I am Directly Related to Trouble

I don’t remember when I took my first steps, but I am sure they were heading towards trouble. And since I don’t remember, let’s cook up a story (as always).

I was playing with juno (my big brown teddy bear that protected me against the monster that hid under my bed, every night), when I heard the door bell ring. My mom was in the shower and chances were that she didn’t hear the door bell ring else there would have been some commotion. My mom would have run towards me to tidy me up before she presents me to the guests, and then chase Sandy (our first dog) to tie her up. But since none of this was happening, I got anxious and to discover what was wrong; I got up on my two feet, with the help of the wall.

“Wow! This is what the world looks like from up here”, I thought to myself.

I was happy and clapping my hands. Sandy didn’t notice my achievement. She was busy barking at the door.

I walked into my parent’s room and could hear my mom singing a song while in the shower. “Why is she making that noise?” I wondered.

I somehow pulled myself up to reach the handle of the door, but all that came to my hand was the lock. I turned it around.

In no time, there was continuous ringing of door bell, Sandy was barking endlessly and now my mom had figured it all out and she had started yelling too. I didn’t understand what was going on. I was scared now. It took me a while to realize that I had locked my mom inside the bathroom. How did I do that? I am just a baby.

Now the phone had started ringing too. It was getting noisier. My mom was trying to explain me how unlock the door. But I got confused between “left” and “right”. Somehow, my dad (who was at the door), broke in through the kitchen window and rescued us. That’s when I knew, my dad was my DAY hero (Juno being my NIGHT hero).

Ever since that day, I have been landing into troubles. Sometime involuntary, but mostly voluntarily. Like the time, I decided to get off the connecting flight from Trivandrum to Mumbai, at Manglore, because my dad gave me some emotional talk on how he was craving to see me.
In that half an hour halt, I got approval from my boss for leaves; I got down the aircraft, got my luggage out and signed a consent form. But as fate was to have it, I wasn’t allowed to leave Manglore airport premises until the aircraft reached Mumbai (just so, I had planted a bomb in the flight, I could be easily arrested). It was 9 PM and the flight landed Mumbai at mid-night. I was free to go now (even though I didn’t know how and where to go). Luckily, a group of flight attendants had just finished their shift and were leaving too.

I tagged along. Even though I didn’t know where I was going, I just asked them to drop me at whatever juncture I can get a cab for the nearest bus-stop/ railway station.

They dropped me at an empty cross road, with just one auto rickshaw standing in the dark and not a single soul around (except for maybe some street dogs). As scared as I was, I didn’t let that show on my face. I walked up to the rickshaw, summoned up enough courage to wake the driver up from his sleep and told him that I wanted to go to the nearest Bus stop.

He gave me the same look as the station master gives to Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met, though Jab We Met was released after this incidence. Before he could say anything, I hopped in and it was an hour ride. It was so dark that I couldn’t read the name of the places we were passing by. I started murmuring some chants and relied on the driver.

He then dropped me at this remote and lonely Bus Stop, where I could only see some shadily dressed men, smoking bidi (cigarettes), and a few ruins of buses.

A quick scan of the place told me that it’s not going to be a safe ride home. I went up to the ticket counter, and woke up the person behind the counter (Wonder why was everybody asleep at 1 AM). He told me the next bus will leave only at 4 AM. I could not risk my life till 4 AM, so I decided to walk up to the railway station and get the next available train.

But God had already decided not to give it easy to me. As it turned out, the train I should have caught was leaving in front of my eyes. Alas, I wasn’t a bollywood actor who could jump in a running train. So I went back to the bus stop and decided to wait until 4 AM.

Mind you, back then, India did not have smart phones (or maybe I didn’t have one), so no GPS, nothing to get online information, and nothing to entertain you. Somehow I survived till 4 AM. Now they had started boarding passengers, into the same bus which looked like ruins of a bus. Passengers included two old men, a group of middle aged men (I didn't know what they looked like, as they had their faces covered with stoles) and a driver. I got the end corner seat for myself (if we could call it a seat at all).

It was a rough ride and I didn't think we will reach Coimbatore in single piece, but we made it in about 3 hours. Now, it was getting brighter, I could see some people on the streets and I was relieved. My phone had turned off too, so I couldn’t get in touch with my parents to tell them where I was. I thought they must be worried sick, so without wasting a single moment in searching for a telephone booth, getting something to eat and freshening up, I got the next available bus to Ooty.

That seemed like a never ending journey, but finally I made it home. I slept like a log after that and woke up after 24 hours with sore muscles. And my dad swore that he would never give me emotional talks (which didn’t last long) :)

Many more of my adventure stories coming up soon!