Amritsar to Ahmedabad~ Because I love Alliteration.

As you might have figured out by now that most of my travelling endeavours are a result of my choice to choose varied places as examination centres, this is one such too. To me, it is the most convenient reason I can give my parents to unleash the traveller in me and yet try not to be judged for just roaming around in a random city.
This entry follows my route through the cheerfulness and joy of panj abs to the non violent and peaceful sabarmati. From the land of Bhagat to the soil of Gandhi. From the chaos to the quietness. And from activity to lassitude. I could only think of these many adjectives to point out that I went from Amritsar to Ahmedabad. To be more specific to Gandhinagar.
My journey will trace from the capital of punjab to gujarat to bhaarat. I started from Amritsar, shared the train with two old uncles who got way too political and way too friendly first with each other and then with me, so much so that I got to know one’s daughter was cartoonist for India TV/ model whatever that means and I was made to say “very pretty” to the constant what sap picture his kid was pinging him. Finally amidst all the kid talk, modi being best and khalsa college diaries I reached Chandigarh.
Tired of all the talking around this time I pretended to be the not so friendly, don’t talk to me I am reading, I cannot hear you I have earphones on and I can’t see you through these glasses girl. This helped me stay put all the unwanted conversations and I reached Dil walon ki Dilli with not so open heart. I had to wait a while to catch my train to Ahmedabad and while strolling with a stroller, I stumbled upon paradise. With greedy expression on my face and tongue sticking out. No, it was not a food stall. I saw a Bookshop. Now, I have this super power to kill time on the railway station book shops without being weird. *atleast that’s what I think*. So I browsed and browsed and changed my gaze from Aditi Rao Hyderi to John Abraham to Shiv Khera and Sri Sri, till my eyes got stuck on Chankya’s Chant. It was love at first site. Though a little worried about how am I going to stuff Chankya in my little puma bag I was determined to buy it. I saw it as another opportunity to kill time. To arrange and re arrange everything in my bag till Chankya was part of it. It took 25 minutes of meticulous reordering and perseverance and I succeeded.

Train arrived and I sat to share my dibba with a bunch of loud Gujaratis. Amist the loud sounds of khakra munching and namkeen hogging, and roaring gujrati bhajans I tried to engross myself in the 21 guns of green day and keep my eyes fixed on the amitav’s sea of poppies. Alas all my tactics come to play with the fall of night and I was lulled to sleep by the train.
5 minutes to reach the destination, Sabarmati, I encountered what no one with good olfactory should in a close AC dibba of a train. The namkeen,theplas and khakis had done their deed. The only recourse I had was to sniff like an addicted of what was left of my sanitiser. Ha! those five minutes. Anyhow I’d landed the land of Gandhi.
Here, things were so different from the loud, chaotic station of Amritsar. Not only was the station clean, it din’t make me feel like a superstar. How you ask? The superstar theory states that as soon as you deboard a north indian railway station, you become the superstar for all the autowallas, rickshaw wallas, taxi wallas, tonga wallas and all other modes of transportation you may require to reach your destination. However, pleasing this may sound, the experience is horrendous enough to make you forget where you want to go. Here things were different nobody came howling,begging and manipulating to hire their vehicle. I waited a fair 10 minutes outside the station for my ride and at 8 minutes an old man asked, “waiting for your cab?” which was pleasant and nice for a change. I reached Gnadhinagar and rested my soul in Skylon hotel.
I am beeping the next two days. Why bore you with my examination woes? Fast forward day 3. I had this day free as i’d got over with my process early and had an entire day to kill. Having changed 12 schools have helped me make a lot of friends and I was lucky to find one in the mundane madness of Gandhinagar. From what I’d figured out Gandhinagar seemed a very uncreative city to me. With circles named k-7, gh-8, g-10 all of it seemed very mechanical. In my mind I was making memes as to “yo gujjus so lazy, they name their chowks on a,b,c,d” or “yo gujju so lazy they store besan ka prantha for days and call it thepla” or “yo gujjus so lazy they need sticks to dance” .you get my point. So now I had a friend share these PJ’s with and have a tandoori chicken. I was taken to Hotel Relief. Yes you read it right “yo gujjus so weird they named restaurant ,a hotel and that too relief”. But Relief however dingy ,was still a relief to my taste buds which craved punjabi food. With tummies now tight we headed to Ahmedabad. The ride was straight long road after of course the rounds of ch-5,kh-9 and what not. We reached alpha one. The place hungry engineers go to the get a little *relief * to their eyes. This indeed was a hot place. Roamed around, checked out, sat, ate and exit. Each middle class kid is filled with this fuel to look with greedy eyes the institution he/she couldn’t make to. To burn this fuel a little we headed to IIM Ahmedabad. Entering even its periphery made me intimidated and my fears for all the competition in the world were personified. A mixture of respect,awe, intimidation, jealousy and again awe circled me while we rode along the long walls which inhabits the brightest of minds in the country. It was time to go back. In Gandhinagar, awaited the most amazing time of the trip. We went to my friend’s college and I witnessed some of the bright minds at work. IIIT V had a technical event hackathon which required the participants to make a live project in 24 hours. While people in my college take 24 hours to even think of a project, seeing things like mobile doctor, picture language translator and cooking advisor being functional and working in that time by 1st,2nd year engineers was beyond my imagination. Tired faces but enthusiastic minds made me respect them even more.
To unleash the tiredness, me and our new found friends found resort in the most happening place in Gandhinagar, Infocity. Infocity was okay given gujarati standards.It had the most amazing Chicken Parantha and crossword store. It fulfilled my wish of a filled tummy and a new book (Book Thief - Markus Zusak).

It was time to go back. I said tata to all the kHz,kz,ghz and gz and boarded my train back in the chaos of Dilli. It was not before i had acquired another guilty pleasure( Reckless- Sidney Sheldon Dilli Bus Stand) that I was back to being a superstar catching an auto to Chhertraa.