Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ghanchakkar Begins......

‘Ghanchakkar’ surprised by the title? Well I have got inspiration of the same from my mother'. After returning from every tour when I discuss my experiences of the travel with my mother only one sentence she utters and it goes like this. ‘Tu kyare travel karti vakhate ghanchakkarveda karvana chhodish’ means when you will leave your idiotic mad acts which you do during your travel? But I can’t stop being a ghanchakkar when I am on a travel spree. ’ Ghanchakkar’ is Guajarati word and its dictionary meaning is a person who is of unsteady mind; stupid; mad. I just love to be a ghanchakkar when I am exploring new places and probably with an eye and mind of ’ Ghanchakkar’ when I observe and feel the place it gives immense freshness to me and in the true sense the trip rejuvenates me. In this blog I will share and recall a few of my trips which are full of ’ Ghanchakkar’ experiences. I hope my chakkar to the world being a ghanchakkar continues lifelong and I get enough experiences to share in this blog which inspires others also to become ghanchakkar like me and join my gang of ghanchakkars.

The most memorable republic day…
It was January 26, 2001, 51st Republic day of India. I was in my Engineering Collage hostel enjoying holiday and freedom to get up late on that day. Being a holiday most of girls had gone to their home except a few unluckier ones like us who had no option but to stay back in hostel. Our homes were not very near to Surendranagar city where My Engineering College was located so we couldnot afford to go home during week ends. After coming to hostel I realized need of celebrating republic week instead of a republic day for India so that I can go home and enjoy food cooked by my mother for a week. As usual on holiday we who ever were left out in hostel used to curse and feel jealous of other girls who would rush to their homes on each week end. That morning was also like that, we just got up from bed and were discussing how beautiful it would have been if we would be eating breakfast cooked by mom on that day instead of guessing and planning what we will eat which will be less bad for entire day in hostel. Suddenly my legs started shaking I felt that my bed is vibrating and soon I realized only my bed but entire floor is also making us shake. Thankfully it clicked in my mind that it is nothing but earthquake and we should run from the building and rush to open space. I shouted to top of my voice enough to get heard till 2 kms away from my hostel ‘Its Bhukamp bhagooooooooooooooooo’ (It’s Earthquake Runnnnnnnnnn’). We all roomies ran like mad cows in our street obviously not knowing where and when to stop. In that rush we couldn’t get time to wear our foot wears also. After running for half a kilometer and reaching to main road we realized that we should stop running now as people around us are standing, earthquake tremor is over now. Our kafila took rest there.
We stood there for around 15 minutes trying to figure out why and what is going on. Small kids were crying , a few of our neighbors had big cracks in their house walls, a few had house ceiling collapsed in their veranda. All these scenes made us upset and we couldn’t make out how only in 2 minutes entire scene in our surrounding changed so drastically. We were looking shockingly at people who were watching with tears in their eye their sweet home debris lying on the road. One uncle took the wall clock out of the debris and it showed time 08:46 AM, Exact time of Earth quake which devestated everything around us. We felt need of taking stock of our hostel building and check out its condition. We all keeping hands in each other hands and with shocked mindset started to go back to hostel. Thankfully our hostel building had no big damage, only a few cracks were there. Our watchmen was not allowing us to get inside thinking that it will be his responsibility if any of girls would get injured if again earth quake tremor will come. After 15mins of requests and making all dramatic Bollywood emotional blackmailing scene we succeeded to convince our chokidar kaka to let us go inside for at least 5 minutes so that we can get our foot wears and money.
With frightened faces we entered in our hostel and heard someone crying in corner, one girl from our next door room was crying and as soon as she saw us her voice got louder with sentences like” why you all left me inside hostel alone and ran outside I was taking bath and nobody bothered to inform me also that it is earth quake and I should also run as I don’t belong to your room that does not mean you all should leave me alone!!! “We did not know how to comment on her statement and allegation on us as she could not stop enacting usual ladies hostel emotional fighting drama scene in that traumatic situation also. I just pacified her and told her that you have now found us and got second chance to run again with us quickly get your purse and run. Like a child she rushed to her room and joined our gang. When we were climbing down steps to rush outside hostel again second tremor of quake came and we got more frightened and shocked.
A few girls again started crying and urging “I want to go home; I want to call my parents”. It became difficult for us to calm down these matured kids. We went to STD booth to make call to our home. We were not having luxury of keeping mobile phone with us at hostel in those days as it was very expensive. In addition to our bad luck all telephone lines were jam and we had no clue what to do and where to go and how to contact home to inform them that what happened here. We all went to our Ramamasi’s home where we used to take food daily and asked her to switch on radio. That was the only communication medium which we could access in open space for getting news of outside world. We all had secret temptation in our mind that god will do some magic and we will listen our parents voice in radio but we all were not that lucky. Radio news gave us pieces of information that earthquake had hit so many places in Gujarat and so many people have died. That news was enough to make us more worried and furious. Now instead of worrying about why our parents are not calling us to know about us whether we are ok or not we had reverse thoughts rushing in our mind what would have happened to our home, our dear ones will they be ok? And all those kind of thoughts made us more helpless. We roamed in entire city to find a telephone booth which is working and we can contact our family but we couldn’t succeed and had to return to our hostel.
We were still not allowed to go inside and were waiting near our hostel gate thinking about what we should do next. Suddenly we saw a few of our college mates coming towards our hostel. We felt some relief that at least we will have some good news from them. We got news that our college building is severely damaged. One student with very joyous tone uttered “Our college authorities have instructed that college will be closed for repair works and there will be holiday till that time, they will inform about the reopening date of college later and till that time all students should go home.” In that traumatic situation also rather than being sad on listening college building damage we all were very happy from within listening the words no studies in college till indefinite time. In that good news we didn’t notice that group of at least 25 boys came to our hostel to give us this news which they could have done easily by sending 1 or 2 persons at max. Truly said boys will never miss an opportunity to come nearby and have glance of girls hostel be it in any situation. Now this little rejoice gave us enough energy to fight with our watchmen to allow us to enter the hostel and pack our bags to go home.

The ghanchakkar in me now was active in full swing. I stareted making plans of how I will reach home what I should pack and all. I got a brilliant idea of packing everything and not leaving single pen also at my hostel. Devil inside me was reluctant to accept the truth that after sometime college will reopen and I will have to come back again to Surendranagar above all to this great hostel to finish my studies. So in that enthusiasm of going home I packed everything whatever I had collected in two years at hostel. The result of that I had 5 big bags full of my kachra collection. I was so excited that I packed all these in only 15 minutes and was first one to come out of hostel with highest amount of luggage with me as compared to other girls.

I chalked out my return journey with one of my friend Vipa whose home town was also on the same route as of mine. We went to the bus stand together. Obviously at that time entire bus stand was full of worried faces and anxiety as no buses were running on time and there was no schedule. We boarded very first bus till Rajkot which we got after waiting for 1.5 hours. I strictly instructed my friend not to wait too much for direct bus to our city and get on in any bus which ever we get of the same route so that we reach home as early as possible although she was reluctant to get inside that bus as there was not space to stand also bus as it was full of passengers. We then too somehow managed to get space to stand and put our luggage; this achievement was not less than feeling of a person who has conquered the world. The bus was vibrating so much with strange noise of engine because of poor old condition of bus but we considered it as earth quake tremor on entire route of 3 hours and instead of now getting worried our faces had laughter as we were getting chance to go home and be there for longer time. These thoughts made our return journey to home very light and joyful. We finally reached Rajkot and again waited for 2 hours to get bus to reach our respective hometown. From here we finally said bye to each other and wished happy holidays to each other, passengers around us were giving ugly looks to me and my friend thinking why these girls are behaving like this as if they have got jackpot when almost all people were in sad mood due to the earthquake!!!
After 3 hours bus journey, I reached my home town at 7 pm and took auto to reach home. I still remember my mother’s facial expression on that day. As soon as she saw me she tears rolled down from her eyes. She hugged me and checked me entirely whether I have reached there in one piece. Then she told story of their struggle how they are trying to call me and were worried about my well being as Surendranagar was amongst those cities which were very much affected by earthquake. Till that time I never realized that it is 7.30 pm in the evening and since morning 8.45am I never got chance to drink even water also forget the food. Whatever I packed in 5 Big bags in enthusiasm of going home and never returning back and lifted it all along with me till my home never seemed too heavy till I reached in my mothers’ arms. Suddenly my hands and back started paining because of the excessive weight lifting which I did and I realized that I have invited big trouble. At least for next 1 week because of this back pain I will not be enjoying my stay at home which I dreamt of when I was packing my bags. It is truly said when we see our mother we become kids irrespective of our physical age and same thing I felt that time. Looking at my 5 bags and listening to my story how I reached home my mother first time gave me title ‘Ghanchakkar’ for which I am really proud . How memorable my first journey as Ghanchakkar was.