Our train tickets said “boarding at CST”, so my folks insisted we go there to take the train instead of Dadar. Made sense since Granny cant take the fast pace and the climb up and down the overhead bridges at Dadar. We arrived at CST an hour earlier and Ruth and I entertained ourselves by making “assumed” character sketches of the people on the platform. It was really crowded so we had a field day. The station emptied out considerably once the Madras Mail train came in and pulled out.

Then came our train gliding on the tracks into the station. As usual there was a mad rush to get in. I don’t understand why people rush into the train when it is the starting point and the train waits for 20 minutes! Anyway we settled in and were off. We had berths one above the other. Ruth grabbed the top most one and Granny got the lower berth, which left me with the middle one. Did some reading and then tucked into the bunk and promptly fell asleep. But the sleep was not to be uninterrupted. Hutch and Airtel were determined to keep me up all night with irritating SMSs all the while. Finally switched off my phone and went back to sleep.

Woke up at around 7 to the morning sun. Was pleased to know that half the journey was done and we would soon be in Goa. Had my normal breakfast of upma – sheera and went back to my book. I called Ajay to check if they had arrived when I was promptly told that there was no electricity in the house and they called for an electrician who promised to be there by 2 (by Goa extremely stretchable time of course).

After what seemed like a million signals and stops we finally reached Thivim station and home.
Took a rick home to be welcomed by the two brave men who traveled by bus, by themselves and didn’t complain too much about the lack of power at home.

Aunty Fatima and Louisa came later.

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