Trip to New Delhi in Jan2008

13th Jan 2008, 9.00 pm:

I was anxious about the journey to be done. Firstly because, I was traveling alone and secondly because, I was going for a symposium where I had to present my work in the form of a scientific poster. I took out my check-list and made sure that all the necessities were kept. The list included: 1. Ticket, 2. Poster, pen drive, fevicol, Marker; 3.Money; 4.Camera, cable, charger; 5.Mobile, Charger; 6.Hand-outs, reference articles, white-sheets; 7.Robinson Crusoe, Diary; 8.Cloths and Warm Cloths. The temperatures in Delhi were very low close to 4 degrees above zero and hence my travel bag included lot of warm clothes. All things were put together in one bag. I also had my poster kept in a long cylindrical chart holder that had to be carried along separately. The Yeswantpur railway station is about 2 kilometers away from my hostel in IISc campus and it takes about 15 minutes by walk. I decided to walk down rather than taking an auto as my friend Mr Naga Raju was there to see me off in station. Mr Naga Raju is my batch mate and is graduate student in Organic Chemistry department. He helped me carry the luggage and we started to walk towards the station. We walked down leisurely as there was enough time before the scheduled departure of the train at 10.20 pm. We crossed the Yeswantpur circle and entered the Yeswantpur Market. Yeswantpur Market is a place where fresh vegetables, fruits and all house hold necessities are sold. This area looks much different from the posh places in Bangalore. The vendors sit on the road side and vegetables lay on the mat spreaded on ground. The ambiance is very similar to that of a market in any small town of India. The market was crowded despite being quarter past nine in the night. We realized that it was due to the Sankranti festival (also called Pongal) starting the next day. We reached the station by 9.30 pm, bought a platform ticket for Mr Naga Raju. We reached the plat form, I boarded the train, placed my luggage. I asked Naga Raju to leave without waiting for the departure of the train. As Naga Raju left, I entered the coach and sat down and had a look at the people around. (to be continued..)