A Roller Coaster Day!!

The day was quite similar to the roller coaster we experienced at Essel World today. The plan was made yesterday and this morning 28 people from our ‘rocking’ division marched from college to Vile Parle station. It was a comfortable journey to Malad Station from where we caught a ferry to the amusement park after a round of photo session. With a nice 50% discount on tickets, we entered the gates of childhood again. After warming up with trivial rides, we came to the big one – Thunder. It is basically an extended version of the swinging ‘boat’ we usually have. The difference is that the boat in this case turns 360 degrees. It also adds more spice to your life by staying for a few everlasting seconds at the top with everyone literally off the seats, shoulders pinned into the safety harness which somehow acts against an important force of nature – the gravitational force. There were 2 more favorites – the roller coaster which went through a water pool drenching you from head to toe and from outerwear to innerwear. The second one was the crazy cars where everyone played around 3 – 4 rounds. Guess all the ‘focused’ MBA students felt good to be just aimless. A heavy lunch (aloo parantha with lassi.. aahaa) was followed by a bowling session(after 2 years!!!!) and a shake of leg at the disc. The caravan moved to another session of getting drenched and a grand photo session. Overall it was amazing fun and the roller coaster moved up from morning 10 to 6. Now it was time to come down a bit.

The ‘Drenching’ Ride
Ok. So after getting down from the ferry, Pranshu, Stanley and I took an auto to Boriwali station. Some miscommunications followed which brought us in front of the local which had started moving and which had rest of our group on board. Pranshu – the NDA blood, jumped on the moving train. I had already made up my mind not to risk a tired limb of mine for a Rs 6 ticket. So Stanley and I took the next local. On the way I saw photos for the day on Stan’s Mobile. One that I found strange was that of a Blue colored Nike bag on Pooja’s back. Stan said that he clicked it by mistake. On reaching vile parle, we discovered that same very bag had been left in the train – and it had significant cash, wallets, I Cards and around 4 mobile phones!!! Some coincidence ..huh!!


The Bag
There was a pandemonium outside station master’s cabin who was perhaps enjoying being in the limelight in a regularly mundane routine of his. 2 people had been sent in the next train to the last station - Churchgate where the train was scheduled to stop for few minutes. The timings were being discussed. Key problems areas were being outlined – will they be able to reach on time, how much time will they have to search etc. After gathering more information it was known that they won’t be able to reach on time. Another search party was sent to Bombay Central to intercept the train there on its return journey and try finding the bag. The help desk was in place with real time monitoring being done on the groups, their timings, train’s timings and communication (with 4 less phones though!!). Another noteworthy problem that was at the core of issue was the colossal rush at that hour from churchgate to boriwali. So as a backup measure Bharath and I left for Bandra station to increase the interceptor points of the incoming train (it was a fast local which stopped at few stations only). Never before had I been a part of such a big search operation covering half of Mumbai. The train was scheduled to come into Bandra at 9.14PM on platform 4 (check out the’preciseness’). The timing was too perfect for us when we reached Bandra. We had to change platforms. This was the point where Bharath and I lost contact. I rushed to platform 4, managed to find the right compartment and somehow managed to get inside that also. I penetrated deep into the bogie scanning all bags on the shelf. There was humongous amount of rush – something that I had seen on news channels only. Then I got a call that the bag had been found at Churchgate station and had been deposited at police counter. I breathed a sigh of relief. The roller coaster was coming up again – but there was a small hiccup in between. I realized that Andheri station had come and I was like Abhimanyu standing in the middle of a chakravyooh. I fought – and fought really hard – using every muscle I had ever spent pumping in the gym. The gate was near, people were abusing right and left, I carried on. The train started moving. I believed in myself. I could make it. I pushed people harder. On the gate now. But train had gathered speed and I was advised not to get down. Next thought I got was that I was in for a long ride to Boriwali – back to square one as they say. I touched my wallet to make sure it was still there and realized that I had zero cash with me. The key problem areas had another dimension to it now. It was turning out to be a steep fall for the roller coaster. Luckily for me, the train had turned to slow train after Andheri and it stopped at Jogeshwari(next station). I managed to get down here. After all this, coming back to Vile Parle was a child’s play. So after starting the day with childhood ‘jhoolas’ it was back to a child play. The roller coaster after the full round had come back.