Race against time

11 October 2015
New Delhi

The goodbyes and good wishes and parting hugs.
It's 3:45 pm, the train I'm supposed to board leaves at 4:35 pm. I still have time and the railway station isn't very far. I turn around and quickly head to the GTB metro station, which is only a few steps away.

"This won't take long." I think to myself, constantly checking my wrist watch.

As the train is about to reach Vidhan Sabha, this thought crosses my mind - I should take the trip to loo now, so that I don't have to do it on my way back home and wouldn't have to leave my bag unattended. Yes, that would be a wise thing to do.

( NO, IT WASN'T)

I get down at Vidhan Sabha metro station and walk towards the loo. I see this khaki clad woman preening, looking at her reflection in the mirror. Next, I try and open these two loos and when they didn't, I assumed they were occupied. There was a third one too, the door being without a door knob. I decided to wait for a while.

While I was waiting, another girl enters, repeats the process of trying to open those doors and reaches the third one, when this khaki clad lady says - "These two are out of order, only that one (without the door knob ) is functional."

I wondered why she didn't make this revelation a minute before!

I had to wait some more before I got to do my business and leave.

"I should still be able to make it. The metro won't take long." I assured myself.

15 minutes before the train departs.
I reach the New Delhi metro station. The swarm of people wasn't surprising, but was surely distressing. I join one of those not-so-symmetrical queues which was, thankfully, moving swiftly, until -

Until it was my turn.

I place my card at the panel. The error message written in red flashes across the screen. I don't remember what it said, I just remember the colour of it and I guess that very colour spread across my cheeks too, I could feel them burning. I try and place the card differently, a couple of times, but to no avail. I turn for a split second and see the crowd swelling behind me.

The metro card cheated me. At this point. And how!

That's when this metro security person, who was standing there and probably saw this episode of the betrayal of the metro card, came to my rescue. He gave me a token so that I could pass through. I did, but still couldn't let out a sigh of relief. Time was running out. I cut through these two men engaging in a brawl and made my way to the railway station.

10 minutes before the train departs and what I saw wasn't very encouraging.

An impenetrable human fence at the entry, right opposite to the metro station exit, where it says "for ticket holders only". There was no way I could make it to the station in 10 minutes. I was nearly at my wit's end when suddenly, as if a switch was flicked on inside me, I ran to the main entrance, the last resort.

The entrance wasn't any less crowded. I checked the display board for the platform my train was to arrive on. 9, it said. Now, I had to find the way to the platform. I spotted a flight of stairs, and climbed up only to find out that they weren't leading me anywhere. I still looked around to see if there is any way I could join the throng of people heading towards the platforms. None. I rushed down the stairs and saw the sign board, opposite to where I was, saying "platform 16 to 1". And between these two points, was a sea of people to cross.

I was making my way hurriedly to the other end when I heard this voice asking me which platform I wanted to go to and he could take me there without the checking process. I didn't even have the time to look back at the source of the voice. I kept moving. I could see the check point now. I made my way past the people moving leisurely.

The last lap. Reaching the platform. No time to look at the time.

It was for the first time that I actually had to push people aside (gently though) to make my way to platform no. 9. Reached the last set of stairs of this hurdle race. As much as I am afraid of falling down from the stairs, I got down as quickly as I could, with the other voice in my head telling me that a missed train is better than a broken bone.

Thankfully, the coach I was supposed to get into, wasn't very far from the stairs. I got inside and made way to my seat. I sat down, panting by now, sweat trickling down my neck and my throat felt what it might feel to have gulped down a burning piece of coal. I could feel my head and my face throb.

4 minutes for the train to depart. I made it!

It was several minutes before I was finally in a position to call my parents and tell them that I have boarded the train. Doing so while I was still struggling for breath would have scared them and that was certainly not the thing I wanted. I sounded like how a girl having a really happy birthday should.

Oh yes, this adventurous hurdle race happened on my birthday!

Exhausted that I was, I slept like a log for 40 minutes straight. My sense of time was pretty much distorted after that and the 4 hour journey didn't seem very long, like it used to be. All I wanted to do was to crash on my bed as soon as I could.

On the brighter side, I think I won't complain of the inability to fall asleep at night for a few days to come!