Great Escape - Part 1

It was in year 2003; Sunday evening around 4.45PM...Lakshmi and I were running very fast. We were holding our hands,gasping for breathe,drenched in sweat,with fear in our eyes, though our eyes did not meet; After running for complete 5-8 minutes, we slowed down our speed, gradually looking at each other, standing in front of the Chennai central railway station entrance (where you see autos).

I did not know whether to laugh or cry, or rather how to react when Lakshmi burst out with laughter, and seeing her, I caught her Nitrous Oxide, and we were laughing like lunatic for the next 5 minutes (though the slightest possible fear was running in our minds) standing in the most busiest place in Chennai…

We went to railway station at around 3.45PM or so, to sendoff our college friend Kumu (That’s how we call Kumudha). Kumu works for GE, Hyderabad and she came to Chennai for a weekend visit. We were so eager to meet our friend after a long time. So, we wanted to go even before Kumu could come, but as always, we were a bit late…Kumu was already waiting for us in one of the platforms where Charminar express was about to depart.

Eureka!! We found her, and to our astonishment...she had massively put on weight, changed her hairstyle, had done a step cut to her hair, with brows trimmed, & looked like a hi-fi modern girl (She was that typical traditional types while at College with lot of oil applied in hair, does not let her hair float, keeps malli poo everyday, wears only FULL SLEEVE salwars, with duppattas properly pinned).

When we saw Kumu, we immediately exchanged hugs, smiles, mocked a bit about each other’s physical appearances, and started talking about our present life, good old college days, the class room galattas, two day trip to Kodai, and teasing each other. Few minutes later we heard the train siren and departure announcement as an indication that the train is gonna depart. We advised Kumu to get into the train, but still we continued to chat until the train actually started moving. We were standing in the platform until we could barely see Kumu’s face, and waved our hands- not just to her but to all the other passengers in the train.

Having such good moment lingering in our mind, we turned back and started walking towards the station entrance until we saw a few lady inspectors (or however they call the ticket checking inspectors), who stopped us. The thunder storm had then hit our stomach, and a mood of fear started to arouse in both of us, as we looked at each other. With so much of fun & eagerness to meet our friend, we forgot completely to get the platform tickets. The lady inspectors stopped us, and asked for platform tickets, by when we realised that we did not buy one :(

What do u think our reply could’ve been??? Lakshmi told the lady inspector that we got tickets but missed it in our vehicle (which vehicle???), and if the inspector let us go, we can take it and show to her….but to our fate, the lady inspector asked me to stay back with her, and asked Lakshmi to go and get the ticket from the vehicle. Lakshmi slowly started moving cluelessly as to what to do next. She walked few yards away and turned back to look at me.

In the meanwhile, the lady inspector was checking the tickets of the other passer-bys, and we did not know what to do, or how to escape the situation. Few minutes passed by and Lakshmi was still standing there not knowing what to do, and I standing there almost panic, and the lady inspectors were continuing their job...I saw Lakshmi winking her eyes and waving her hands, and we saw the station was pretty much crowded. I hesitated, but in the next fraction of second, I started to run, and Lakshmi joined me and we could hear the inspectors shouting at us; We ran, ran, ran until we reached the entrance of the station, and looked back to ensure, if they were following us. To our surprise, the inspectors did not chase us, or even if they had, they were not able to reach us...

For the next few days, we were just wondering if that lady inspector would publish our photos in the newspaper as “Most wanted Criminals”. We shared this weird embarassing moment with our family members and friends, and this was our topic of discussion for the next few days. Even today if we think about this incident, Lakshmi and I will burst into laughter...

I know...the scene was just lasting for few minutes, but oru mega serial range'la ezhudhirukken...tats ok....as long as it’s interesting, I can write & you can read ;)

I am sure, all of you reading this would have had such wonderful (though not wonderful at that instance!!) experiences. In fact I still have some more such wonderfully weird, absurd, experiences to share… Watch out for more….