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Delhi Diaries - 1



7 April 2018, Saturday

First trip in Rajadhani. I was expecting Raja-comfort, Raja-food, basically Raja-everything. Well, at least I met with two others who felt entitled to the same if nothing else.
We had booked aisle seats/upper berths and entered the compartment to find a grandma and grandpa sprawled across the entire seating area. They were perfectly comfy covered with those thick blankets and showed no enthusiasm to move even a tiny inch to accommodate us. After waiting for may be 30 seconds, I moved the edge of grandma’s blanket aside and placed my butt firmly on the seat. And hubby laid claim to his seat also, right opposite to mine.
After settling down with all the luggage and Pollyanna, I started reading. Much to my dismay, I slowly began to realize that the book I was reading was not what I had intended to read. I had confused Pollyanna with Pippi Longstocking and had eagerly taken it out of the library without even checking it properly. And, Pollyanna was too Pollyannaish. I could not find anything to be ‘glad for’ in my situation except a little relief at having carried my Kindle along.
In goes Pollyanna and out comes Kindle. I decided to tackle ‘The Way of Kings’ and settled down once again to read. After some time, snacks were served – samosa, sandwich and soan papdi. Then at seven, my first tryst with tomato soup happened. On taking a sip, I decided that it was also my last tryst with tomato soup. Dinner was again a sad affair and I concluded that Rajadhani is just a faster third AC train.
At around 9, we clambered up the berths and tried to sleep. The AC vents were very close to my over sensitive feet and I couldn’t sleep. I logged the passing of every hour by dutifully waking up and wriggling my toes. Finally, I fell asleep at 4 in the morning.
We reached New Delhi Railway Station at 8.30 in the morning. I will give you this, Rajadhani sure is punctual. Cabbies, Rickshaws, Coolies all were clamoring outside and we managed to get into an autorickshaw who delivered us to the doorstep of our hotel.

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