Berth 44 3rd AC

Woke up & got ready in time. Sid had fixed up an auto to take us to Yesvantpur station. Said our goodbyes to Sittu who seemed pretty cold. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. We were out of G.S. Pallya by 5:30. On Hosur road, the Volvo sleepers from Chennai, Hyderabad & elsewhere were on the last leg of their respective journies as our little auto criss crossed between these behemoths. We reached Yesvantpur at 6:45. The auto ripped us off Rs. 500/- (Harsh says City Taxi would have taken Rs. 300/-) and the porter pocketed Rs. 60/- (the tea vendor says the normal charge is Rs. 35 - 40).

The train journey was memorable for a no of firsts. It was the...

-1st time I was travelling by a Summer Special.-1st time I was travelling by A.C., & thank God for that since it was baking hot outside.
-1st time I sat on the footboard alone under an almost full moon night as the train was passing through the CKP-TATA section. Awesome feeling!
-1st time I sat on the footboard alongside a girl (Sweta), as the train passed through the Saranda tunnel.
-1st time I smoked on a train. The fine is Rs. 250/-. We did this after duly informing the attendant (R.S. Prasad from Munger, who kept us entertained with his minibus-brand of shayari).

We also managed to kill time by playing dumb charades with our co travellers (Rony, the 1st year student from Ramaiah College; Arun, the ex-Infosys guy who was going to start his MBA; Kavitha, who had just appeared for her 12th exams & was preparing for AIEEE). Good fun. Reached Jampot on the 26th, about 2 hours late.

It was one of the more enjoyable train journeys I've had.