Christmas 2009!!!!

Unlike my usual way of spending 3day weekends by going to Hyderabad, i decided to go to Bombay for a change. Turned out to be a good decision .

It was Thursday afternoon, My colleague was waiting outside in an auto for me. I was chatting with my boss in London about very important task that i was to take care on Monday. But that was not the reason for me to keep my colleague waiting, i was also chatting with a Russian Julia ;). Oh Yeah she is Hot :). Finally i somehow against my wish ended the conversation and took off to station.

I was supposed to go to Borivali where my friend Bob lives. Buses were packed to full(long weekend) and private travels raised the prices, finally we booked at ticket to Borivali. I looked at my mobile and it was 5:20, buss was scheduled to start at 6:00 and they claimed it to be a non-stop buss, also noticed that my mobile had very little charge.

I switched it off immediately to save watever charge left inorder to call bob wen i reach borivali, atleast that was the plan. As usual travels guy didnt keep his word and buss started at 7:30 from pune. A gruelling journey in a stupid volvo buss has started, i cant stretch my legs because seat infront of me was pushed back and it wont retrea(got conked). Guy sitting behind me was not happy because i pushed my seat back too. Add to this they played "Mere Baap Pehle Aap" movie with full volume , so that you watch it even if you dont want to.

After 3/4th of the journey done, i walked towards the driver asked him how long would it take to reach Borivali, there came the twist. It will never go to Borivali, i need to get down at Dadar and find my own way from there. I kinda anticipated it and so wasnt really surprised(experience in travelling from hyd to pune taught me that, never trust any private travels). Went back to my seat asked my colleague if he had any idea where Borivali was and how i could get there. He had no idea and so i tried to switch ON my mobile to take bob's assistance.

As it usally does i over used my little brain, little charge that was left in it was not enough for my Blackberry(windowsmobile) to boot. Now only phone number i remember is mine, not because i like it. But because i needed it to complete any and every form or application i fill in .

Now i dont know where borivali is, nor do i know bobs phone number. Guess what i left my charger at home(bob has a BB too, thought i would use his). I had to think fast and i thought i can put my sim in my colleagues mobile and get his number. While i was doing it, his destination has come and he had to get down. Turns out that i didnt think fast enough. He got down and wished me luck :).

I asked the guy sitting beside me for his mobile and apparantly his mobile was also dead(which i didnt belive btw). Then i asked the guy beside him, his mobile was CDMA and so its useless for me. Now it gets worst only person left around me was the one sitting behind me, who i pissed off before the journey had begun. But i did ask him and reluctantly he offered to help, he gave his mobile. I told him i need to change the SIM, he took it back and did the SIM change himself and gave it to me. I searched for bob's number and realised that bob's number was stored in mobile and not on SIM(blame it on Blackberry). You should see the look of the guy behind me, he wanted to punch me in the face. Thankfully he didnt.

I got down at Syan, a place that driver suggested would be closer to Borivali. It turns out that he lied again. All i had now was USB cable with wich i can charge my mobile and call bob and find my way through to his place. i looked for Internet cafe and at that late hour none of them were open. I walked into a POSH restraunt and asked for a computer, receptionist politely asked me t o get out, which i did with grace :). While i was looking around for a solution, i saw a fat guy about to close his shop. It was DHL outlet. I ran towards him and asked for help. That i would charge my mobile using their PC for 5 mins, he gave a long thought abt it and said OK.

I knew my mobile wouldnt get charged in less than 30 mins to atleast bootup with a USB cable, specially when its compeltely dead. But i also knew that DHL guy didnt know that. 5 mins was over and we tried booting it up, he was growing restless. I started a conversation, asked him a few questions abt Bombay, DHL and told him a lot about Hyd n Pune. He got friendly now, he was offering solutions. asked me if we can put my sim in his mobile and get the work done. For which i explained the problem. Then slowly i asked him if there is internet to the PC. He said YES but he turned it off as he was about to close the shop. I requested him to reconnect so that i can get bob's number from friends who are online. He agreed and i got online.

I found Soumya on Gtalk, i sent short and clear message that "i need bob's number, URGENT""my mobile is dead". With soumya you wont get answers that easily, you will have to trade answers with answers. She asked me 4 questions before i could even attempt to answer the first. "Did you reach Bombay?" "where are you?""how come you are online?""dont tell me you are in a internet cafe?". Thank god it was not Bindu in her place, it would be even worse :).

she gave the number, DHL guy gave his phone. I called bob and he suggested local train to reach borivali, DHL guy guided me how to go there. He wished me Merry Christmas and i left.

Got into bombay local train and reached dadar where i had to change to Western line and was waiting for a train on platform no 1. I asked a guy infront of me to confirm if i was on the right platform, he concurred and started a conversation asking me 1001 questions. finally train arrived and i got into it tactfully ran away from that chap and took a seat. Travelled for 30mins and reached Borivali(last station). I was standing on the footoverbridge not knowing which way to go, my copassenger saw that doubt in my eyes and asked where i would want to go. I said outside the station, i need to make a call to my friend. He gave me his mobile and said phone booths would be closed by now call him and say you are on east side of the station. Bob wanted me to come on the west side and so i did thanking that copassenger for his help. He picked me from there.

I was begining to think how would an american react when he hears this story

"GPS and a hummer would have solved the problem"

a British

"where there is a will there is way"

a Chinese

"to build a charge that can charge any mobile in 1 min"

a Indian

"Only i could have pulled it off" and that's shameless me :)....hahahaha