Memories - The Train Travel

 

Painting by artist Bijay Biswas.

It's been 10 years since my first day in college. It's been 10 years since I met some of the most important people in my life. It's been 10 years since life took a big U-turn. 

So, in 2013, when I was all ready to join Calicut Medical College, AIIMS results came out. AIIMS had a separate entrance exam at that time. My rank was 84, and every plan suddenly changed overnight. Even though it was a good rank, it wasn't good enough to get into Delhi, so I was planning to join in Kerala itself. but then a lot of discussions came out about where to join, and even I was interested in joining AIIMS, as advised by my teachers and parents. But then there was a lot of confusion; I didn't have any cousins or relatives who studied outside Kerala, nor did I know anyone, and we had no clue how to go to Delhi. The longest distance we've ever traveled since then was Ooty, which is 5 hours from my home. Finally, my uncle Sathi came and told us he would come with us to Delhi for the counselling. So as per plan, we would reach there by train, and he would reach there from Bangalore.

Since we have never been on a flight before and the prices were super high, we took the train. Brilliant's (the coaching institute's) success celebration was one day before our train, so I couldn't attend, which made me sad. The train we booked was Kerala Express, which didn't have a stop in Tirur; it turns from Palakkad. So, we caught the train from Thrissur. That was the first time I had ever been to an AC compartment. Was I excited? I don't remember. My mother and father were there, and the opposite seats were already occupied by a boy around my age, his father, and a military guy in his uniform. The boy was no one else but Akhiljith, who would later become my classmate and my best friend to this very day.

I call him Jith now, so I will address that; back then, I used to call him Akhil, which does feel strange now. Jith was too involved with reading some volume of a book synopses of which second volume he gifted me later while we were in college, and I was reading Shivaji Sawant's Karnan. I was a passionate reader back then and was a huge fan of Mahabharata, as was my father. We would read every available version of Mahabharata, from Karnan to Bheem, and both of our favorite characters are Karnan. I would lose that book later in the hotel where we would be staying. We were both so involved in reading that we would both eventually finish those books the next day. Our parents started talking and got to know each other, and eventually we also started talking. Jith was planning to join AIIMS Rishikesh as he was very interested in the place, but we were all trying to convince him not to as it was the time of floods in Uttarakhand back then. He was so adamant about his choice but would later join AIIMS Bhopal in the subsequent counseling, about which I still make fun of. His father, Ajith uncle, and my Achan would tell us stories about the places we pass by as we reach different stations, and the Soldier would also share his experiences from the military. Two days passed very fast, and we all became very close to each other.

When we reached Delhi, Sathi's uncle's friend was there to take us to the hotel, and Jith and uncle had some other arrangements. Counselling was the next morning. Me and Sathi's uncle went together; I met Jith there, but we had counseling at different times. I chose AIIMS Bhopal, and then me, Amma Achan, and Sathi Uncle went back in search of South Indian hotels as we were already missing our food. The next day, we got a train back to Kerala.

It was just a few days before my collage joining date, and after coming back from Delhi, days went by with preparation to go to Bhopal. 15 days later, we would come to Bhopal, and who knew then that I was going to one of the most beautiful places ever!