Sunday, October 15, 2006

Tune to marwa diya yaar

Seeing Europe through train is the most enjoyable experience but i didnt know it would be such which i will never forget in my life.
It was a weekday and i had to go to Sttugart, Germany to collect my passport which i submitted two days back to get my Swiss visa stamped. Guggu couldnt come as he had to go to his office.
One day before we bought the return ticket for the place. Train tickets are real expensive in Europe and being Indians we wanted to save every penny.
It was something like this :

We both reached the Hauf - bhanoff (Raliway station in English) one day before to buy the tickets. Our chance came and lady at the counter told us about the rates. It was 40 Euros two way. 40 euros means arnd 2000 INR. Obviously calculation was done instantaneously ;). Seeing our face, she told us about a cheaper option. A sceme was there that if you travel after 9 a.m. you will get the ticket in half i.e 1000 INR (20 euros) and both of us jumped on the idea. But there was a problem. If i take 9 'o clock train, i will only reach Sttutgart by 11:30 a.m. and reaching the Swiss visa consulate from Stuttgart, HB (Hauf - bhanoff) by 12 :00pm was highly impossible. At 12 'o clock the office closes. So the only option was to take train before that which was at 8:40 a.m costing us double the amount.
The lady at the counter was so sweet that she told us about another option when we told her our problem. She said "If you have a pass for zone 4 (zonal passes are very famous in europe which is valid for some areas) , you can board the train at 8:40 a.m. A station will come after some time which is out of zone 4 where you pass will not work but by then it will be already 9 and you can use your ticket of 20 euros". "Oh wow...what an idea..." we thought. "Thanks a lot" we told the lady, bought the ticket for 20 euros and we were out happily.

The twist in the story is that now we have to think about the zone 4 pass which we didnt have. :) What shall we do? My dearest hubby got a very good idea. He had been travelling in trains for the past one month and i believed him.He told me that no one is going to check my ticket early in the morning and its just a matter of 20 min. I agreed.
Next morning, inspite of heavy rain, i boarded the train. It was 8:40 a.m. I opened my bag and started listening to the cd player. I was also praying at the same time that no ticket checker should come. But something in my mind was telling me that something is going to happen.

It was 8:50 am.m. One station came. Many people boarded the train and among those were two men both wearing light blue shirts and black pants. Somebody from above, probabl God told me that they are the ones. Oh No.....i thought in my mind. I started to gather my things and pretended to go to WS as we do in India but i wasnt so lucky. I came face to face with one of them. He asked me to show my ticket. Pretending that i am searching for the same and took some time to take it out, he went off asking from other people. I was about to dodge the second one, when the first one told the second to check my ticket. "Ho gaya kaam tamam", i thought. I had to take out my ticket and i showed that to him. It was 8:54 a.m. He showed me his mobile watch that it is not still 9:00 and you have boarded the train before that. He didnt know so much of English but i tried explaing him that i have got the pass for zone 4 (which i didnt) and what all i could think in that time. After some time of our arguement, he took my ticket, punctured it and he left me :). I ran towards the washroom and called Guugs to tell the whole "Kand". I was in the washroom for around 20 min. I thought its all over now and i can happly go back to my seat. I came out of the WS and to my dismay saw the two siting just out of the WS, waiting for me?
It was not over yet, i thought. I tried to sheepliy come out of their way. To my surprise, they didint say anything to me. Never ever i saw them again and ran with my legs on my head.

Tarun tumne to mujhe marwa diya yaar, yeh bolkar ki koi nahin ayega ticket check karne...........
This is how i escaped the fine and other penalities which could be huge sums if that checker knew english.

2 comments:

Tarun said...

This is toooooo gud !
u made the whole story so interesting and I was just thinking I missed being with u tat time n i wud hv loved to c the expressions on ur face ! ( not tellin u tat i m there around bcoz whole scene then wud hv changed )

wow wish I cud mka u do al this al over again ! but seriously honey i travlled there for 60 days b4 i gave u this suggestion obviously all time passes with me but not even once some1 checked my tickets :)
chalo it was gud u didnt know German n they english else "Tera Kya Hota Kaalia" ?

~Guggs

Anonymous said...

soniye... khuch hor vi likho...

changa likhya hain tussi.. :)