Train to Jampot

Its been a week since I have landed in this pot(....also known as the Jampot) and after struggling to get my laptop work with the wireless stuff around here finally given up. So sitting in this computer centre I am writing my first post from the pot!!!

The train to Jampot!!! (resemblance to any book title by a hairy horny punjabi is incidental)

after much speculation and browsing thru the web pages of Indian railways, I had finally booked my tickets by a rajdhani....and thanks to the chirkut community portals, i knew I was not the only one one that train. The scene at the railway station was nothing less than a typical bollywood masala movie with five ppl coming in to drop a single chap who was not travelling alone for the first time....but that in turn has its own benefits to it. I was not carrying any of the three heavily loaded bags and even did not have to "adjust" them in the compartment. It was more like being ushered into a executive class of an airline. After the blessings and good byes, the train moved on.
It was nothing like a classic train journey one can write abt but a typical boring one where I was desperately waiting for the train to reach its destination. I tried finding a few ppl i knew were on the same train but never managed to. Once the train finally reached Jampot (and that was "just" 2 hrs delay from scheduled time.....man the railways are improving) i de-boarded and went out to look for company to the college. All I cud see was more coolies than the passengers. I too was immediately veiled by them but somehow used my yet to be learnt managerial skills to get out of the mess. Soon a calm guy approached me and asked if I need an auto. By the face of it, he mustve guessed where I needed to go and that I definitely needed one. Hence began the bargaining skills of mine....I had already been told abt the fare and so could negotiate the auto guy for it but he was more stubborn than I was. Finally he came down to a margin of ten rupees from my price. Had this been the situation when I was working, I would have settled for it but now that I was a student, I knew how much ten rupees could mean. So even I stuck to my price and finally he gave up. But I didnt knew that I had just won the battle and the war was still on. Once into his auto, he started the emotional blackmailing. Here are a few of his quotable quotes during the journey (those unknown to hindi, just move on with it) "kya sir...itni badi train se aae ho, das rupiye ke peeche itna rona" and "das rupiye mein na aap amir ho jaoge aur na main garib"

I some how managed to bear through it all and finally reached the college. Once I paid him his share and a "tip of ten rupees" (I still paid my quoted price for the trip...this was just the tip), he came up with another one....kya sir bas das hi rupiye ka tip doge ???

and I knew I am in for loads of fun in the two years to come by!!!