Top: Sudha Murthy Middle: Shobha Dey Bottom: Kiran Desai Mornings in train start not when the sun rises but when the tea sellers ring the alarm of ‘chai garam chai’ and that is when you know it’s morning. But I was on the lower berth, and one has to keep lying until the person on the middle berth wakes up and takes it down to sit comfortably. But the girl talked with her mother late into the night and then fought with the bald uncle, too, so she was definitely not going to wake up early. I got freshened up, the train had stopped at Vadodara station, and I was reminded of my time here when I was in class 6th and Kamal Aaji had hosted us ( Gujrat blog ). The air was cold, and a shiver passed through me. I came inside. The bald uncle was sitting crouched because his son was also not up. Then I had a chai, the railway tea, which is more on the sweeter side, it is almost like a basundi chai. I had the morning tea while reading ‘Dollar Bahu’ by Sudha Murthy (Little did I know I was actually...
The day started with voting for the municipal corporation election. Then I had lunch, which was kurkuri bhindi (airfried, honestly it does not taste like the normal), veg pulav that was for tiffin, then matar kachori, tilacha ladu, and then a normal meal. Mumma packed matar kachoris and a very tasty veg pulav for the journey. I got some snacks, but because my bag was full, I left the rest at home. Then I booked an Uber, waved goodbye to Mumma, as Durva and Pappa came till my friend Anjali’s home in Kalamboli, waved them goodbye at the express highway, and finally my journey started. We caught up on pending life updates, and the traffic was almost nonexistent, because it was a voting holiday for all. The moment we entered the BKC, it felt like a new world altogether. We craned our necks to see the tall glass buildings. And just like that, we reached the Bandra Terminus. Carried our luggage and clicked some pictures and videos. I spotted an AMUL outlet, and as we were way before the time...