My Encounter with Demonetization @ Nov-2016 : Part 2 - Stuck in Udhampur without Money

 

Humble Request : Please read Part-1 of this Blog using the folloing link before starting this Blog :

https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2022/04/my-encounter-with-demonetization-nov.html

I had to spend just about 20 minutes outside Udhampur Railway Station when an Army Vehicle with a driver and a soldier (rank of Havildar) dashed into the scene and stopped just in front of me. After checking my ID and ensuring that I was the correct person they had come to receive, they took care of me and my bag to get into the vehicle and made a swift start. I realized that they had reached the Railway Station exactly at the time they were told to reach, and it was the train that had arrived 20 minutes before the scheduled time on that day.The Havildar told me that there was a small problem in the Officer's Guest House which I was supposed to stay and that they had made my arrangements in one of the rooms of Barrack for initial 2 nights.

Since this was my first visit to Udhampur and there were not many good options of hotels visible online, it was my choice to seek an accommodation within Army Campus. Although they had had ensured that I was the sole occupant of that room in the Barrack (usually shared by 3 soldiers), the toilet and shower rooms were common for 7-8 rooms and were about 50 feet away from the door of my room.I could hardly sleep for an hour when I was woken up by the sound of a morning parade on the grounds near the Barrack. Peeping out of the window near my bed, I could see about 60-70 soldiers making a beautifully orchestrated parade like what I had only watched in TV until that day.

Although the day for the soldiers start at early, the normal functioning of any Army Depot starts at around 8:30 am and Udhampur was no exception.Breakfast was served at my room at 8 am and I made a point to get ready exactly at 8:30 am and reach the gate of the Depot which was about 200 mts. away from my Barrack.

The Major welcomed me with warm gesture in her office and offered me a glass of Hot Water which was a surprise for me unless I later realized that everyone drank only Hot Water in that part of India during the winters.She assured me of all needed infrastructure and cooperation from her staff along with accommodation arrangements on nominal charges for the team of my Vendor which supposed to arrive there from Delhi in few days.

After formal discussions on the Project, being of same age group we spent some time discussing personal, social, and political matters (including Demonetization). After talking for about 20-25 minutes, I realized that her husband too was a part of Indian IT Industry, and she knew how challenging that Project was.

After we finished our tea, she took me to the Deputy Commandant (DC) of the Depot who was an officer with rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The DC was a jovial gentleman in his mid-forties from one of the most beautiful and unexplored states from North-East of India. He had his views with absolute clarity on all the topics surrounding the India and Indian Army that time including China, Pakistan, Defense Manufacturing and Demonetization. He also spoke on length about the upcoming Assemble Elections which included the Elections of his home state. He also told me about his retirement plans and ideas about the Business Ventures that he was going to take in his hometown post retirement. Today when I look back, I can easily say that those 30 minutes with the Lt Colonel were one of the most interesting 30 minutes of my entire experience with Indian Army.

Once I explained my plan to the DC and got his go ahead, I was given the permission to meet the employees in the HR/Payroll Departments which were the first to be brought into the new IT System which meant that they were the first who were supposed to get their data digitized with help of my Vendor.

Majority of employees in these Depots are civilians with whom I had to deal more often during the execution of my Project with Indian Army Ordnance (2016-2018) and the HR/Payroll Department was made up of 100% civilian employees across Depots who had their own good and bad perceptions on automation and implementation of ERP in their daily working system which was mostly manual or dependent on standalone PCs with Microsoft Office.

While walking about 200 mts. from the office of the DC to the HR Department, I got a call from my vendor who gave me a shocking news that they would not be able to deploy the team on next Monday as they are stuck with shortage of cash. This was the 1st jolt that demonetization gave me after being in the disciplined land of Indian Army since morning. Now it was my duty to persuade the Depot Staff and Officers about the eminent delay as things were beyond my control. On reaching the HR Department, I was again greeted with great gesture by the staff there which includes their Head Clerk who was another jovial gentleman from Jammu City. Before I could explain them the purpose and methodology and the eminent delay, they told me very clearly that they were not ready for the work to get started on next Monday and needed at least 3 more weeks to get their documents ready. With my Vendor already backing out from the original plan, I was more than happy to accept this proposal which I conveyed to the Major immediately.

Since the work was getting delayed for at least 3 weeks, there was no sense in staying anymore there. I booked a ticket for a next day train and decided to visit the town of Udhampur around 4 pm.I spent about 3 hours walking on streets and markets of that small town and got the first-hand experience of the impact of Demonetization on people's life. The first thing that struck me was that there was no unrest or panic anywhere on the streets. Within a day, people had accepted that the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 were to be deposited in bank. Most of the shops in market, except those selling grocery and FMCG items, were empty. I realized that most of the shops there didn’t accept Credit/Debit Cards and the whole trading ecosystem in Udhampur was running on cash until that day. Despite facing difficulties in their businesses, most of the traders looked happy as they felt that people with huge amount of 'black money' and unaccounted cash were going to get punished soon by our PM and that its just a matter of days when their businesses would be running normal in a country with a more transparent financial system under a strong PM.

 

I was dropped at Udhampur Railway Station by Army personnel at 1 pm on the next day i.e 10-November-2016 as my train was supposed to depart at 3 pm from Platform No 3. After paying the nominal charges at the Army Mess for my food for those 2 days, I was left with Rs 650 in my pocket which I thought were enough to take me back to Delhi. I spent another Rs 80 for tasty Rajma Chawal at the Railway Canteen just before entering the Gate at around 1:45 pm.

After clearing the tight security checks, I headed directly to Platform No 3 which was almost empty. The train which was supposed to take me was already standing there with all doors locked from inside as Udhampur itself was its originating station. As it was relatively warm with some sunshine in the afternoon and it was still about half an hour when they were going to unlock the doors of the train, I found a clean and cosy bench on the Platform and decided to lie down. I put my Laptop Bag under my head as a pillow and loosely tied the small suitcase to my left leg while I lied down comfortably facing upwards towards the Platform Shed. The mild breeze under sunny surroundings and comfortable temperature didn't make me realize when I dozed off.

 I woke up to a sound of a Train-Horn and a sound of a Helicopter flying at very low height coming from 2 directions simultaneously. As I focussed on the Helicopter n tried to see it clearly, I missed noticing that the Horn was being applied by the driver of train which I was supposed to board. Before I could turn towards the train and make any attempt to get up and move, the train had already started moving. By the time I was able to stand up with my bag and suitcase, the train had made a swift pick up and it went away from my sight in 15 seconds or so.

Long story made short, I was stuck at Udhampur with about Rs 570 of genuine Indian Currency with me and didn’t know what to do next.Without getting into panic, I searched for the next available train so that I could get out from there on the same day.

Unfortunately, no seats were available on that day and the earliest option I was getting was of the same train at 3 pm on next day. An Autorickshaw driver took me to a decent hotel named "Hotel Chanakya" for Rs 150. 

The Hotel Manager was very straight forward in his deal.I had to pay Rs 1500 a room for a night if I paid cash and Rs 1800 for the same room if I paid by a Card. Also, he told it clearly that the cost of the food was to be paid only by cash. And the final statement was that they no more accept the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

 I spent the remaining part of the day in the hotel and opted for the cheapest food that I could have for dinner that night.Next morning when my cash balance was reduced to Rs 220, I decided to visit the sole branch of ICICI Bank in Udhampur as I was a "Privilege Customer" for them since 2007.

As I walked for about 2 kms towards the bank, I again witnessed people getting normal into their daily lives and businesses without a single bit of panic visible anywhere. Once I reached the bank, I was surprised to see that there was not a single customer there while the TV channels were beaming pictures huge queues outside banks across India. Maybe, the people of Udhampur were still not comfortable with private banks like ICICI Bank.

The cashier made it very clear that they had run out of cash for that day already and they could only help me if I wanted to deposit the old notes of Rs 500 into my account. When I explained them my situation, the Bank Manager was very kind in telling me that a particular shop in that area could help me with cash with some commission if I made a swipe of my Credit/Debit card at his shop.

After depositing Rs 3000 (6 old notes of Rs 500) and still keeping 2 old notes with me, I went to that shop which the Manager had suggested. That gentleman was also very clear with his deal. I was allowed to make a swipe of Rs 1000 with my card for which he was to pay me Rs 700 in cash. He also offered Rs 800 if I gave him 2 old noted of 500 each. Without giving any second thoughts, I swiped my Credit card and gave him the 2 notes of Rs 500. He was happy to find a customer who didn’t make any bargain and immediately gave me 15 notes Rs 100 each. 

After spending about Rs 400 for a decent lunch, I hired an Autorickshaw at 2 pm and boarded my train comfortably. The journey to Old Delhi Station (official name “Delhi Junction – DLI”) was again filled with discussions among the passengers. But this time there was not a single topic apart from Demonetization. The hope of getting the Big Sharks with "Black Money" behind the bars and making India a country with more transparent financial system was apparent on the face of each Indian. Also, everyone was sure of India being a superpower in next 4-5 years under a very strong PM. Today as on June 2022, India is still to decide whether the Demonetization of November 2016 was a success or failure. Although this has faded away from public domain now, the memories of those 3 days will always remain with me and I hope this small Blog of mine remains active for future generations as one of the experiences of an average Indian citizen .

 

Note:

I made 6 more trips to Udhampur in next one year and mostly stayed at Hotel Chanakya or Hotel Dolphin and found both equally good.

During the initial 2-3 months after demonetization, I travelled to the following cities for Project or Personal work: Delhi, NOIDA, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Raipur, Pune, Pulgaon(Wardha), Nagpur, Jabalpur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Agra, Kanpur, Cheoki(Prayagraj), Lucknow and Udhampur.

•  I found that the impact of demonetization was least in the city of Jabalpur where the new notes of Rs 500 were available within 3 weeks in ATMs and everything was normal within a month.
• On other hand, I found that the impact of demonetization was highest in the city of Agra where the new notes were totally absent for at least 2 months in ATMs. Some Travel Agents in Agra were openly advertising to convert older notes/card swipes into new notes for a whopping commission of 40%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Encounter with Demonetization @ Nov-2016 : Part 1 - Journey from NDLS to Udhampur

 

Sometimes we are so engrossed in our daily life matters that we think that taking a trivial decision is going to put a massive effect on our life.We fail to understand that our very existence is very miniscule if compared to the overall system of the World and it’s not always the divine powers who can just make everything go for a toss, but also the Government that can just stun everyone beyond imagination.

 The decision I took on 08-November-2016 at around 5 pm was that to tell my Cab Driver to take me to the "Ajmeri Gate" entrance of the New Delhi Railway Station (Railway Code: NDLS) instead of the frequently visited "Paharganj Gate".

Those who have travelled to or from NDLS must agree with me that its one of the biggest pains in life while trying to get in or get out from"Paharganj Gate”. A glimpse of NDLS (from any gate or any platform or any angle) never gives us the impression that its actually the most important Railway Station in India with more than 100 Rajdhani/Shatabdi and other High-Profile Trains starting and terminating there every day.

NDLS neither has an iconic architecture like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai nor does it give a feeling of huge rail complex standing on banks of iconic Ganges like Howrah Station of Kolkata. In fact, NDLS doesn’t even match railway stations in some tier 2 n tier 3 cities in India and the "Paharganj Gate" makes the matters worse.

The first thing I did after getting down at "Ajmeri Gate" was to go to an ATM after realising that I just had Rs 800 in my wallet.I withdrew Rs 5000 in 2 swipes from the ATM which resulted in me having Rs 5800 in total with 9 currency notes of Rs 500 and 13 notes of Rs 100.

The Shree Shakti Express started at scheduled time at around 7 pm with me being allotted a side lower berth in AC 2 coach. I was supposed to get gown at Udhampur Railway Station at around 4:45 am (next day) while the train was to proceed further to Katra (Base for Vaishno Devi Temple).Although I was supposed to share the seat with the guy who had the side upper berth reserved for him until he didn’t want to sleep, the guy (a boy from Chennai in his early 20s) chose to climb up to his berth n lie down as soon as the train started. I too chose to stretch my legs and started reading something on my mobile.

It was about 7:30 pm when I noticed the other 4 passengers sitting on the 4 other berths of our compartment. There were 2 pairs of men traveling to Vaishno Devi with similar objectives but with strikingly different outlooks.The first pair was that of 2 traders from Haryana (in their mid-40s) who were going to join a religious program of "Nirankari Movement" which they claimed had changed their lives and had brought positive changes in their personal and business matters.

The other pair was that of 2 members of a renowned International Organization dedicated to "Krishna Bhakti". The was one “Senior Swami" (aged around 60) while the other guy in mid 20s was more like his attendant cum disciple. 

As the train picked speed the "Swami" started preaching the 2 guys about the greatness of Lord Kishna and the mission of his organization while raising questions on the motive of movements like "Nirankari Movement" among others. Those 2 guys tried to be very polite and submissive during the whole episode while the "Swami" increased the intensity of his arguments. Although, he too never raised his voice, his sharp statements supposedly loaded with knowledge and logic was too difficult for the 2 traders to handle.

Their "discussion" continued for about 40 minutes with me showing no interest in joining them even listening to them until a point when the "Swami" made a statement with a big grinning smile that "Shiva and Parvati are also slaves of Lord Krishna". Although it was a bit of provocation for someone like me, I somehow decided to remain quiet as I saw the "Swami" stopping his preaching as no one was challenging his arguments anymore.A sense of victory was evident on his face combined with a sense of disappointment as the 2 trader guys didn’t change their plans about visiting the program from "Nirankari Movement" even after 40 minutes of preaching.

It was about 8:20 pm when another young disciple from 'Krisha Bhakti Group' came to our compartment and the "Swami" went away. The new guy was about 30 years old well-built man, but his voice was like a 15-year-old schoolboy. I realised that they were about 10-12 travelling together and had all their berths in the same coach. The "Swami" must have gone to some other compartment to make someone else realise the Greatness of Lord Krishna.Just when I thought that the useless and endless debate on Religion was over, the new kid-voiced guy tried to start it all over again.

While the "Swami" was mostly speaking in Hindi, this guy started preaching in English even when the 2 trader guys had no interest or intent of challenging anything about Lord Krishna while keeping their own faith intact on "Nirankari Movement".

The worst part just came at around 8:30 pm when the guy sleeping above me (guy from Chennai) joined the debate speaking in English with an awesome statement - "Humanity is the Best Religion". This was a new ammunition to the kid-voiced guy which made him speak nonstop for about 5 minutes about how their organization has been able to get the best manifestation of "Humanity". Just as the Chennai guy lost his words, the kid-voiced "Baby Swami" pointed towards me and asked my views on religion. This was for the first time that I was unnecessarily dragged in their obscure and useless debate with a straight question pointed towards me. When I refused to answer, the "Baby Swami" took it as my lack of understanding on English. He repeated his question in Hindi expecting to get an opportunity to preach again on whatever answer I was expected to come up with.

I was not in any mood to be preached by anyone on anything that time and that’s why I decided to make myself and rude and blunt as anyone could even imagine.

I gathered all my wit and replied - "I think Alcoholism is the best Religion as it makes you speak truth and makes you attempt extraordinary acts of courage.It makes you bring your original emotions and prevents you from faking anything. And most important thing is that it never teaches you to feel superior nor inferior to any other drunkard."

Although all 5 people were stunned at my reply, the expression on the face of "Baby Swami" was priceless. He must have realised that he had provoked a wrong guy and was going to be taken into unknown territories if he tried to continue the debate. The youngest guy (his companion) became restless. He started looking here and there with confusion. Just as when I thought that he was going to call the TTE or RPF guys to get my bag checked for alcohol, I realised that he was looking out for the “Senior Swami" who had shifted to some other berth and probably having his dinner that time.This young chap really wanted to get my thoughts purified by the great words of their Guru.

As I had already shot the bullet and there was no looking back, the next 30 minutes or so were supposed to be a blockbuster episode of debating which I had no option to skip now. I had made a very provocative and bold statement which was not at all acceptable. Even the "Nirankari" traders were not comfortable looking towards me. As the stage was set and everyone was waiting for the “Senior Swami", none of us had an idea that our Prime Minister was addressing the nation live on TV at the time when we were into the useless debate. It was around 8:50 when one of the trader guys received a call on his mobile and got some very shocking news. Before he could realise anything, the other guy too was stunned seeing WhatsApp messages on his phone. Soon another "Hare Krishna" disciple ran towards our compartment and broke the news to the 2 gentlemen who were waiting for their Guru.

As I was unable to make out anything about the sudden change in behaviour of everyone, I looked at my Phone which was on Silent Mode and realised that I had about 200 messages delivered in last 10 minutes or so. I took me about 5 minutes to digest what had happened.

Our Prime Minister had announced that the Currency Notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 were not going to be a "Legal Tender" after midnight. Practically, 85% of India's currency in circulation was going to be useless in just 3 hours or so.There was chaos everywhere in the train and off course everywhere else in the country as it was evident from the WhatsApp messages.

The guy from the Railway Pantry refused to take a Rs 500 note from me when I tried paying him Rs 240 for the dinner. When I pointed out that the notes were valid until midnight, he gave a polite reply that he had run 'out of change' as everyone paid him with Rs 500 notes.

The 1st call I picked was from my sister’s number from Bangalore and I realised that it has her husband who was on other side. He had just gone crazy with happiness on the decision of our PM. He explained me about the death of "Black Money" and Illegal "Benaami Deals" among others.He was confident about the "Rise of New India". When I expressed my apprehensions about rioting and law and order issues, he made me understand that we had a "Real Strong Government" on top with an "Ultra Popular PM" and nothing unpleasant was going to happen. Similar views were expressed by my brother and almost all intelligent friends.

My wife too seemed to be happy on the move and so were most of my school and college friends and colleagues in my organization.But  the Krishna Bhakti guys in the train looked a bit disappointed. Organizing any religions or social program was obviously going to be tough without cash transactions. No one was talking about God or Religion or anything. In fact, no one in the whole coach was talking about anything except this stunning decision taken by our PM.

I was travelling to Udhampur to initiate data digitization at an Army Depot there as a part of my ongoing Project with Indian Army Ordnance. The respective in charge at the Depot was a Lady Officer (“Major" in rank) who had told me that she would pick me up from Udhampur Railway Station once I landed there and that she had arranged for my stay at Army Guest House.

Even as the whole country was going through a chaos, I was blank in my thoughts as I had a mission to start at Udhampur where I was going for first time. It was about 4:20 am when the train entered Platform 1 at Udhampur Railway Station. I saw a young lady in her early 30s dressed in Track Suit standing on the platform with 2 Army Jawans dressed in full combat attire. As soon as the train stopped, I realised that she was not the officer who had come to pick me up as she was there to receive her parents who got down from the coach just behind. There were about 8-10 more Army personnel on the platform who had come to receive someone or other, but sadly there was none who came to pick me. I decided against calling up the Lady Officer at 4:30 am and instead decided to move out of the Station thinking that she (or someone else) might be waiting for me outside the gate.

I realised that there was no one waiting for me even outside and that the whole parking lot was empty. Probably there were no trains for next hours or so while my train was still standing at the platform. There were some auto-rickshaws standing there, but none of them had any drivers. There were 2 ATMs at the parking lot, and both were beaming the message of “Cash not available”. I realised that my Phone had just 2% of battery life as I forgot to get it charged in the train, thanks to the chaos created by currency ban. I decided to get back inside the station and get the Phone charged at the Waiting Room for some time, but I was stopped by the Army Security guys at the Station Gate. They didn’t allow me going in as I had already completed my journey and was out from the Station. This was the first time, I realised that things were really a bit different in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Within 5 minutes, I realised that my Phone was ringing, but the call got disconnected as soon as I picked it. The battery was gone, and I had no other option than to wait at the parking lot outside Udhampur Station waiting for sunrise, which meant 2 hours to kill. In just 2 hours or so, India was to wake up in the morning of 09-November-2016 to witness 85% of its currency notes going useless, while I had to somehow figure out about reaching the designated Army Depot.

 

To be continued….

 

 

 

 

Independence Day 1999 @ South India : Part 2 - A Pandemonium @ Bangalore City Railway Station

 

This Blog is dedicated to the memories of my Guide, Mentor and Class Teacher in 10th Standard, Sir Sanjay Choudhary who left for the Heavenly Abode in April 2021 due to Covid-19. I owe a lot to him for whatever command I have over English language.

Those who have not read the Part 1 of this Blog, please find the same here :-https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2021/04/independence-day-1999-south-india-part.html

India was witnessing a strange political circus as it was preparing for Lok Sabha (Parliament) Elections for the third time within 2 and half years. Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had just lost a "Trust Vote" by 1 vote in Lok Sabha in April 1999 and there was no alternative to a fresh election as no other party or coalition was able to stitch a majority. The person responsible for the defeat of Vajpayee Government was none other than a lady from Chennai, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa. Prasad had no good words for Ms. Jayalalithaa or those people of Tamil Nadu who were considered as her supporters.

The more the train kept going away from Chennai, the louder got Prasad's voice against the political understanding of the people of Tamil Nadu. Soon we two became a center of attraction in the small General Compartment of 'Vrindavan Express'. After venting all his frustration for about 2 hours, Prasad started talking about great 'political maturity' of the people of his own state Karnataka. He declared that all 28 seats of Karnataka were going to Mr Vajpayee in the elections next month and he was very proud of his state joining the national mainstream politics leaving behind regional parties.

After Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Prasad soon shifted his focus to Andhra Pradesh. According to him, the Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu deserved nothing less than a 'Bharat Ratna' for supporting Mr Vajpayee. After getting enlightened by him for over 3 hours, I asked him about his views on the politics of Kerala. All his enthusiasm suddenly got vanished and he just made one statement - 'People of Kerala and West Bengal are from different planet'.

Thankfully, my question made him change the topics and for next 1 hours I got to know about the difference of food, spices, sarees, and dances etc. among the 4 states on South India. As we de-boarded at ‘Bangalore City' Railway Station, we made a final 'good bye’ to each other. Since there were no email IDs, Mobile or WhatsApp Numbers, we knew that we had a very rare possibility of meeting each other again. As Prasad went to another platform to catch his next train, I came out of 'Bangalore City' Railway Station to get awestruck by the sheer brilliance in the design of the 'Majestic Bus Stop’. With my previous experiences with buses at Howrah Station (Kolkata), I had never imagined that a 'Bus Stop' could designed so meticulously with a series of Flyover Bridges for pedestrians with each bus allotted a specific bay.

I checked into a nearby hotel called 'Hotel Anmol' with a tariff of Rs 300 for 24 hours stay. One of the teachers from my School, Ms Usha Rao had given me the phone number of her father and brother who stayed in Bangalore that time. Obviously, they were the only people whom I could reach out in the city in any emergency.

They invited me to their house at NR Colony as soon as I called them. After spending comfortable 2 hours at their place and learning more about the city and the venue of the interview, I took a leave and went to MG Road/Brigade Road for some window shopping. The glitter in that area made me realize immediately that India is getting ready for a 5th 'Metro City' with the sunrise of a new India which was undergoing a transformation to become a hub of Information Technology with Bangalore at its epicenter.

The venue for the interview was a small English Medium School named 'MES Convent' in the outskirts of the city at a place called 'Canara Bank Colony' on Nagarbhavi Road. I reached there about 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 9:00 am and found that there were about 30 boys from across the country waiting for the interviews to start.

I realized that every candidate there was accompanied by either of their parents or uncle or elder brother. I was the only daredevil to reach there alone travelling for more than 1200 km. Another thing I realized was that absolutely no one there was aware of my city Raipur . Every time I introduced myself to anyone, I had to explain that Raipur was in Madhya Pradesh about 24 km away from the gigantic 'Bhilai Steel Plant', I saw a bit of confusion on those faces. Some of those candidates and their parents finally settled with an imagination of Raipur being a suburb of Indore/Bhopal/Gwalior/Jabalpur as they had heard only these 4 names from Madhya Pradesh. The third observation that I made was that there were no girls selected for the interview. Before I could draw any conclusion about girls being unable to clear the written test, I saw 4 girls dressed in same school uniform enring the arena. All those girls were from one school in Bhopal and were accompanied by one female teacher who was wearing very big spectacles. Finally, I got to meet 5 souls who knew where Raipur was :-)

The interview format was like a Viva Voce in Science Practical’s. They were randomly picking 5 candidates and evaluation them together for 30-35 minutes in the interview room while the others kept waiting outside. It was the 3rd batch around 11:15 am when I was called with other 4 candidates. The other 4 boys were from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Sholapur (Maharashtra)

As we 5 stood in "Attention Position" in front of 5 panelists, we realized that one of those was the Principal of the same school who was probably sitting there just to enjoy the show. As they started with their first question on 'The relevance of current Indian Education System', the guy from Mumbai started hitting like Sachin Tendulkar. He was awesome fluent in English and was able to speak out his views clearly. The Kolkata guy soon realized that he had to perform like Sourav Ganguly if he intended to challenge any Tendulkar there. His views were strikingly different from the Mumbai guy, but he was able to make an equally remarkable impact. The guy from Hyderabad spoke equally good with his ideas with his English having a typical 'South Indian Accent' before the faces of the panelists turned towards me. That moment was a horrible moment for me as I realized that I didn’t have any idea nor views and absolutely no interest in the topic of 'The relevance of current Indian Education System'. Secondly, I realized that I was the worse among the batch when it came to express something in English.

I had won multiple 'Speech Competitions' since Primary-School days, but all those laurels seemed useless there as those competitions always gave some time to prepare on a specific topic while the topics were put instantaneously by the panel in the interview. I was struggling, and I realized that the guy from Sholapur was struggling a bit more than me. The next few questions were on topics like 'Child Labor', ‘Importance of Sports in School', 'Effect of Satellite Television' etc. I still remember the irony I was going through with those question one after other. The 3 'Big Guns' were miles ahead of me in terms of answering those questions in fluent English. I didn’t have any content on those topics which could make me unique and neutralize the advantage of better English that my competitors had. Although I could read the writing on the wall, I somehow kept saving my wicket and kept trying to delay  the moment of a 'Brutal Defeat'. Halfway into the interview, when the 3 guys were still fighting for the top spot and the guy from Sholapur had already given up, I saw ray of hope with the next question which was on the 'Kargil War' which had taken place just few months back. After listening to the stereotyped answers from the 3 'Big Guns' the panelists gave a reluctant look towards me to know if I had to say something. They faced a surprise when I first started to speak on 'Kargil War' with the viewpoint of Pakistan. I took them into the nitty-gritties of internal establishment of Pakistan, both political and military and explained them the reason for the unwanted adventure from Pakistan. Later I spoke about how the Indian Army used unconventional techniques to win back the Peaks. I realized that for the first time I was being taken seriously as the panelists allowed me to speak for 5 minutes without interrupting. Also, for the first time I saw the 3 guys getting nervous.

The next question again proved to be a 'Goldmine' for me when they asked about - 'The importance of Transport Infrastructure in India'. Once the 3 guys took turns to speak on entities like Local Trains, Metro Trains and Bus Stops etc, I smelled a possible victory for first time.I just had to remind the panellist that we need to start thinking like a 'Central Government' and not like a 'Municipal Corporation'

I spoke on need of upgrading National Highways, River Interlinking with Water Transport, Uni-Gauge Rail System. Slowly I drifted the topic to be more specific on Indian Railway Network. As the panelists loved my views and again allowed me to speak for more than 7-8 minutes, I saw the discomfort growing on the other 3 faces.

We realized that we had been there for 45 minutes as the panelist wished us luck and asked us to leave. All the spirit of completions was gone once the interview was over. All 5 of us spent about 15 minutes together and visited a small Ganesh Temple just besides the school. We felt very nice to know more about each other and I got some opportunity to explain them the exact location of Raipur in the map of India.

My train 'Chennai Mail' was to depart at 00:10 am (technically next day - 17th August 1999) and make me reach 'Chennai Central' at 7:00 am. I was lucky to get the last available AC-2 berth using my father's Green Pass. Since there were no trains to Raipur from Chennai on that day, I got an AC-2 ticket to Nagpur in 'Grant Trunk Express' scheduled to leave around 5:00 pm from Chennai on the same day.

It was 3:00 pm and I was sipping a cup of tea while sitting on a bench at Platform No 4 at 'Bangalore City‘ Railway Station, I saw a 12-13 year old boy sitting with a disappointed face on a bench in front of me. His clothes suggested that he was not a beggar and his face suggested that he was in trouble. Maybe, he had got separated from his parents and didn’t know where to go. When I went near to him to enquire, the first thing he asked me in imperfect Hindi was to give him some food to eat.

After feeding him with a 'Masala Dosa', I got to know that his name was Prasad and he was from North Karnataka (what a coincidence!!). He had run away from his house about 10 days back as his stepmother didn’t treat him well. He worked for 7 days at a small eatery in Bangalore before being kicked out 2 days back.He wanted to go home but didn’t have money to buy a ticket. Without wasting any time, I took him to the ticket counter and bought him an unreserved ticket for his hometown. Also, I ensured that he got into the passenger train which departed around 4:00 pm. The smile in the face of that boy was absolute precious when I gave him a Rs 50 note along with some 'Gyan' before his train departed.

I decided to walk inside the AC Waiting Room as I was very tired and also dint want to meet any more 'Prasad'. The AC Waiting Room at 'Bangalore City' in 1999 was much better than the waiting lounge of the old HAL Airport Bangalore (which I visited once in 2006)

There were about 20 people sitting in the Waiting Room with most of them busy reading or talking. But there was a father-son duo who were very particular that they kept at least 6 feet distance from any other passenger and that no one could dare to speak to them. They looked and behaved like real VIPs while everyone in the room felt awkward due to their rudeness.

As I was feeling suffocated, I left the waiting room around 8 pm and spent the next 3 hours roaming all around before reaching Platform No 7 to board the train at around 11:30 pm. I got down to have some coffee after putting my bag on the berth as we still had 20 minutes for departure. Before I could buy a coffee, I heard someone shouting on top of his voice near the adjoining AC-First Class coach. Soon I recognized him as Mr. VIP (Father) who was sitting in the waiting room earlier. Their names were not on the 'Reservation Chart' and the man was not willing to listen to anyone. He was threatening the TTEs of dire consequences if they didn’t arrange berths for him and his son. Soon, some senior railway officials rushed to the spot to understand the reason for the Pandemonium.

As Mr VIP was trying to call someone from his Motorola Mobile Phone, the junior most of the TTEs pointed out that the VIPs had bought a ticket for the train departing on 16th August 1999 and that their train had already left the previous night. Realizing the blunder, Mr. VIP started requesting for berths instead of shouting. But then it was the turn of the TTEs to be rude. They gave the father-son duo just 5 minutes to get out of the Railway Station as they didn’t have any valid tickets.

Chennai looked much brighter and more attractive on 17th August 1999 as I ventured out walking in the city after taking a bath in the AC Waiting Room and putting my bag in the 'Cloak Room'. I walked till the Marina Beach and was facing the Sea for first time in life. The endless Bay of Bengal made me realize how big the country and the world was. I reached Nagpur at around 11:00 am on 18th August 1999 and immediately got a connecting train 'Mumbai Howrah Mail' for Raipur. The TTE, Mr Majumdar got a berth in AC-2 for me within 5 minutes as he was an old friend of my father.

Reaching home around 6:00 pm, the first thing I did was to call my Captain Ms.Sangeeta Rathi to know about the fate of the Independence Day event in our school which I had missed. I was happy to know that everything went well and was unhappy to know that no one had missed me in that function.

The same sentiments were repeated by my other friends who all declared that all the 'Functions' in Desh Bandhu School were going to be 'Super-Hit' if the so called 'Head Boy' is kept out of the matters every time.

 Ending Lines-

 

•   Mr. Vajpayee did win the elections in 1999 and also got good number of seats in Karnataka while his allies (DMK and Telugu Desam) got great support in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
•  I did get selected for AITSE Scholarship after the interview and so did the 3 'Big Guns' from Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
•  With more air travels, I got an opportunity to visit 'Chennai Central' Railway Station only once in 2010 which brought back vivid memories. Though there was no trace of the STD Booth (no other shop too on that spot)
•  With more air travels, I never got opportunity to visit 'Bangalore City' Railways Station though I had once visited Majestic Bus Stop in 2014. Hotel Anmol still stands at its location
•  During an official trip in 2014, I made a visit to the MES Convent School. Though the school building remained same, the small Ganesh Temple had become a huge one in 2014
•  Bangalore-Chennai Mail starts around 10:00 pm now and hopefully there are no more confusing dates on the tickets
•  With the creation of Chhattisgarh in 2000 and subsequent developments in Infrastructure and boom in Iron/Steel/Power Industry, most of the educated and aware people in India know where Raipur is. And those who still don’t know, will get to know sooner than later....

Independence Day 1999 @ South India : Part 1 - My 1st Encounter with 'Chennai Central'

 

It was about 6 am on 14th August 1999 when I opened my eyes and found the train standing at Nagpur Junction. The Bilaspur-Trivandrum Express which I had boarded about 6 hours back at Raipur Junction was all set to chug off from Nagpur and take me into the territory of what we called 'South India'. I still had some time to abort my journey, get down at Nagpur to take the next train/bus back to Raipur as being a 17 year boy travelling alone to Bangalore with a scheduled change of train at Chennai was perceived as more of a risk than an adventure that time. But before I could make any decision, I found the train already out of Nagpur Junction. For the first time in my life I was travelling on an unknown route in a train. Also, it was the first time that I was in a situation where none of the train staff was a 'friend' of my father. In those days, all Railway Employee from Howrah to Nagpur knew each other by name or by face irrespective of their departments and they all ensured to help each other’s families whenever needed, in their official or individual capacities. It must have been the same for other Railway Zones in India too.

As the Sleeper Coach had just 50% of its berths filled, I wondered why my father got me a ticket for Sleeper Class instead of AC-2 even when we had a Green Pass.Maybe it was my mother's fear that the AC coaches may make me catch cold and hinder my success at the AITSE Interview at Bangalore.

As I took my lunch at Warangal Railway Station, a young man in his early 30s introduced himself as Virendra Kumar. He was working for a mid-sized trading company at Raipur which used to supply Herbal Products from Kerala to shops in Eastern Madhya Pradesh (Chhattisgarh was not created) and Western Odisha. Next few hours were spent comfortably talking to him and witnessing the train crossing 2 giant bridges on Godavari at Rajmundry and Krishna at Vijayawada. The train was running a bit late and it was almost sunset when it left Vijayawada. Now it was the last leg of the journey on the East Coast of India and I was supposed to reach Chennai around 1 am. As the train zoomed past stations like Tenali, Chirala, Ongole and Nellore, I found Virendra Kumar preparing his berth for sleep after dinner as he still had to travel until the next afternoon to Ernakulam.

I waited eagerly and cautiously as the train approached 'Chennai Central'. My father had told me, that if I was not comfortable getting down at midnight then I had an option to continue for 5 more hours in the same train till Jolarpettai Junction and get a train from Bangalore from there. As I was carrying an All India Rail Timetable, I decided to get down at 'Chennai Central' itself as it was going to be easier getting a current reservation in ‘Vrindavan Express’, which would start from 'Chennai Central' at 7 am. The Railway Reservation Office at Chennai was any day going to be bigger and more friendly than that at Jolarpettai.

 As the train entered Platform No. 5 of 'Chennai Central Terminus', I did put on a brave face and braced myself to put my first foot on soil of 'South India' at 2:30 am. With no STD Booth visible on the platform, I started walking towards the exit of the station building when I encountered the first taste of Chennai.

I was surrounded by 3 men, all speaking in Tamil, who had already got the idea that I was an outsider, young boy, unaware of the city or the language. As far as, I could make out, one was trying to suggest me some hotel room while another guy wanted me to take an autorickshaw ride with him. The 3rd guy was just keen to know if I understood any of their suggestions. Terrorized to core by their forceful gestures, I decided to walk back to the platform and get into the train and continue till Jolarpettai. Unfortunately, the train had already started moving out by the time I reached the door of the same coach from which I had got down. With no other option, I spent about 15 minutes on a bench at the platform itself before I encountered another guy speaking in Tamil who wanted me to buy a lock set from him for my bag. He was so adamant in selling the piece for Rs 50 that I had to literally run away from there to avoid his salesman skills.

Suddenly, I realised that I needed to call my parents at Raipur who must have got worried by that time. I mustered all the courage and started walking back towards the exit. This time those 3 guys (hotel-autorickshaw agents) didn’t approach me even though they watched me from a distance. I quickly realised that they didn’t want to create any nuisance in presence of a policeman whom I saw standing there. I quickly made an exit and was lucky to find an STD Booth just outside the gate while the guy trying to sell locks did follow me till the exit gate. I saw an elderly gentleman in neat white lungi and kurta sleeping on a wooden bench at the STD Booth. He got up as soon as he realized that someone had entered the Booth. I made a call to my parents and appraised them that I had reached Chennai. My father advised to get a reservation for Bangalore immediately at the 'Current Reservation Counter'. The man at the STD Booth was a sweet gentleman. He had realized the situation and tried to convey to me in Tamil-English that I should not worry at all and that Chennai too was as friendly or unfriendly as Delhi or Mumbai. He convinced me that there were more helpful people than troubling morons just like anywhere in India.

After paying and thanking him, I moved to the Reservation Counter only to find that there were no seats available in 'Vrindavan Express'. Seeing a Green Railway Pass with me, the reservation counter guy advised me to get in touch with the TTE just before boarding the train at 7 am.After roaming around and seeing different parts of 'Chennai Central', I decided to sit at one place and rest until morning. It was about 4:00 am when I found myself sitting on the steps of the main entrance of 'Chennai Central' while there were very few people going in or coming out. Although it was not the best place available, my filmy mind made me feel like a Bollywood Hero sitting on the steps of the entrance of a Big Railway Station.

As I started to relax, I found some 20 people suddenly rushing at the open space in front of the gate with 3-4 tankers of water. Suddenly the whole area was washed and cleaned. Then I saw a truck full of flowers arriving at the scene. Amidst all the excitement and anxiety, I had forgotten the fact that it was 15th August. It was the Independence Day of our beloved Country and the Rail Authorities of Chennai were also preparing for the flag hoisting ceremony in their station campus.

The idea of Independence Day also brought a wave of thoughts in my mind and made me realize how eventful that week was for me. I was not supposed to be sitting at the gate of 'Chennai Central' or trying to get a train for Bangalore on the morning of 15th August 1999. As a student of Class 12 and 'Head Boy' of the school, I was supposed to lead the mission with my classmates (with support of teachers) for organizing a grand function of Independence Day at the campus of Desh Bandhu English Medium School, Station Road, Raipur. Not only was it my last year in the school, it was also the 'Silver Jubilee' year of our beloved school.

Just 4-5 days back, I was working like a Joint-Captain along with a team of sharp and energetic friends to ensure a memorable Independence Day celebration in our school. We had planned every activity and had distributed the responsibilities just like a professional team. It was 11th of August when I was informed by my all-time favourite teacher Ms Alka Sharma that the school had received a letter from the organizers of 'All India Talent Search Exams' that I had cleared the written test which was organized about a year back (in previous academic session) and that I was required to attend an interview at Bangalore on 16th August 1999 in order to clear the last round. As it was a matter of great honor and a very rare opportunity, our Principal Sir B.B Shukla was very keen on me going and attending the interview.

My parents too were very happy, and my father asked me whether I was ready to travel alone to Bangalore as it was not possible for him to get leave at such short notice. Once I gave him the confidence, he immediately arranged for the Green Rail Pass along with a reservation till Chennai. The responsibility of getting the reservation for journey back home was left to me as we were not sure if the interview would take a day or more.

It was about 6 am when I realized that I needed to get up and move towards the 'Vrindavan Express' which was supposed to start from Platform No 10. The flag hoisting at the station was supposed to take place at around 8:30 am and I was certainly going to miss it. After having light breakfast at Railway Stall, I approached a TTE who told me that all the seats were full and that he was ready to allow me to travel standing in a reserved coach of the train which had all 'Chair Cars' and he would give me a seat in case some passenger didn’t turn up. But he also advised me that may be getting into the ‘General Compartment’ would be better as it was more likely to get a seat as it was a National Holiday. 

As I was in a dilemma on choosing the coach to get in, I again encountered the guy who was trying to sell me a lock few hours back. This time he was more in a 'pleading mode' than 'forcing mode' as he folded his hands saying something in Tamil. I realized that his sales were not that good and that he desperately wanted to sell some locks to get some money. Finally, I bought 2 locks from him for Rs 100 and I still remember the happiness on his face and hope in his eyes.

I got into the ‘General Compartment’ and was able to put my bag at a safe place while, I preferred standing near the gate when the train started moving. Though the compartment had some empty seats, I was reluctant to sit as I never liked sitting away from a window. As the train picked up speed, I was amused to see so many gentlemen wearing neat formal shirts while having a lungi wrapped around their waist. This kind of formal attire was something new to me. 

As it was about 7:30 am, my mind again took me back to my beloved school and I was sure that my friends were doing their best to make the last Independence Day of our batch a grand success. As the access to mobile phone was still limited to very few people in a handful of cities in India and there was nothing called 'Facebook' or 'WhatsApp', the only means for me to know what was happening in my school was to rely on a mix of assumption and imagination. I was very sure that our 'Head Girl' Ms Sangeeta Rathi along with some of our enthusiastic friends like Mr T.N Abhishek and Mr Naval Agarwal would surely stretch themselves to make it a grand success even in my absence.

 I was enjoying the cool breeze from the gate of the coach when I realized that my legs needed some rest and thus, I started looking around for the best possible seat for myself when I suddenly heard a voice saying 'Hello Brother'. I saw a young guy in his early 20s, wearing a jean and a t-shirt just like me, sitting on an upper berth alone. He was waiving at me and was inviting me to climb up and join him there. As he helped me to pull myself up, I finally got some comfortable place to sit and stretch my legs. He introduced himself as Prasad. He was an MBA student from North Karnataka studying in a college of Chennai.

I was happy to be finally heading towards my destination Bangalore, the next 4-5 hours spent talking to Prasad gave me some real insights of the lives of people in 'South India' including their social and political inclinations and the tussle among those 4 states.

The next one and half days spent in Bangalore were certainly one of the most memorable episodes in my life and the interview of AITSE was a lifetime event for a 17-year-old boy.

I will write about my Bangalore experience in my next Blog.

To be continued.............

https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2021/05/independence-day-1999-south-india-part.html

Kedarnath Diaries 2019 : The Old Bridge @ Rambada

 

It was 9:30 am on 16-August-2019 and we had been able to cover just 2.5 kms after walking for more than 1 and half hours from Gaurikund when we had to take shelter at a tent built by the authorities.

The steep terrain combined with the heavy rains brought doubts in our minds about the prospects of reaching Kedarnath that day before the temple was to be closed for Darshan. 

Once the weather got a bit better,Vivek,the senior most member of our gang made the conscious decision of taking a horse for the remaining 15-16 kms till Kedarnath. Being an expert in trekking for last 25 years or more, he was the best judge about his abilities in that situation. The 4 younger chaps: Aditya,Naveen,Sudesh and Pavan decided to continue on foot along with our driver Sonu and so did our leader Sarath, a 6 feet 5 inch tall young man in his early 30s who had been to Kedarnath twice, in 2017 and again in 2018.

It was me who was in a dilemma for a while before I could make up my mind to take a horse too as I had enjoyed travelling with Vivek to some of the finest places in India between 2016 to 2018 and wanted to travel along with him again.

As the weather got better, we crossed places named 'Jungle Chatti' and 'Bhimbali'.

Just after Bhimbali, my heartbeats knew no limits when I saw a sign board. We were less than 2 kms away from a place called 'Rambada' which was known for destruction and death during the floods of June 2013. It is believed that there were more than 200 homes and hotels there before the entire village got washed away in just few minutes killing thousands of locals and tourists.

As we were travelling along the river 'Mandakini' on its western bank, with every step of my horse taking me closer to Rambada made my heart filled with excitement and a bit of sorrow until a point where the horse owner broke my series of thoughts by making the horse take a right turn just 500 mts. before Rambada and making it cross the river over a brand new bridge.

Within minutes we were travelling on the other side of the river i.e on the eastern bank of the river and had also gained a bit of altitude using a zig-zag path which was evidently constructed in recent years.Just as we gained some more altitude, a peek to my left gave me a sort of bird's eye view of what used to be Rambada. I could make out there were a handful of huts still standing on the western bank at Rambada in spite of everything else getting engulfed by the floods in June 2013. I couldn’t be sure if anyone lived there or if those were some shops still running. Also, I could see the older route of Kedarnath which used to continue on the western bank itself before most of it was wiped out in the floods.

I could see some traces of that path from my side of the hills (eastern bank). As the newer path took me higher, the view of Rambada remained in my eyes for about 10 minutes and in my thoughts till the time I reached Kedarnath after 3 hours or so. I felt that I had failed in my duty to visit those huts and try to meet anyone who had survived the tragedy in 2013.Somehow I thought that it was a moral obligation to visit Rambada once to feel the vibes of the devastation by figuring out some remaining traces of a once lively village.

It was 8:00 am on 17-August-2019 and I just had a divine experience offering a VIP Pooja at Kedarnath Temple where I had spent about 20 minutes sitting with the lord.As it was an 'Off Season' due to harsh weather, it was easy to get such VIP treatment at a reasonable price at that time of the year.

The 15 hours at Kedarnath were undoubtedly one of the happiest moments in my life except the fact that we had a scary night before with heavy rains and loud thunders hitting the tin-roof of the resort of Uttarakhand Tourism where we had stayed. Also, the temperature was below 5 degrees for the whole night.

The 4 younger guys and the driver had already started the journey back more than an hour ago and it was Sarath, Vivek and I who were left to start our descent.Vivek decided to take horse again and Sarath decided to walk again. Just sometime back while accompanying Sarath to a km long trail to Kal Bhairav Temple, I that realized that my capability of climbing anywhere had already reached its limits and it would be difficult for me to go down walking to Gaurikund which was about 19 kms away.

Also I knew that descending down was always more stressful for the knees than ascending up, especially when the backpack on my shoulders had doubled in weight due to wet clothes and tonnes of 'Prasad' I had bought. The weather was harsh even on that day with sporadic heavy rains every now and then. But, this time I wanted to challenge my limits and thus I decided to walk back against all odds as I wanted to feel the beauty at each and every step that I had missed a day before. Also, it was not a nice idea to leave Sarath alone behind.As both of us had different walking abilities, levels of fitness and different weights of our bag-packs, we decided that Sarath would walk ahead at his speed and would wait for me every 3 kms or whenever I got out of his view. Both of us actually wanted to travel back and feel the connect with nature alone, but also didn’t want to leave each other alone in the unknown hills in the harsh weather, especially when there were hardly any tourists on that route that day.

Just within 20 minutes I found him standing on a tip of a Glacier and waiting for me. I realized that in spite of the physical agony, the decision to walk back was great. After spending some time at 'Rudra Glacier' and then 'Bhairav Glacier' we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of heavy rains.  Also, I realized that it was time to pack my camera and mobile phone. Getting down safely was more important than taking pics/videos.

Though my knees were very painful, I kept walking steadily with assurance that Sarath was just a km or 2 ahead of me. I realised that I needed to be a good finisher of such a great journey that we had in the last 3 days.

It had started on the evening of 14-August-2019 when Vivek and I took a flight from Mumbai. Due to delay in the flight, we landed at New Delhi Airport at around 1:30 am with Sarath and other 4 guys waiting for or us at the Airport parking. Getting out of Delhi in the early morning of 15th August is not an easy job as we were subject to police and army scrutiny at 3 places. We had touched Haridwar at round 6 am from where it was a journey along Ganga till Dev Prayag where we saw the birth of Ganga with a confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi.The view of the 'Sangam' has such an attraction that we just didn’t want to leave the place that day.

From Dev Prayag till Rudra Prayag, it was Alaknanda travelling with us. Again, there was a confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini at Rudra Prayag which was also the meeting point of Kedarnath and Badrinath Highways.The travel from Rudra Prayag to Gaurikund along Mandakini was full of landslides with 3 brief disruptions due to rocks falling on road. 

In fact that road had opened just a day before after being closed for 4 days due to heavy landslides.After the mandatory 'Biometric Registration’, we had had a night halt at Sitapur before moving to Gaurikund (last vehicle point) and starting our trek on 16-August-2019.

Back to 17-August-2019. I realized that I had covered half the distance and was standing on the eastern bank of Mandakini at a point where I just needed to walk 1.5 kms more to cross the bridge and get to the western bank.  I had completed the steep portions of the descend and now it was just a matter of time. The weather too was better now. As I was all alone there with Sarath a km being behind me (a rare happening), I took opportunity to get closer to the valley on my right to have a view of 'Rambada' again. It was there where I had expected, with those huts still standing and inviting me there. Then I saw 2 bridges besides each other crossing the river just near those huts. I soon realized that there was a steep trail paved with big steps (made of stone blocks) from the point where I was standing to those bridges. I realized that I had an option to get down the trail, then cross one of the bridges and then reach those last remaining huts of Rambada. Apart from taking to Rambada, this steep trail was going to reduce a zig-zag path of about a km for me and merge with regular path at Bhimbali.

My joy started diminishing with each step down the trail. It was steeper than I had judged and was also very slippery. My painful knees and the heavy backpack added to the agony. All my assumptions of saving time were shattered as the rains started pouring again and I had to be very cautious with each step. One mistake and I could end up with fatal injuries. After a struggle of 20 minutes or so, I found myself standing right in front of the violent river, standing in front of the bridge on the right. I realized that the bridge I was standing in front of was the older one which was there even before 2013 and the other one at the left was newly built. It took no time to guess that the authorities had anticipated that the older bridge would not last for long. While coming down the trail, the path had split for those 2 bridges. I had taken the path on the right without anticipating that I would land up in front of the older bridge. Attempting to get to the newer one would mean a retreat up to some height and then taking the path on the left.As I had no energy left to go back, I decided to cross the river using the old bridge itself.

Standing on the concrete abutment of the bridge made of wooden planks fixed on a steel frame, it took me about 5 minutes to convince myself to start crossing it.One step on the bridge and I found it shaking. Next step and I found the rains got harder. Few more steps and I realized that the pain in my knees were unbearable.Next step and the bridge was shaking violently with sudden gush of water and wind.By the time I reached halfway on the bridge, I realized that I was a helpless creature left totally at the mercy of God as I could not see a single soul anywhere around.I was standing mid-way on a dilapidated wooden bridge on a swollen river with a heavy backpack on my shoulders in midst of harsh wind and rains with my knees stuck and all energy evaporated. I realized that I was standing helpless at the place, that epicenter of the tragedy of June 2013. All the emptiness around me that day was part of once bustling Rambada before that fateful night on 16-17 June 2013.

Though it was just about 1:00 pm in the afternoon, I felt being stuck in a haunted house and left in front of a demon who was just waiting to end my story.After being perplexed for about 2 minutes, a positive thought came in my mind.” If that bridge had withstood the floods of 2013 then it surely could withstand me for some more time till the I cross it and reach the other side”. Also, I realized that my Woodland shoes were rock-solid and waiting for me to just take a step ahead. I gathered all my courage to push myself and I was out on the other side within few seconds.I didn’t have the courage to look back and I proceeded to those huts with my heart beating wildly. I realized that there was no one there. No one wanted to live or open a shop at Rambada even when places like Bhimbali (just 1.5 km away) was full of shops and homes.

.While I sat on a big rock beside those huts with an empty and numb mind, I saw Sarath coming down the trail on other side of the river. Thankfully, he had chosen the correct trail and he landed up on the newer bridge when he saw me sitting on the other side. What I saw next was a real surprise. Instead of being scared, Sarath was enjoying his time on the new bridge while taking pictures and making videos. Suddenly the weather also got better. 

He asked me to join him on the bridge to take pictures. I agreed after initial reluctance and I thank myself for doing so.

I spent some time on the newer bridge with Sarath and didn’t find it scary at all. The rain had stopped, and the river was not that violent, the wind was mild and the bridge was stronger. Things had improved within 30 minutes or so. Standing on the newer bridge, I looked at the older bridge carefully for a while and realized that nothing is permanent in this world.

Back to Navi Mumbai on 19-August-2019. While scanning for news on Kedarnath, I came across a news piece that a bridge at Rambada had got damaged in the evening of 17-August-2019.

There were 3 bridges at Rambada:

1st one (strongest) which we had crossed by horse while climbing up.

2nd one (newest) where Sarath and I spent some time while coming down

3rd one (oldest and 'haunted' one for me).

Though the news didn’t specify which bridge, it took no time for me to guess that which bridge was damaged. Later, a picture on a Hindi newspaper cleared all my doubts.The videos of 2020 of Rambada don’t show that older bridge at all. As expected, it has been dismantled now.

I realize now that I was probably the last man crossing that old bridge of Rambada before it was gone. Maybe it withstood some more hours than expected just to ensure that I crossed it safely on 17-August-2019 at 1:00 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

Year 2000 : The Haunted House @ Indore

 

11 pm on Saturday, 2nd December 2000 and our last day in Indore. Me, Painter and Hitler were to board a train to Bhopal at 8: 30 am, the next morning, confident of getting admission in a better college. Cool Dude was moving to a relative’s place while Crorepati had already moved out a few days back. We were joined by our friend Panditji who decided to stay with us that night for our farewell of sorts. All 5 of us decided to climb on the terrace of our 'Row House' for the last time using the wooden ladder from our 1st floor Balcony. Since almost all the houses in the row were empty, and the terraces were attached to one another, we decided to move to the terrace of a house which was 6-7 houses away from ours. We sat there and started discussing the prospects of getting admission into different colleges, after being together for 3 months and that we would be leading separate lives henceforth. Also, we were feeling happy of getting away from this 'Haunted House' in an empty colony. As we sat there discussing on multiple topics, I found myself sitting at a corner of the small terrace and the incidents of last 3 months ran like a movie in front of my eyes.

It was August 2000 when I opted for Computer Science in a relatively new Engineering College in the city of Indore as per my score in Madhya Pradesh Pre-Engineering Test.

Thankfully, 2 of my school friends Hitler and Painter also got the same college and same branch. We had moved to Indore with great aspirations as Indore was the only commercially vibrant city in the state of MP at that time. Initially, all 3 of us got into a private hostel near the college and made new friends from across the state and some from other parts of the country as well. As time progressed and more students came there, the hostel owner started exploiting the situation. He admitted a lot of students without giving a thought to the available space. Our room which was supposed to be occupied by 3, now had 5 ppl. I will call the other 2 guys as Cool Dude and Crorepati.

Gradually students started leaving the hostel and arranged their own accommodation. We found out that having an independent house would be cheaper and convenient. That part of Indore was not well developed then. There were certain new housing colonies coming up, but they were sparsely populated. We got a good house just adjacent to the Rajendra Nagar railway station. It was a 2 storied house with 1 Hall,1 Bedroom and Kitchen in the ground floor and 2 Rooms on the 1st floor. We also had a nice Balcony with a wooden ladder to climb to the terrace if needed. It was a 'Row House' in a gated community of about 100 such houses out of which hardly 20-25 had inmates that time. Ours was the Row House at the extreme corner and was isolated from the adjacent 20 houses which were vacant and plunged in darkness all the time.

After paying advance deposit and rent, all 5 of us shifted there. We also found some other friends and some seniors living in the same society. We felt settled down and comfortable in our new surroundings and concentrated on our studies.

Everything was fine until that day when a strange thing happened,It was a holiday and all of us, except Hitler had woken up in the morning. Painter and Crorepati went to college library. Me and the Cool Dude went to nearby market 2 buy some stuff. Hitler was sleeping alone in the ground floor hall. When we came after about 40 mins and opened the door, we saw him sitting on his mattress on the ground and staring at us. I asked "What happened? ". He inquired "Where were u all?"I told him that Painter n Crorepati went to the college library and we had gone to the market nearby. He was bewildered at my answer and asked "If all 4 of you were out then who was on the 1st Floor who disturbed my sleep? Who was jumping there?"Meanwhile Painter n Crorepati had also come back and we all laughed at Hitler taunting him for his sleeping habits and wild imagination.

Next incident occurred the same day in the evening.We all were starting dinner (packed tiffin) inside the ground floor Bedroom and suddenly Cool Dude went out.We heard sound of running water from the 1st floor bathroom.We thought that Cool Dude was washing his hands, but then suddenly it occurred to us as to, why would he go to the 1st floor to wash his hands, when we had a bathroom just outside the room.Hitler and I went to first floor and saw the tap was running even though the lights inside the bathroom were off. We were surprised and closed the tap and went back to finish our dinner. We saw cool dude had come back. He had just gone outside the house to get some pickle from a shop about 100 mts. away.We had our dinner and went to the Balcony and sat chit chatting till about midnight as it was a Saturday night.Suddenly we heard a banging noise from the ground floor. Maybe it was the bathroom door or the door of the Bedroom down there. We all were stunned as there was no wind and ran down to find nothing. A few days passed just like this with some or the other such sporadic event which surprised us but never made us afraid.

One evening there was power cut around 10 pm. It was a common affair in Madhya Pradesh those days. All 5 of us climbed to the terrace using the wooden ladder. As all the houses were joined to each other, we found that we could easily cross over to the terraces of adjoining houses separated by 3 ft high walls It was a real fun as almost all the houses were unoccupied, and we had a huge 'Playground' for us. That night we were discussing about supernatural things like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ and suddenly Painter cracked a joke and we all started laughing. As it was a winter night and a sparsely populated place, our laughter must have been audible for some distance around.But the strange thing we realized while laughing is that we felt some more people were laughing with us.When we stopped laughing, we realized the presence of someone (or more) at our house downstairs and that he or they were laughing with us.

We were stunned, but Cool Dude said ‘Lets find out who the moron is’ and he jumped from the terrace on to the Balcony. I followed him and both of us got inside the house with a small torch. We looked on both the floors with adrenaline coursing through our veins but found no one. The other 3 also came down by that time. For the 1st time we realised that we were not alone in that house. For the 1st time we feared of something unnatural. Suddenly I remembered that I had left my watch on the terrace. I requested Hitler to come along with me.He stood in the Balcony while I climbed the ladder to get my watch. While coming back down, I got a shock of my life when I clearly felt a force which tried to move the ladder while I was descending. Being an athletic 18-year-old, I somehow jumped to safety on the Balcony.Me and Hitler just stared at each other for a while. None of us could sleep that night until the power was restored at around 2 am.

Next morning, I woke up at around 9 am and was already late for college.We all used to sleep in one of the rooms on the 1st floor using thin blankets to cover ourselves in the winter.I saw that no one was there except me and another roommate beside me. As he was covered completely with the blanket, I presumed it was Hitler.Hitler had (and still has) the habit of marathon sleeping sessions. I didn’t disturb him and brushed my teeth n took my bath quickly and started for college just saying 'Hitler, I am going, be careful about the keys’. I knew I would be missing 2 lectures, but at least I could attend the rest.On entering the classroom after waiting outside for 10 minutes for the 2nd lecture to complete, I got a rude shock of my life.What I saw was unbelievable. All my 4 roommates were in the class before me. I somehow controlled my heartbeats and didn’t tell anything to anyone.They all had come to the college at 8 am and didn’t wake me up as they thought I was tired and in deep sleep.

Till that date, all these incidents were confined to only 5 of us and we never told anything to anyone. One day 2 of our Seniors (NK and SD) came to visit us in evening. They both stayed in the same colony, but their room was about 40 houses apart and in a different row.While laughing aloud on a joke, we again felt that some more people at first floor were laughing in the 1st floor along with us.While we stared at each other, I saw a strange fear in the eyes of my senior NK. He asked us 'Did U all, also hear it?'. We said 'YES'.When he asked whether this was the 1st time, we had to tell him everything that had happened till that day.He got worried and scolded us for not telling them about this. He then told us bluntly that THIS COLONY WAS BELEIVED TO BE HAUNTED.

Many people there had paranormal experiences like this, since the colony had become habitable. We now understood the reason for such a beautiful colony to be so sparsely populated.As the matter was getting serious and the news spread among friends and seniors, one of our good friends (Panditji) offered his help with some ‘Mantras’ and a small ritual which somehow made things a bit better.

Meanwhile, one day we found lights glowing at one of the houses (about 10 houses from ours).We went there and found a middle-aged man and introduced ourselves. He told us that he owned that house. He lived somewhere else in the city with his family and it was seldom that he made a visit to this place. We asked him about the colony being ‘Haunted’. He told that he had never experienced anything there, but he couldn’t completely rule out either. He informed us that the whole area was a Hindu Cremation Ground before it was sold by to the housing colonies by Govt. He advised us not to be alone and not to be too afraid either.He also knew our landlord and informed him on phone (which we had never done till that date).

Sometimes we find ourselves in a strange and helpless situation without knowing what to do and where to go next. We are left at the mercy of God. And sometimes God executes some strange plans to take us out of that mess and we find a surprise and a pleasant exit.A similar pleasant surprise hit us on the very next day as we read a news on Dainik Bhaskar that the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had decided to increase the seats in all the Engineering Colleges in MP in same session and had instructed the State Govt to cancel all the Admissions and do a re-counselling. It was done on the initiative of our then IT Minister Sri Pramod Mahajan.

The Education Minister of MP, Sri Ghanshyam Patidar also confirmed that all the admissions were to be cancelled and the fees to be returned so that all the students got the opportunity of getting into a college/branch of their choice after the seats were increased.Our college declared the same within a week after getting written confirmation form the State Govt. In mid of all this, the political geography of country too got changed with formation of 3 states: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand in November 2000 with my city Raipur designated as the capital of Chhattisgarh(CG) . The separation of MP and CG also ensured that good number of seats in Engineering were also getting increased in the colleges of Raipur-Bhilai and Hitler, Painter and myself were confident of getting such a seat in a renowned college.

The movie running within my eyes had an abrupt interruption and I was mentally back at Midnight on 2^nd December 2000 on our terrace.

While we were on terrace of some other house, we suddenly heard someone laughing downstairs. As the house was empty and completely dark, we didn’t dare to remain there. We immediately started moving towards our own terrace. But the strange thing was that while we were crossing one terrace after other, we heard noises from every house. They all were of different nature but were enough to make us feel that we are were in trouble. Someone (or more than one) was travelling from one house to other without hindrance downstairs while we were trying to reach our house. Me and Cool Dude made a jump at our Balcony and ensure that we held the ladder tightly while the others (not so athletic) came down without being sabotaged. We ran to the ground floor Bedroom and locked ourselves. We felt that there were some people jumping and laughing on the 1^st floor until 5 am. Once we saw the sunlight, we got out and got ready to move. Cool Dude and Panditji gave us tight hugs before moving to their accommodation arrangements as their counselling dates were after some more days. Our landlord came at 7 am and we handed over the keys to him before boarding a train from Rajendra Nagar railway station.

I never got a chance to visit the city of Indore again in my life till today.While Hitler and Painter are still an integral part of my life, I am also in touch with Cool Dude,Crorepati,Panditji and many wonderful friends (including seniors) that I had made in those 4 months in Indore in the year 2000.

Tanakpur: My Journey to the tiny town.....Part 2

I thank everyone for appreciating my last blog describing my entry to Tanakpur on 14th April 2017.

Those who haven't read it yet, can find it at :

http://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2020/06/tanakpur-my-journey-to-tiny-townpart-1.html

Before continuing , I sincerely thank my wife Anisha Ray for helping me a lot to make 

this story into current presentable format:

It was 14th April 2017 and here we go...

Tanakpur Barrage

After having a late breakfast, I started to look for means to reach the bridge on the river -'Sarda' (also called 'Kali') which marks the border between India and Nepal along the entire eastern limits of the state of Uttarakhand. This is the same river that originates near Lipulekh and is the cause of border dispute between India and Nepal which has cropped up again in May-June 2020.

I found a teenager boy with his e-rickshaw who agreed to drop me to the bridge for Rs 80. Soon I was out of town and travelling parallel to the downstream flow of the river. I could see that it was not a bridge, but actually a barrage. Within 10 minutes I was standing on the entry of a 500 metres long barrage where no vehicles are allowed and people travelling to Nepal were supposed to cross it by walking.

As it was getting hotter, I quickly crossed the barrage and reached the other side. I realized that I was still not in Nepal and that the border was a zigzag

affair and that the limits of Indian territory still existed for 100 mt more (filled with dense trees) at the point where the barrage ended.

Interestingly, an upstream travel parallel to the river for 1 km would make us enter Nepal and reach the village of Brahmdev. However, the territory of India doesn’t stretch for those extra 100 mt beyond the riverbank at that point. Only God can understand these border markings done by the British.

This part of Nepal is actually a no man's land except for the village of Brahmdev on the foothills of 'Kala Pahaad'. The nearest town of Nepal, Mahendranagar (Bhimdatta) is about 12 km downstream and there is another bridge from Banbasa to Mahendranagar where vehicles are allowed to cross into Nepal.

Coming back to barrage, I discovered that all the Indians crossing to Nepal were headed to the village of Brahmdev to pay visit to the famous 'Siddha Baba Temple'.

There were some teenager boys with bikes who were driving people to the village as a pillion rider for Rs 20. I hitched a ride with a Nepali boy who was driving a bike

bearing an Indian number plate and got off at Brahmdev in less than 5 minutes travelling through a rocky dirt road. Just at the entry of the village, I spotted a small pillar marking the border between India and Nepal. The village had only 2 rows of small shops and restaurants on both sides of a concrete road. Needless to say, that the existence these villagers was solely dependent on the devotees/tourists visiting the 'Siddha Baba Temple’.

I spent about 20 minutes in the temple which I found very peaceful and nicely maintained. The 'Siddha Baba' was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva and the temple is dedicated to him, though Lord Shiva is also worshiped there. On exiting the temple and approaching the main road, I was very surprised and the source of this surprise being a shop selling chilled beer and soft drinks, only 30 mt away from the temple gate. Such a bravado is impossible near any Hindu temple in India. As I sipped a chilled can of beer in the hot afternoon, the owner told me that none of the guys from Nepal had ever objected to this beer shop near the temple, mostly it is the Indians who express their surprise on seeing the shop before helping themselves with some beer.

Siddha Baba Temple

On finishing my lunch at a small restaurant after having a can of 'Nepali' beer, the restaurant owner introduced me to another guy who asked me if I was interested in clubbing and gambling at a casino. He made me realize that the town of Mahendranagar (Bhimdatta) was actually a gambling den and a party spot for Indian guys. He turned out to be an agent whose duty was to get customers for casino/pub. He was ready to take me there on his bike without charging anything. I showed my empty wallet and politely refused all his offers and headed back to India as a pillion on bike of another Nepali boy.

Brahmdev, Nepal

Thanks to the chilled beer and lunch, I was walking leisurely, though it was past 1:00 pm and very hot. Owing to the leisurely pace, I could observe the huge difference in the water level of the river on both sides of the barrage and a thought struck my mind as a lightening. What a fool was I to overlook the fact that my father had come to Tanakpur to collect invoices for steel structures used for construction of a dam.

Now I was absolutely sure that I was walking on the same structure.99% people in India (or elsewhere) actually cannot distinguish between a 'dam' and a 'barrage' and my father was no exception. My doubts were cleared when I read the specifications of the barrage written on a pillar. It was written that the 'Tanakpur barrage ‘owned by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and was commissioned in March-1992. I felt like achieving something great in life just by crossing that barrage twice that day. I was very happy on locating the barrage and decided to avoid the afternoon heat and wait till the sun lost some of its anger before I visit the next point in

my itinerary - The Tanakpur Railway Station.

It was past 6:00 pm when I got out of the hotel. It was almost time for sunset, when I started walking along the new tracks from the bus stop to reach the Railway Station. Each step taken by me increased my heartbeats as I was walking to a place which I was so attached to for last 25 years without actually being there even once.

Tanakpur Station (Under Demolition)

My excitement reached a crescendo when I was standing in front of a railway platform whose shed roofs were already torn down. Only naked metal truss structures with 'Tanakpur' painted on them were standing and waiting for their turn meet the same fate.

Old Shed

New Tracks

The Professor was right. They were demolishing the whole Railway Station which had hosted the 'Meter Gauge' route for decades and didn’t fit in the development plans for upcoming 'Broad Gauge' tracks.

Standing on 'Platform 1' under fading sunlight, trying to trace anyone to talk, I realized that the 'Platform 2&3' was already gone and there was a new concrete bed being laid for new platform instead. After spending more than 10 minutes, it sadly dawned on me that there was not a single soul at the defunct Railway Station and that whatever I was seeing there that day would also get demolished in next 2-3 weeks.

My father had come and visited the 'Goods Office' at Tanakpur in 1992. As per standard design of smaller Railway Stations, a 'Goods Office' was supposed to be either at one end of 'Platform 1' or just beyond 'Platform 2&3' parallel to it. With my knowledge of Indian Railway, it took no time for me to guess that the 'Goods Office' at Tanakpur must have been beyond 'Platform 2&3' before getting demolished.

Instead of getting out to the city side, I crossed the 4-5 tracks to the other side. It was the place where my joy knew no bounds when I discovered myself standing in front of a row some old Railway Quarters.

These Quarters were certainly standing there even in 1992. Suddenly, a serious question struck my mind. 'Which was the Quarter allotted to Mr Harishankar Jaiswal?'. Mr Jaiswal was in charge of the 'Goods Office' at Tanakpur in 1992 and he was the person who spent time at office till 9:00 pm on 20th October 1992 to ensure that my father got his work done on the same day and could start his return journey on the next day. He even took my father to his Railway Quarter for dinner as there were no restaurants/canteen in Tanakpur at that time.

On trying to locate the name plates on each Railway Quarter, I realized that all of them were empty and abandoned. Tanakpur was going to get a new set of Railway Quarters along with a brand new Railway Station. Or maybe there was a plan to just do away with the concept of Railway Quarters as they have been doing in bigger cities.

With disappointment reigning heavy in my mind, I continued exploring and on reaching the last building in the row, found a new ray of hope.I was standing in front of the 'Railway Guest House’. There was no doubt that this was the same place where my father had spent a night in 1992. I thanked my lucky stars that it was not abandoned till the day of my visit. Some boys who were part of the demolition team were staying there in 2017.

Rly Guest House

Rly Guest House

Demolition Team

On seeing a big camera with me, they requested for a picture to which I happily obliged. They told me that the Quarter and Guest House were to be demolished in 2018 after the resumption of train services.

After taking some more pictures, I started walking back to the hotel along the tracks. Each footstep made me feel more like a defeated person.I was physically there, but still not there. I visited the Railway Station but could only see it getting it demolished. I could locate the 'Guest House', but the 'Goods Office was gone. I could not find a single person to talk to about Tanakpur Railway Station of 1992.Maybe, I should had visited Tanakpur a year ago. It was almost dark and walking back felt like leaving a part of myself demolished there along with the Railway Station. 

In spite of this irony, my Bollywood-infested mind didn’t forget to draw a parallel. My mind made me feel like walking back dejected and defeated like 'Kamal Hassan' at the final scene of the movie 'Sadma' though there was no 'Sridevi' at Tanakpur.

The next 2 hours were even more disappointing as I met at least 30-40 people on the streets and shops. None of them were present in Tanakpur in 1992.

According to 2011 census, the population of Tanakpur was about 17,000. It must have been just 3000 or 4000 in 1992 and none of those people were traceable to me in 2017.

That night I decided to give another chance to myself. I didn’t want to go back to New Delhi as a defeated person.I cancelled my proposed trip to 'Purnagiri Temple ‘the next day and decided to visit the Railway Station again.

It was 8:00 am on 15th April 2017 and I took the road to the main gate of the Railway Station instead of the tracks. I reached there in about 20-25 minutes and was happy to see the Railway Reservation Office. Soon I met 4-5 Railway Employees while I was clicking pictures of the main gate. After clarifying that I was not from any media group, I told them the purpose of my visit and my connection to Tanakpur. They made me realize that 25 years was a very long period as most of the Railway Employees there served for maximum 4-5 years before getting transferred.

Also, no employee stayed there after retirement. Some retired employees were living at Khatima, but they were not sure about Mr Jaiswal as they had never heard of him.

After chatting for about 30 minutes, I thanked them and walked back to the hotel after clicking pictures of the Guest House and other Quarters.

Defunct Time Table

City Side Gate

Rly Guest House

I again walked back along the tracks instead of the road taken in the morning. On passing by each of each older building/structure being in various stages of demolition, all my disappointment got vanished when a positive thought came to my mind.

It was a pleasant morning which made me realize the brighter part of the story. Soon Tanakpur was going to get a Broad Gauge track and a 'Shatabdi Express' to New Delhi. Soon there might be trains for Mumbai,Kolkata and Bangalore too. An obscure tiny town was ready to enter the mainstream on India's map and I was witnessing this transformation. Lord Shiva had decided to 'Destroy' the old Tanakpur to help it 'Transform' and welcome the   new era. 

Abandoned Rly Quarters

Though I had tear in my eyes walking back, this time my Bollywood-infested mind made me felt like 'Salman Khan' at the final scene of the movie 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’. Again, there was no 'Kajol' or 'SRK' there.

Fast forward to February 2018.I was again busy in my routine professional and personal life, shuttling between New Delhi(work) and Mumbai(family), with occasional flights to Raipur(hometown) when I received a call from an unknown landline number.

It was the hotel manager from Tanakpur who had called me to inform that the Broad Gauge track was completed and Tanakpur was to get its train to Delhi in a week. I asked him about how and why he remembered me and called me to give this news. He said that he had seen many tourists visiting Tanakpur for different reasons, but it was only me who visited that place just because of my love for Tanakpur.

He invited me to visit there by train and with my family next time which I accepted. Maybe, I will take this journey soon.

Also, there were 5 interesting people whom I met in those 2 days and would love to meet again apart from seeing the new Railway Station.

I will describe those 5 people some other day.

I was able to locate Mr Harishankar Jaiswal, who lives in Gorakhpur now, on Facebook in 2019. Though he hasn’t replied to any of my messages yet, one of his relatives (also found on Facebook) confirmed that he was the same person who was posted in Tanakpur in 1992. I am still waiting for his reply.

As on today, things at Tanakpur have started growing exponentially after the new Broad Gauge Railway Track. Although the movie 'Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho' has no real connection to the place, there are numerous pictures/videos and online groups on social media which highlight the transformation and current vibrancy of the town. We can find many interesting things online today, but no search on Google tells us 'How was Tanakpur like in 1990s?’.

It seems no one has yet preserved or published anything about Tanakpur as it existed in that period of time.

Owing to my research, I can proudly proclaim that the 3 pages of my father’s diary are probably the only documented source that preserves the tiny town of Tanakpur as it was in October 1992.