of meeting "the unknowns". And the Traffic Jams before reaching the Old Delhi station were not helping my cause. Anyways, just in the nick of time i managed to reach the station, and went straight to my berth. My sis wasn't there, so I called her, and she said that she was buying some chips and cold drinks. Another girl was sitting on the opposite berth, and on seeing me, she asked my berth no. I obliged by telling 38, and the next moment she was asking me that if I could change my berth with seat no. 52/53, as they were a part of a group which was divided at 2 places. I was thinking how to respond, and then a guy came in and asked the girl about Supriya. This was the name which I was trying to listen from someone(Supriya - my sis), and then I asked them - "R u with Supriya?", which the girl listened as - "R u Supriya?", and she started murmuring something, but the guy heard it correctly and asked me - "R u Supriya's brother?" My nod in agreement meant that I didn't need to exchange the seat :).

The next person to come in compartment was Supriya. And then one more guy and girl came in, and the 6 of us were together.

Characters :

Supriya - My sis(or di, as I fondly call her).
Isha - The girl trying to exchange seat with me.
Ravesh - The guy who heard me correctly.
Rishi - A cool dude. My first impression of him was that he would make everyone laugh by his antics.
Deepali - A bindaas girl, giving company to Rishi (as Rishi had joined the trip due to Deepali - or Deeps as Rishi puts it).
Myself - A confused person, thinking of ways to get mixed up with "the unknowns".

And for the first 3-4 hours my Mute button was On, as I was trying to get the feel of things. Seemed like Isha, Ravesh, Deepali and Supriya knew each other really well(as was expected with some current and some erstwhile employees of the same Co.). And then after sometime, I had the first cup of my fav. liquid in this world(T) and a big(T)hanks to Isha for that, as she was the one who kept pestering each and every vendor passing from our compartment asking, "Bhaiya chaiwaala kab aayega"(When would the tea seller come)? and the reply she got was a monotonous one -"Abhi aa raha hai"(Coming in a while). And then we made an arrangement to have one more T after a little while. Though Isha backed out of the plan, I was determined to have one more cup, as I didn't know when would I get the next cup. And after having 2 cupsful, I was a bit more relieved.

Then after a while, we started playing cards. A game called 'laad', which was new for me, but I was lucky to be the winner of 1st round. But then lady luck turned its back on me, and I was last and second last the next 2 rounds. As is the case with all card games, u can't play them for long. We were no exceptions either, and soon we gave up. And then there was a drama between Rishi, Deepali and Isha. Deepali was in the middle and both Rishi and Isha were pretending to sleep on her shoulder. Situation became such that once Deepali held Isha by her neck. And that was a Kodak moment. Snap is with me :). After having all that fun, we went to sleep. And actually I had to go to 52/53, but not alone. My sis was there with me. We chatted for around an hour or even more than that, and then I slept like anything. Got up at around 9:30(Isha had exaggerated my waking up time in her blog), and yes, I was the last one to get up. And on getting up, I came to know that one auntie wasn't able to sleep well b'coz of our(di and mine) chat last night, and that she kept reiterating. After a count of 4, I moved to merge with the rest of the group(4 times in 10 mins... gosh..)

Then others had some breakfast in the form of Pakodas(not fair.. ) and T(I didn't had that since I was fasting for 9 days due to navratri, and hence had to first take a bath and only then have anything - Oh I forgot to tell, I was on fast, and had a companion in Isha). And then we had some innovative photo sessions - like 2 girls dying(well one was more natural, while the other wasn't serious enough to die). Then the one who was a natural, became a witch(by bringing all her hair in front, covering her face - did u really need to do that Isha :)? ), and started haunting the other one for not being a natural. Then the syndrome spread among all the girls, and lo, there were 3 witches there, and we all were looking for some ghostbusters. Then we clicked some more good innovative pics, and Rishi morphed them a bit, which made them look even better. Nice skills.

After a long wait of over 19 hours, we finally reached our destination - Jaisalmer Railway Station, where we took a pic of all the baggage which we had. It was manageable at that time. End of Part I.