Winter Break : Part I

Manipal - Mangalore - Chennai
10.12.2010

The day when Semester V officially ended. My exams had got over on the 8th itself, but I was waiting for my roomie to finish his exams, so we could leave on a legendary trip back home. His family had recently shifted to Gangtok, and so I had booked his ticket to Howrah. Anish, a Bosconian, would be accompanying us for the first time ever on our journey !

Last exam, Priyank had hardly studied anything, and instead of packing or studying, he had spent most of his time watching Coffee with Karan (or I think Koffee). Anyways, his exam ended at 5 in the evening, and he rushed to the room. We started packing everything in a haste. Literally, stuffing everything in the almirah. We had decided to meet at 6pm at TC. But obviously, time and tide waits for none, so we ended being late. After recharging Surdas' TATA Photon+, we reached TC at 6.30 only to find the Volvo full. So we decided to take the local bus.

It was drizzling and the weather was awesome. The bus started at almost 7pm, and the chilly breeze and the Kannada movie which they were showing in the bus was quite pleasant. The movie talked about a girl, a hero (his brother I think), and a villain. All kinds of animals were brought into it. Bullocks overturning bullock-carts, snakes killing the girl's father, and the lion who could be tamed so easily by the hero.


We reached Mangalore at 8.45pm and made our way to the Station, where the West Coast Express was standing on the platform waiting for us. Our coach was very far down the platform, and our coach was full of MITians. We settled down, used TATA Photon+ to update our Facebook status msg, and started playing FIFA after a while. I must admit I was delighted at winning a game against Priyank (I lost the series 1-4 though). We finally slept off after a family with quite a luggage barged into our coupe. Next day too we spent time playing Family Feud, FIFA and watching HIMYM on a friend's laptop.

The train arrived at Chennai Central at 3.15pm (No delay) and we had to wait for about 40 mins to keep the luggage in the cloak room. After keeping our luggage, we then argued with an auto wala to take us to Marina Beach. I was visiting Marina Beach for the first time after the Tsunami that tore apart the Bay of Bengal. We stayed there for a while, clicking photos and roaming around.

We then made our way to the Citi Centre, not far from the beach, where we refreshed ourselves, and roamed about the mall for 4 straight hours. We ate at the KFC and Pizza Hut and did some efficient window shopping. At about 9.30pm we reached the station, passing through Spencer's and Express Avenue. While seated in the station we spent time identifying logos and texts throughout the station. As soon as the platform announcement for Howrah Mail came, we collected our luggage from the cloak room, and made our way to platform number 8. The train finally left the next day at 0010 hrs (instead of 2340 hrs).


We met an awesome group of Biharis in our coupe, who were studying at JIPMER Medical College. Their stories were amazing. Time spent by like almost a whisker. We received lunch and dinner at Vizag and Bhubaneswar stations from Priyank's relatives. Home felt close. Next day we reached the Howrah station early at 0400 hrs. Anish dropped us at our home on way to his. Finally we had the comfort of home, the much awaited sleep that eluded us !

Winter Break : Part II was next.