Boarding the train to Calcutta (Kolkata)-an adventure!!

After our cleansing at the Triveni, we went to our hotel, packed for the journey. Of course we had meals etc. some where. I don't remember what we ate. But we were looking forward to homemade meals in Kolkata. (Rao's brother and sister-in-law lived there. Our taste buds were missing Andhra meals.)

As we approached the train station, many railway porters came running to carry the luggage. Some wore the red uniform of Indian railway porters. Others did not. After some negotiation, Rao hired a non-railway employee to carry the luggage. He was 20 rupees less than the others. We gave him the bogie and seat number details from our reservation. He left us and our luggage at a particular spot on the platform. (This was a common practice at any station in India. When it is time for us to board, they would come and do their job). We booked in an air-conditioned compartment. The train came and the porter came and we found out that we were at a wrong spot. Being a small station, the train would stop for a very short time. The porter rushed us and dumped our luggage in some compartment which was far away from our designated place. Rao should not have paid him. But he did. The train started to move. We were running to catch the train. I wasn't used to running like that. Rao just wanted us get into the bogie where our luggage was. After a lot of struggle (only few minutes) we got into the train. Rao moved our baggage piece by piece through the narrow doorways between the bogies. We followed him. I was getting breathless. As we finally approached the AC bogie, the entry was locked from the other side. Fortunately, the train stopped at a small station and Rao got off and entered the next bogie and was able to convince the security person to unlock the door for us at the next station. If we missed that opportunity and missed to occupy our seats within the next station, we would forego the seat - that was the policy. In the meantime, since we were at the wrong place, no where to sit, I had to stand near the toilets with my hand luggage. It felt like a very long time. I was so exhausted that I thought my pacemaker had stopped working.

Finally it was a happy ending. We entered our bogie at the next station.

The moral of the story - hire the railway porter only. Check with others about the location where your bogie approximately stops. (usually the magazine sellers or Tea/coffee stall owners are a good source).

I need to add another comment. The railway stations were horrible. A big variety of pollution. They were garbage dumps!!!
They had absolutely no civic sense!!

This was how the yatra/pilgrimage ended. We knew our visit to our family was going to be splendid. For all the three of us it was not the first time to that city. The next post is going to be about all the fun we had.