That’s it…15 minutes stood between me and freedom!
The final delivery was done and I was in the process of uploading the last set of documents.
My team mate calls out to me; ‘Hey you don’t plan on staying overnight do you? There’s a train that leaves in 15 minutes …wanna make a dash?’
Of course…who in their right mind would want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere until 10 in the night (which is when help in the form of cabs arrive).
But 15 minutes, Na-ah…tad bit too short a time to make it to the station.
Team mate happens to be a mind reader; says ‘Yeah I know too less time, but there’s another express scheduled to arrive at the normal time today, so this day usually our train’s a good 5 minutes late!’
Now that’s encouraging! So I pass on the buck to another ‘Bakra’ ask him to finish off the last rites….oops formalities and bolt out.
‘Good lord, look at that queue for swiping out!’
‘Never mind…we’ll get an approval for a single swipe. Them buggers won’t debit a leave!’
‘You sure are desperate to catch that train!’
‘Wanna bet?!’

After a lot of running we reach the parking lot…completely out of breath. That took 5 minutes.
As it happens, the last cab to the station had just left. But on our request another cab was arranged and we jumped in…Okie that’s 3 minutes lost.
8 minutes down. The drive takes a good 5 minutes. And I didn’t have a ticket so I’d be needing at least 2 minutes provided the counter was absolutely empty.
Very tight schedule!
We sat in the cab, staring at our watches, wishing it weren’t ticking so fast!
Just when we were about to pull out of the campus a lady drops by with a may-i-intrude-this-party look on her face. I hate such people.
I almost shouted out ‘No this is a private clambake; GET OUT!’
Apparently Miss uninvited guest wanted a drop to the bus stop. Shucks. Another 2 minutes gone. But wait a minute. This lady’s taking for ever to raise her hand to open that bloody door. Make that 4 minutes. Oh brother! We had lost all hopes of catching that train. We didn’t know whom we were mad at. At that stupid lady or at that idiot cabbie!
I was praying to god that the train was indeed 5 minutes late and my team mate for once was right.
In 4 minutes, our uninvited guest’s stop came. As expected she leisurely picked up her handbag, adjusted that extra long duppatta, brushed back her hair and crawled out of the cab slower than a snail. Team mate who was seated next to her turned back and stared at me; ‘You think I should help her with this…you know give her a kick and she’d be out in no time! From where I am, I can really kick her into the moon’s orbit!’
How I really wish that could be possible. But finally the snail rolled out of the cab and we were back on the road. The process took a little less time than expected because team mate thrust the lady’s bag once she was out of the cab and screamed go go go to the cabbie!
But our buffer was already gone. Snail ate up a good 4 minutes. I wonder how come when you’re in such a hurry that you always end up with such sloths!
In a minute we were near the station. Now we had to sprint through a narrow ‘gali’ to get to the station. Which we did. I bet from the look on our faces, the loclaites would have thought this was some shooting of a tamil movie’s climax where 2 girls were being chased by goons in tata sumos.
We got to the station and we could already see our train pulling in. And we had a overhead bridge to cross before we got to that platform!
Team mate looked at me. Oh no…no no no! I am not doing it…But before I could say that out loud she had already jumped down on the tracks. And I followed suit without batting an eyelid…Scrambled on the tracks, slung my bag over the platform, climbed the platform on the other side and hauled team mate up. I am hoping I don’t see any of those folks in that station ever again in my life. I’d die of embarrassment.
We managed to locate the ladies compartment and found ourselves 2 seats. Faces beaming we looked around. No applause. Huh…talk about unsung heroes! The train started pulling out of the station. Just then my team mate jumped…’Sat…Tickets!!!!!’
And I thought the fun was over…!


P.S: Travelled first time w/o ticket. Thanks to Brute, dodged the suspicious TC’s eyes…Why Brute, because the moment I alighted, I pulled out my mobile and called the first number I could see and acted as if nothing was wrong. The idea people, is not to panic ;)
P.P.S: Coming home from work has never been crazier ;)

Song On: Lorna’s Rao Patrao Rao (for Gils’ benefit…that’s from the Nike TV commercial that was aired this WC season :P )
Mood: Crazy

Labels: Moi, Office

Posted by Sat at 9:18 AM
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