Vikas's Tid Bits

Naman’s First trip to Village

I am waiting for the connecting flight to Sacramento at Los Angeles Airport. I have complete 5 hours in my hand. I have finished my pending office works and have nothing else to do. So I thought of writing the memories of Mr. Naman Vikas Mishra’s first trip to his village.

We planned to visit the village for Deepawali festival. This is a time when most people take vacation to visit their families in village. So I also booked the tickets for my self, Sandhya (my wife) and Naman. All the trains were running full even 2 months before the travel day (Deepawali time is generally a rush time so its tough to get tickets even 2 months before). I booked the tickets in 2 – 3 trains hoping that at least one will be confirmed. Luckily just before our travel, the tickets got confirmed in one route. This was not the direct train but multiple hops (Bangalore to Chennai; Chennai to Kolkatta; and Kolkatta to Muzaffarpur)

2 days before we were scheduled to catch our train, there was heavy rainfall in South India with heavy rainfall zone being Bangalore and Chennai. One Dam got over flooded and the Bangalore – Chennai railway tracks got deeply immersed in the water. All train services got disrupted. Few hours before the scheduled departure of the train, we were notified that the train got cancelled. With the help of my friends (Deepa and Jayesh), I got the tickets in Jet Airways last flight for Bangalore – Chennai sector. When I was about to leave the office, I came to know that due to heavy rain all the Bangalore roads are flooded. I somehow reached the house. When we were scheduled to leave the house, the taxi company informed that they can not come as their taxi broke down due to heavy rain. Now what to do? There was no other vehicle available which can drop us to Airport. Finally I called up my friend Vinay 2 hours before the flight time. He too got stuck in heavy traffic. He drove too fast that day and finally managed to drop us at the Airport just in time. We were the last passengers to check-in at the Airport.

Well so we finally arrived at Chennai Airport where my wife’s cousin brother was waiting for us at Airport. We stayed at his home in the night and next day morning boarded train to Kolkatta. Train journey was pretty comfortable with Naman playing with all the fellow passengers. Next day we expected to reach Kolkatta by 1:00PM but train got delayed due to flood situation at Vijaywada & Vishakhapattnam. By the time we reached Kolkatta, it was the time for next connecting train to depart the station. We hired a coolie (porter) who helped us carrying our baggage to next train. With his help, after running from one platform to another, climbing the overbridge and making space through the people, we boarded the train just before its departure.

In the mean time, my sister Kajal came to see us with her Son Amrutya. Her son is a month elder to Naman. He was walking and it was good to see them after so long time. We just shook hands and said hello before the train left. We waived our hands to bid bye to sister and finally we were in our way to Muzaffarpur. This train also got delayed and instead of reaching in morning 3:00AM, it reached Muzaffarpur at 6:00AM. My father-in-law was there to receive us.

We came to know that there was heavy flood in Chennai and Bangalore and all the train & air services were disrupted. Luckily, we left just in time. Meanwhile the road condition in Sitamarhi was not very much promising. The bridge connecting two cities got damaged due to heavy rain and there was a huge traffic jam with all the trucks stranded on the road. However, we spent two days in Muzaffarpur and then started to go to Sitamarhi praying to God to make the road conditions better. The road condition was terrible with pot holes every 10m. We were not able to drive more than 10 -15km/h speed. When we reached the mid-way, we got stuck in the traffic jam and there was no way to get out of there before mid-night. So we decided to walk with the luggage and cross the bridge. We boarded a heavily jam-packed bus from other end of the bridge and finally made it to Sitamarhi by evening. We met my elder sister, brother-in-law and their two kids (vishal & shilpi). Naman also met his elder Grandpa. We did Diwali shopping in the night and next day morning left for village. We reached village by 9AM and finally Naman was in his village and met his elder Grandma and Great Grandmother. He also went and met the village goddess (Devi ji) and Family god (Gosai ji). The whole village had gathered in our house to see the family’s next generation.

posted by Vikas Mishra @ 8:42 pm