The Return Journey

(Before you read this piece, I strongly urge you to read The Journey Begins.... and The Garden and the Horse because they provide the background for this story)

After two days in Coonoor and Ooty, it was time to go home......

We got up in the morning, went through the gruelling experience of brushing and bathing (Yes, they were becoming gruelling there) and had our breakfast. My uncle was keeping track of the train in which we had to go back, and the site said at 8 am that the train, which was coming from Assam and we would board it from Coimbatore at 11am, was delayed by over 5 hours. Our initial plan was to get up early and leave. Now that the train was delayed, we thought it was okay if we started off late. Our driver also suggested the same. After all, who wants to rush through the 14 hairpin bends we had to go through when going to Coonoor??

So we leave our housing for the trip at around 9 am on the advice of our driver, who had gone on this route many times and started going back to the Coimbatore Railway Station. 14 hairpin bends and 2-3 mountain descents later, we were back on the straight road. 

Then we thought, why not visit the college my mother studied in? Anyway, there were 4 hours left. So we took a short detour and went to the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, from where my mother graduated almost 2.5 decades ago. We made her stand in front of the gate and took few pics. Then, we were back on track for our return. 

Then, a crisis situation happened. Somehow the train made up time faster than expected, and it was to reach Coimbatore railway station in under 3 hours. Our driver constantly assured us that we would make it on time, but we could feel that he might be feeling guilty for suggesting us to start late. 

We had to take diversions, which further added to the time crunch. Luckily we got to the railway station on time. We gave our driver a small gift, rushed to the platform and bought some food to eat on the train. I thought during this pandemic, no one would risk travelling on a train. 

But how wrong I was!!!! When the train came and was slowing down, not one coach was empty!! All were full!!! In my mind, I was like, "This is the last thing I want in this situation, but it is what it is", and we went in. 

The majority of the passengers were migrant workers. The ticket collector told us that almost all of them would leave after reaching Ernakulam. Truly enough, we were free after Ernakulam. 

My uncle's family got off at Kayamkulam, and by the time we reached Kollam, it was nearly 10pm. After waiting for a while, we caught a bus and reached the main junction. However, our house was further away, so we decided to catch an auto-rickshaw. My father talked to the driver and told us the ride would cause Rs 300. Given that it was late in the night, we knew rides would get expensive. So we rode off and reached home soon. We paid the driver Rs 300, and he went his way. 

Thirty minutes later, we heard a honk at our gate and saw that it was the same auto driver who left us. We thought we had given him some fake currency notes, and he had come to tell us about it. But no. He came to return Rs 210 to us from the ride. 

We asked him, "Wasn't the ride for 300?". He said, " The ride was only for 90. You paid me way extra!!".

(In Malayalam, 90 is "Thonnooru", and 300 is "Munnooru". So confusion was bound to happen, especially when you are half asleep). 

He gave us the extra back and went his way. We chatted for a while and went to sleep. 

The trip to Ooty was a much needed inner-cleansing experience. Now that it is over, I have to once again stare at the black Google Meet screen and occasionally hear the words, " Am I audible? ".