Well a large group of my friends all happened to be in Madras at the same time. So I have to be there right? Well thing is I got to know only a couple of days before and of course the weekend should be a festival weekend which means that tickets are not available. I tried all I could but didn't get anything. So what to do now? So I check for tickets the previous day and find a ticket on the Shatabdi. Mind you this is a real nice train. It's a day train so just has AC chair car but it's real nice anyway.

After lunch at work I headed out and came home finished packing and got to the station. Train is on time. Of course the train arrives at the one of the last platforms. Oh well a walk hasn't ever killed anyone. The train stops only for 10 minutes. In this time people who are already on the train try to get off. People who are using the train try to get on. At the same time the coolies (porters) are trying to make some money and trying to get on and off. Amidst all that rush I get in.

Turns out my seat is the aisle seat and this means that I will have to get up every time someone wants to use the loo. Oh well so I wait for the people who are sitting next to me to arrive. One lady arrives with a kid and asks to be let in. My bag is awkwardly placed under the seat so I warn her about it. But the kid cares two hoots and runs in and of course trips and falls and then starts howling! And here I am now feeling bad. Well there were two seats next to me, so once the kid was pacified I settled in assuming that no one else was due. Well I got comfortable and then the dad arrives. I warn him too about the bag. At least someone listened!

Anyways the train is now moving and I settle down comfortable and pull out my laptop and get ready to watch a movie and then the kid needs to go to the loo. Then the dad got an idea and asked me to move to the window seat so that I wouldn't have to be asked to get up every moment. Well I was happy to do that, except that now I had to repack everything and move inside. Oh well, I did that too and then settled.

Well the kid started acting up again as soon as the food came and within a couple of minutes decided to throw up all over. So now the place smells! And so my trip went...