I Never Loved The City!

I remember when I was in school, I had a habit of saying my school was worse than others’ because of some useless comparison. When I left the school I had tears in my eyes like everyone after cursing it for years. The bottom point is many of the times we realize the values about something after we lose that thing. Same principle can be applied when I see my current city of residence that is Trichy!

Two and half years back when I got an admission into National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli, the first thing I entered into Google was ‘weather’ of Trichy. Alas, not a single result gave me a satisfactory answer. Some quoted it is just unpredictable. Yes, it is. One cannot predict when there will be rains or when exactly you need to use your blankets. Thanks to my dad’s working place, Indian Bank, that I had an opportunity to visit more than twenty cities before coming to Trichy. I have memories of all the cities like the regional food or some specific places there. But I am sure that when I will leave this place I am going to forget about everything in few months, because I never felt special about anything here.

When our super seniors visit our college they feel nostalgic and get senti about the life in Trichy, though I am sure that their life also sucked here like mine. But few days back I was sitting jobless and a thought crossed my mind that it is going to be like my school, I will also feel nostalgic when I will leave Trichy. So I tried to count memorable things about Trichy and I found a lot of things. I still laugh when I pass this place called ‘Malakkoil’ on our way from college to railway junction where there is a temple on a small hill. When I was coming here for the first time with my dad, I only heard that there is a very famous temple here called Rockfort. I considered Malakkoil as rockfort when I saw it, later I found out that rockfort is ‘Malakotta’, temple on a big hill. We have one more popular temple called Srirangam, rather it’s a city in itself. I visited it for the sake of photography but was really surprised by its space. I wondered how many Hiranandani’s or Lokhandwala’s can be built there.

I can’t forget the nights when I sleep with fan speed at maximum and wake up at minimum, sometimes a blanket on me. All the IITs have dhaba in there outer premises, it can be found in every other novel by any IITian. We also have four-five dhabas outside and four canteens inside campus, but still we have been to almost all the restaurants of the city, no matter what they serve. And let me tell you I never ate ‘ghee roast’ before, this discovery definitely belongs to Tamilnadu. I never had traveled twenty three kilometers by bus in just four rupees. Sometimes in my first few months we just used to take a bus in search of new place for dinner. Last but not the least Trichy and its people’s affection for English. Perhaps it is because of tourist places, but almost everyone understands some English and it always reminds me that English is truly a business language for Indians! Still I will say I never loved the city and will never love but I have started liking it.

The story of a missing ticket!

I still remember the date. It was an usual sunny day in May 2012. I was just packing my bags for the two months long summer vacations. It was also the end of my first year of engineering. I just wanted to run away from Trichy considering two things, one I was no more a junior after that day and secondly I was never a victim of forty five degree Celsius of temperature before. Packing was one of the tough job for me because my mother used to help me in such things.

I came to remember to buy some necessary things and some snacks at the last hour. Also I had to take the printout of my ticket. Though Indian railways had allowed the sms tickets from that month, you should have a backup in India as unexpected things were always waiting for us. I rushed to shopping center and got those things. When I reached at hostels, the cab driver was already there dialing my phone number again and again. Tamilians are born punctual and I had to install the ‘punctuality’ in my system later. I had only five minutes to get my all things if I wanted to reach the railway station on time. My roommate was not there in the room. So I took one paper and wrote greetings to him and sticked it on the wall and left the hostel after fifteen minutes.

The cab driver never stopped blabbering and it was actually scaring me that I would not make it. The traffic accelerated my heart beats. There was an announcement of my train when I reached. I kept the change with the cab driver and hurried towards the platform. The AC coach was too far to take chance. Hence I got into one of the sleeper coaches and started to move only after the train started to run. First I thanked my luck for getting me into the train. Finally I reached at my allotted seat and I settled the luggage. The TT came after two hours to check the tickets. I proudly took out my smartphone and showed him. He gave me a dirty glance and started blabbering in Tamil. I requested for the English and he explained me. The pan card number registered for the verification was wrong. Obviously it was! As the ticket was booked by my friend and he would have entered his number.

The TT agreed to allow me in the train only if I submitted the print copy of the ticket as a token of proof. I breathed deeply and opened a pouch to give him the ticket. Unfortunately the ticket was not there. Again I received the dirty look! He gave me some time to search the ticket till he finished all the checking. I took more than a hour but the ticket was nowhere. I checked each and every corner. I tried to remember all the things I did that day sequentially. But I was damn sure that I kept the ticket in my pouch as I believed so. The TT came again and said that he used to meet people like me everyday who try to fool the system. My throat was cold enough not to speak anything. I convinced him a lot. But as usual Tamil people who are nothing but the masters of discipline are hard to melt. I agree that discipline is necessary in our life till it looks like a punishment. The TT told me that practically I boarded the train without a ticket. So I had to pay three thousand and five hundred rupees for that booked seat of mine. I counted the cash and it was only two thousand bucks. He offered me a seat in sleeper class with a sarcastic smile like he had succeeded to find out one more fraud. Again I moved all the luggage to sleeper class. I did not even have money to buy meals. First I finished all the snacks with me. Then I controlled myself from the smell of food from the pantry car which I used to hate usually. But It was tempting that day. One old couple shared their food with me in the night. I took their phone number to express my gratitude later.

Finally I reached my home and my mother cooked delicious dishes every day. But I could not forget the incident. The two months flew away shortly and I once again returned to college with three print copies of ticket this time. As I entered into my hostel room all the things were there as before. My roommate was yet to come. The message on the wall got my attention which I had written for my roommate. “Hey, enjoy your holidays and make them memorable. So that you can pass next four months in this hell by remembering the memories. Bye. Have a happy and safe journey!” I tore that paper and whoa!!

It was my missing TICKET!