Then tells Dad that the ticket has been booked. It's always Mom, I and my Bro. Dad always stays back. Those were the days before online booking and tickets were made of thick brown card boards in small rectangular shape. The first question on our mind is will we get window seat. Since it used to be me and my brother I used to greedily long for two window seats. But usually it will be one or none. As I grew I also wished there will be a girl in the near by seats. It even came true once but nothing much happened.
The next question that follows is which train it is? As each train has a different route. Is it Nellai/ Sethu/ Quilon? While Nellai goes through Madurai Sethu goes through Manamadurai. It was always Egmore and Central was a whole different world until we made a trip to Bombay.
We pluck the ticket from Dad's hand and look at it lovingly. The images all that's waiting flashes through. Sometimes the message is it is waitlisted or not available? These were always consumed with lot of pain but always we used to get the ticket somehow.
Now we get lost in the tentacles of the exam and each day is painfuly longer. Tamil, English, Maths, Science gets over and the last exam is History and Geography. While go through the dark corners of history and travel around geography of the earth using Ganga guide our mind always wanders to the date of travel. The day before the last exam is always longer than the other long days.
When we return after writing the last exam we are excited with two feelings. The first feeling is about enjoying the days till we travel and the second about the travel itself.
While we enjoy the week or so before the travel with the afternoon sun on our head and kuchi ice creams from the guy who brings the ice cream cart, we also count the days before we travel.
Then the packing starts by taking the suitcase which has been on rest and gathering dust since the last travel. This happens over a period of three days and we start wondering about what to pack for dinner during travel.
The day of travel arrives and its usually a Saturday and Dad has half day that day and the train timing is usually between 1600 to 1730 depending on the train. Dad is expected by 1300 but we do not see him till 1330 and those were the days we neither had mobile nor landline. We start waiting for him discussing anxiously what's delaying him. At last he arrives and atmosphere is electrified. You can almost touch the happiness and energy in the air. Fight between me and my brother on who will take the window seat starts.
All packed and set the journey to Egmore starts. We need to walk to Palavanthangal station to take the suburban train to Egmore. I don't remember the walk to Palavanthangal station but as the train nears Nungambakkam and we start seeing glimpses of long distance trains parked the excitement increases. As we near Egmore we can smell it in the air. There is always a pleasant smell associated with Egmore it hits you in a pleasant way.
We get down from the suburban train and wait till the crowd thins and take the steps to the long distance train station. The sound of announcements about the arrival and departure of trains hits your ears and we search for our platform and it is always the farthest. Sometimes we cross the tracks instead of taking the steps. Those days I don't remember the station being as crowded as it is nowadays.
One of the main differences between Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore in those days was the trains running from Egmore were meter gauge while the other was broad gauge. The meter gauge trains will not have that additional seat on the other side.
We reach our platform and the train is not in yet. In few minutes you can see the train being pushed into the station and you can see the last wagon with the X mark. It will always come in the reverse direction as this end is always dead end. It is a fantastic feeling to watch the train slowly coming to a halt. We wait for the coach numbers to be pasted into the coaches and in the mean time crowd thickens. While we walk towards our coach we look at the AC coach and the first class coach with envy.
Once we identify our coach we climb into the coach and search for our seats. The act of taking the steps by holding the two bars on the side is a memorable one. Once we identify our seats mostly disappointment will await us as we will not have a single window seat but when we do have one we will grin ear to ear. The suitecases are pushed beneath the seats and Dad slights the train the walks over to the window. We press our face against the window bar and try to take as much as possible of the station scene as we can experience this only after an year.
Those days the vendors will be pushing carts loaded with cool drinks, snacks and magazines. While they push the carts they will be shouting "cooooool drinksss" and make a "Trrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiing" noise by rubbing the bottle opener over the cool drink bottles.
Dad will buy one drink for us and usually it is Fruitnik mango flavored drink. We can also see ice creams, coffee , tea being sold. The sound of "Coffee/tea" will be so enchanting to the ears.
While we wait we can see a train in the other platform start.
We keep checking the watch to see how many more minutes pending for our train to start. There is usually a jerk when they connect an engine and that is a sign the starting time is near. Dad looks to the engine end and confirms "Signal potutan". We hear the whistle sound from the guard.
The train starts with a jerk. What a feeling it is. Dad walks along and we feel sad to see him not joining us in the journey. At some point he stops and we say "Ta ta" by waving our hands. He slowly disappears from the view point and we settle down comfortably to enjoy to the fullest what awaits for us in the summer of that year.
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