To Hyd and back

Vacation was too short. And very very average. I hated the fact that I had to work. It was too hot and too humid (Hyd and humid?! Hyd always used to be so dry, god!). And all in all, very short. Did I say that already? Well, lets move on..

In a rare lapse of neurons, I completely forgot that an e-ticket with Indian Railways needs to be printed. When we were leaving home, I remembered because Subhash asked. And then to the station it was one long tense and nervous and nightmarish (my imagination gets the better of me, what if I have to get off the train and take the bus because I have no ticket) and so on and so forth. We reached the Majestic station and went and inquired at the reservation office. Standard government office protocol, didn't go anywhere with it, gave up and entered the station. Found this Chief Ticket Inspector (CTI) and asked him if there was an internet cafe with a printer (we kept looking for it while we were driving to the station but a) the cab driver was in too much hurry since he had another pickup and b) we never found one on our side of a less busy road). The CTI said there was and we went there only to find that the power had gone off (and the owner added that this kind of power outage was VERY RARE, yeah, well, that bit of info didn't help ease any tension).

One lucky thing was that we were early to the station (by 5.15 for a 6.20 train) so we could afford to hang around to wait and see if the power would grace us. But no. So we went back to the CTI and asked him what we could do since we forgot the print out. He said, no issues, if you have your IDs, show it to the TC and he will give you a paper ticket for a fine of 50 INR. I was like, whoa! If I knew this I wouldn't have worried so much. But still there was that small doubt if it would be as simple as that. So the rest of the train ride was spent nervously waiting for the TC. Plus the station vendors didn't have any Tinkle comics. So my journey was not so enjoyable as I had imagined and looked forward to it being :(

The TC came, checked the IDs, issued a paper ticket for a 50 INR fine, all without any ado at all! So much for my four and odd hours of eyebrow-knitted worry :( The next day I was printing the return ticket so that at least I remember that when I noticed that in the ticket's instructions itself, it says if you forget your print-out, you will be charged a 50 INR fine. I printed at least 50 IRCTC tickets so far without ever noticing that fine print. So much for it! So next time you forget to carry a print out, DO NOT PANIC! ;)

Rest of the trip was spent in part working and in part visiting relatives. I did manage to eat my favourite ice cream @ Softy Den and that yumm Universal Burger but rest was pretty routine.

Last day was Rama Navami so we went to a nearby temple which happens to be his parents routine every year. We sat through the Sita-Rama Kalyanam but the pradakshinas around the temple were painful since the floor was scorching hot, we were just running all over the place. Then we had lunch standing over the most hot and poking mud-stone floor I've ever set foot on. Plus it was hot and our journey back was hotter since car was like an oven by the time we got into it.

My mom made some dinner to carry with us (theplas, yumm!) and added neat packaging to boot (I think I get my lunch packing skills from her) plus threw in some biscuits. All in all, yumm. But I had just come back from all the heat above and my psyche was also a little rubbed and heated on the wrong end, so I didn't thank my mom enough for the lovely dinner she bought. Sometimes I feel we take moms so much for granted, that its pathetic. So here is to my mom and all the lovely things she does for me!

My mom and Subhash's mom added generous doses of pickles to get back home, and now we are having one every day, there is so much pickle variety that its mind blowing!

Tomorrow is yours truly's Happy Birthday people! So let the wishes start coming in ;)

back to work now. Sigh!