“Adventurous Night”

For a person like me who has lived a totally secured life even a small excitement is equal to an adventure. And that’s how I see that night, which I call adventurous night.

It was 24th February. I and two of my hostel friends (Shilpa & Krishna) had gone to tirupur to attend a friend’s wedding. Our train was to leave at 1 p.m. from tirupur station and reach Chennai by 9 p.m. So after attending the marriage, we three went to station and found that the train was 1 hour late. Now that meant that we couldn’t reach hostel by 10 p .m. (the time we are supposed to be back in hostel!! We were so happy that first time we’ll be outside our campus after 10 p.m.J). The train actually came at 3p.m. only.

The train journey was going on quite smoothly till around 9 p.m. when the avadi station came. The train stopped in avadi though it wasn’t actually a stop. After 10 minutes of stop, all the passengers were wondering why we have stopped here for long time. After 20 -25 minutes, an announcement came that the train won’t go after this station and all the passengers are requested to get down from the train.

This announcement resulted in a chaos among everyone as we didn’t know the reason for this. And to make matters worse the train had stopped in the middle of thee tracks and to get down we have to practically jump. It was around 9.30 p.m. and suddenly avadi station was full of stranded passengers. None of us knew what to do. We three were wondering how we could reach hostel. Getting transport at this time of night was tough and none of us new the actual route to go till egmore. We didn’t know whom to call also for help.

After 10 minutes or so, again there was an announcement that a local train will come which will go to central station. To get into the local train was a major task as the platform was overcrowded with all passengers and that too having heavy baggages also.

Somehow all 3 of us got into the train. We were hungry and tired and hoped to reach central station soon. There was a talk in local train that some derailment has taken place near central station because of which other trains were also affected. We thanked god that nothing happened to our train. The train stopped in Basin Bridge and we three were making plans on what to do for dinner when we reach central in another 10 minutes. But then that was not about to happen. The train stopped in Basin Bridge itself. Again there was major chaos as some said the train will leave and some saying that the train won’t move.

Now, all three of us were pretty scared. It was 11 p.m. and we didn’t know what to do. Half the passengers were getting down from the train. There was a gentleman who was sitting near us. He went and enquired and then came and told that the train will not move from here. Our cell phones had also switched off as there was no charge. When we came to platform we didn’t know how to go from there to egmore. We came out of the station and there was not a single public transport. Roads were full of stranded passengers waiting for autos and all. The same gentleman was also standing there and we asked him about bus stands but he said it was a bit far away and to walk till there alone won’t be safe. My local guardian’s were out of station and the other two friends didn’t have local guardians as such. As our cell phones were not working we didn’t know how to contact our friend’s. The gentleman offered us lift saying he has a car which is going to come to pick him up. Initially we refused saying we’ll somehow go. His car came some 20 minutes later and in that time we saw that there was no way we could get any other transport. Many passengers, mostly families, were having some 1 to come and pick them up and all those vehicles didn’t have any vacant places. To make matters worse, at some distance there were a group of guys who had been eyeing us for a long time and we were getting very uncomfortable. Finally after giving thought about it, I told my friend’s that it would be better if we accept the offer by that gentleman as we had no choice. He looked very decent and we had to trust him now, though he was a stranger.

So finally we decided to go with him till central station and went to him hesitatingly. Just that time his car came and then we got into it. True to his words he dropped us till central station. From there we got an auto and finally went to our college around 12.30. The “wonderful” guards were sleeping and we had to wake them up by throwing stones and shouting. Finally they woke up and opened the gates and we got into hostel totally tired and hungry but happy that we were safe.

And hence in this way our adventurous night came to an end. Though my parents didn’t say anything about it, Shilpa and Krishna’s parents told that they will never allow both of them to go out like this from now on!!