Kanpur - The Journey of a Lifetime
Finally giving words to one of the best travel experiences of my life till date. This post is more of a collection of a few of my memories of the great trip.
November 2011, the semester about to end. I was gearing up for semester end, Aravind registers me up for the tech fest held by IIT Kanpur.
The fest was to be held during the end of January, but we started working our asses off right from December I guess. We almost worked 15-18 hrs a day, sometimes working all night [though it was me who worked all night, and Aravind just dozed off after 12AM].
We left Bangalore a few days in advance, some 4 days before the event was to start. We went by train! Hell yeah, it was one amazing journey. 36 hrs of pure entertainment! I think it was the time everyone made maximum use of the GPS facility provided by our mobile phones. Fortunately (though we called it unfortunate back then) our train would go only till Jhansi, after that we were on our own.
Night One:
We left around 9 PM, Rajdhani Express. After the free dinner served in the train and the initial excitement had settled down, Aravind and Ganesh shared one berth, Mike was lost in his world messaging away to glory. Being a person who hates slumber during a journey, all I could do was sit and maybe dream :P while the rest of them dozed off. Kishan was up for a while but he too couldn’t resist sleeping.
Next day: mornings on the train are quite unique, you have just 2 toilets and everyone wants to go :P. Well, once the toilet crisis and breakfast were done, we were pretty much jobless — watched a few movies, stood at the door feeling the wind, walked about the train, had some Nagpur oranges. Well, that was pretty much it on the train that day.
That night, we were due to reach Jhansi that night, so after our dinner we were glued to GPS tracking our position. As usual Ganesh was busy asleep, Mike and Ojas were busy messaging, Kishan was with his music.
We got off at Jhansi at 2 in the night. It was cold, people formed small groups and were having a smoke to keep them warm. Many of them wrapped themselves in blankets. Here we stood, with just our usual normal Bangalored-styled clothes, shivering a bit. With no idea how to proceed from here to Kanpur at this time, Ganesh and Ojas went around enquiring, well I had one cup hot coffee — brilliant!
After some questioning and being tried to be cheated, there were two trains we could take, both with a difference of 30 minutes. The first one was crowded, people were hanging on each other. The other, well, was to start from Jhansi itself, but it took 2 hours more than the first train. With no option left, we took the empty train — a really dirty, quite stinky, dark train, getting ourselves seated on metal and wood which were cold enough to get our asses numb in a dimly lit bogie, we waited for the train to start.
The train started moving at 3AM, it would move for about 15 minutes and halt for at least 20 minutes. Everyone other than me was in a state of semi-slumber.
Once the sun was up, we would take chances, sitting near the window to warm ourselves up a little. The part of this ride that made it worth it just lasted a few moments. I think the picture will express much more than what I can.
Finally we reached Kanpur at 9 AM, with a sigh of relief getting off that train. Walked out of the massive railway station, designed along the lines of Islamic-Indian architecture. A bunch of rickshaw drivers waited outside to pester us, a few of them attempted to cheat us. Luckily, finding our way out, we found ourselves a decent lodge, had lunch, and I do not know what happened after that for the next few hours. I went into the deepest slumber. On waking up, it took me at least 10 minutes to realise where I was and what was going on (the room was converted into a semi-lab :P).
Phase II
Once in our small little cave, we set up our work and it was time to eat! So there we went again, hunting for a place to eat. No grand hotels there, but we found some small place with excellent food. All the various kinds of parathas and the paneer and what not! Got back to our small little workplace and worked (I was still blank, dunno what I was doing).
It was dinner time, I had got my senses back by then. We went out again, this time farther away in search of a hotel, ate something decent (parathas again) on our way back, and had a sweet feast! Stopped at a sweet shop and tasted every possible sweet which looked good (rabdi + rasmalai + sandwich halwa + … + …).
From this point on I do not remember the exact sequence of events — it’s too hazy in my head. But yes, I do remember all the events!
Next day: we moved closer to the IIT campus, to a hotel where we were cheated. Expensive hotel, we had food there only once, and it sucked. The dhaba next door was much better.
Anyway, after relaxing ourselves etc. etc., the next day we took the ₹2 auto to the IIT campus. One hell of a huge campus! Got ourselves registered and took a stroll around the campus.
The next day was our event I guess, which didn’t go that well — actually went horrible! That was it, we were now free from all work. From that day on, we loafed about the campus, ate, ate, and ate :P
That evening was a talk by RMS on creative commons, followed by some pizzas and a long walk back to the hotel room at 12 in the night!
The following day was very much similar, but had its own adventures in store for us. Most of the morning was spent loafing around the IIT campus, we went around to the far ends of the campus, the observatory, the air fields, etc.
The fun started in the evening. Ojas smuggled some rabdi into the theatre where we saw some shadow puppetry. When he was frisked, people thought he had a plastic ass :P
After the show we went out, grabbed some food, then we cycled (I took the back seat) to the astronomy club, where they were sky-gazing at 1 in the night. The misty night, our fingers numb, sweaters barely keeping us warm, we finally reached and met the sky-gazers group. Looked up into the sky, it was bliss! Peaceful, serene, beautiful! A few of the images are still fresh in my head, one of them was Saturn! We saw Saturn, a tiny little dot on a dark canvas, with its rings giving it a unique distinction from all the other heavenly bodies we saw that day. Such beauty, maybe will never be seen by me ever again (I’m hoping not). Coming back to the central area, it took some time for us to get over what we had just seen, ate some rabdi, took a long stroll back to our room, walking down those misty roads, talking about my favourite topic (more of introspection, it was), we finally hit the bed in a jam-packed room with 25 others, I guess.
The next morning, we planned to attend the Rubik’s cube workshop, but were late to register. Later we went around, there was a photo exhibition, quite impressive I must say.
That evening was the concert by Kailash Kher. In order to get some decent place we stood in the line quite early, finally got into the area and, well, I was bored after 10 minutes — the sound was terribly loud, the crowd not my kind :P. So Aravind and I left the venue, took a stroll, a nice misty night, some cool songs playing in the background. We came across this building exactly opposite to the place where the concert was taking place, and this building was acting as the reflecting point for the sound, causing an echo. Climbing up to the 9th floor, we could see the concert, the sound was perfect, the weather amazing, and not to forget the moon ;) — quite the perfect setting (just the wrong person :P, watta waste).
This was followed by an excellent plate of hot Kanpur special tandoori chicken! [Ah, those days.]
Well, this was it — next day was goodbye Kanpur. Going back to the railway station, we left the luggage in the cloak room, went around the city, did some shopping, took a cycle rickshaw (much against my will), then back to the station, saying goodbye to Kanpur.
One of the best journeys came to an end this way. A lot was learnt on this journey — it has become the foundation to what I have become and the things I have been doing for quite a while now.
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This blog may be the most boring and pointless of all blogs till date, for you as the reader. It is written more for me than for the reader, to help me relive a few of the best memories I have. Many of these memories go beyond the visibility of this blog, which have shaped me to who I am today.
To the person I met on the train, I do not know your name. If by chance you read this, you should know we have done more than what you overheard that day. Thank you for the insight.
Travel mates:
