The Trip

My first ever trip started from my home town in Guna. Guna to Indore then Indore to Jaipur and to the destination finally, Banasthali.

The adventure started as me and my sister's head out for the bus stand, okay FYI I have motion sickness and a journey of almost 12hrs from the bus was already a misery. At 10 pm at night on 18th of Sep, while we were boarding the bus, my ironed white top and the bag I had recently washed was smeared in muddy rainwater from the rope another bus driver was using. Uh! Whatever I cleaned my hands and boarded the bus in those same clothes, and they still lay in my cupboard unwashed 😂  Yeah.

Me and my sister chatted for a while, I had a lower seat and hers was upper. She told me never to book a lower seat on a bus because you'll never get the beautiful picture of nature, so I seized the opportunity and took the upper berth :p.   The City Lights at the night kept me from dozing.

We were travelling to Banasthali, Rajasthan to attend my sister's convocation. I would be meeting her friends for the very first time, I've known them for quite a long time but haven't met them.  They are extremely cool people, I loved how they dressed, looked and talked...the confidence and charm. Yes, I'll be meeting them. Every one of us was remarkably excited and were looking forward to this trip. I was the last one to join, got my ticket just a day before.

There were a lot of firsts on my first trip, you'll come across them all. I plucked in my earphones and dozed off, woke up at a Dhaba at 2 am, now you need to visualise the scenario, We went to the washroom, ordered ourselves poha, now the thing is I've motion sickness and I eat nothing I said nothing while I'm travelling, this is the first first my sister made me eat dal with naan in the night at 2 am and I was terrified thinking I'll start vomiting, thanks to the medicine I had.  We heard the sound of bikers passing by, wow! when will be able to do go on a bike ride along the country?

I woke up at 7, still 4hrs to Jaipur, we sat on the upper seat looking out of the window trying to catch a bird on the wires, listening to traditional music blaring on the speakers of trucks passing by or looking for a camel.

Finally, we arrived Jaipur, headed straight to the bus stand to catch a bus for banasthali. By gods grace, we reached just in time otherwise the last bus scheduled at 12 would have left.

The bus, that bus was the worst local bus I ever travelled in, I've travelled by city bus, vans, autos, but this bus was something different, the whole bus was dancing while moving forth. Like the bus, I last saw in the movie "The Wedding Guest" where Radhika Apte takes the bus to Panjim or around. It was typically like the buses shown in movies.

On our way, three more people I talked about-my sisters friend joined us. And I received news from my sister that I may not be allowed in the hostel. Wow! It was a total disaster, the ride to banasthali in that bus. what was the best part, before taking an auto to the University, we had pani puri. Like literally? Yes.

Since we were late there were no rides available, we waited for more than half an hour for the other bus to arrive. And that was one hell of a ride too... What road! God! The university gate! You won't be able to notice that it is the university gate and you won't fail to notice the potholes. My first question reaching the gate was... " is there any other way or all those guests are escorted through this path?"

So we took this bus to the hostel, I took a seat beside Garima di, she briefed me about the place as the bus advanced further, The place Banasthali was basically a village in older days, the founder of the college Mr Hiralal Shastri, a former freedom fighter, asked the villagers for some land so that he'll teach their daughter, he, his wife Late Mrs Ratan Shastri and daughter Shanta Shastri started Banasthali with 16 girls on 6th Oct 1935. The place began to grow with time, the villagers were asked for more land in return of employment, so at this time most the workers you'll see are from that village. The fascinating thing to notice is, all the hostels have "Shanta" in it, the reason being their daughter died at an early age and they, therefore, named all the hostels on her name.  Quite fascinating history.

As we reached the hostel, I wasn't having a gate pass or permission to enter the hostel, this fact build up the tension. Kept out luggage in the hostel auditorium and freshen up a bit, had some food in the canteen, and set out for the work we were there for, "Degree". Basically, they will be given the degree condition being they have to wear a white khadi saree with border for which they have to deposit Rs.500/-. While they all were paying for a saree they won't be wearing, I was trying to look like a student of the University. And yes, everyone was told they won't be allowed inside the administrative block if they are not in a suit. What? Yes! But we went there in track pants and a T-shirt we were wearing throughout the journey.

After receiving the degree, we set out for another mission, mission - permission for me to stay in the hostel.  So my sister along with her friends asked the warden in each and every hostel they've lived in. Can they accommodate their sister, "a girl can't stay alone in the guest house, ma'am." "How can we leave her alone in the guest house ma'am."
The wardens kept on telling, you should check in some other hostel, we can't permit her.

Finally, in a hostel, they just knocked on the warden's door and told that one of them has her sister with her and she's staying in this hostel. Mission accomplished. Yes? No, I'll say. At night when the bell rang for food, I stayed there, while everyone else bought food from the mess and we sat together for dinner,   Rajma, yum! So, while we were having dinner, the warden came and started taking attendance, and so that you know I didn't enter my name in the register when we arrived in the morning, she started calling names one by one, and I started sliding behind, so that she doesn't notice me. Everyone -" don't move, just sit normally and have the food." One of them - "Gul aaj to mare, bta de fas gaye to degree chali jaegi." I sat there trying to control my laugh like I'm one of them. She wasn't satisfied by calling the names once, she started again, Shit.

Who ate? None, until she left. And who slept? None. Who does when you meet your college friends, it was a gossip night? Totally.

In the morning, I set out first as I had to meet my school friend, for the sake of the university I was in and for the photos, I wore a blue kurti, I absolutely love. We visited the new and old market, which are in the campus itself. My bad luck both of them were closed, leaving 2-3 shops open, so I purchased a few pairs of earrings. It's really nice to catch up with old friends, just do it sometimes rather than scrolling through insta and getting insecure.

The chief guest for the convocation was, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development. The programme started in full swing, in a tent which didn't even have chairs and and it couldn't accommodate the students present for receiving the degree, how would they accommodate the parents of those students?
 Was

So as it was decided none of them wore that white saree, and each one of them flaunted beautiful Kurtis. Which made them look stunning.

We had pasta, burger, coke......, everything was extremely tasty, we kind of rushed as the shops were to close at 2 pm because of the Convocation ceremony, anyway there wasn't enough space to even stand in the tent, I couldn't understand how it helped. And it meant, we will not get anything to eat until we reach our hotel at night.

If you remember, I told you about the saree, they have to take by making a deposit and only then they will be given the degree. Now the whole group went to the place they were required to return the saree and collect the deposit back. The staff declined to accept the saree and refund the money until 5 pm, I.e. until the ceremony is over. But considering the fact, people have a train to catch before 5 pm, students from various departments started panicking and shouting at the staff, the students included married women accompanied by their husbands and child. This started a fight over the issue, with the students and their partners barging into the administrator's room. The senior-most students ( mostly PhD) took hold of the situation, Manager arrived and they fought with the manager too, resulting in management surrendering to the students.  Students won.

While we rushed back to the hostel to grab our luggage, we had a mandatory photoshoot. We were already late, with the taxi waiting outside the university gate.

We were 9 people and along with our luggage, how we're we supposed to fit into a 7 seater jeep? Another adventure set in motion?


To be continued......