The Nellai Express !!

'Why would the seats in a group booking be so scattered ?' - everyone mumbled as they got into the train.. 14 in S11.. 6 in S12 and 5 in S13... A little disappointed that I couldn't sit along with my sis-in-law's kids, I too was staring at the tickets.. Just as how you find an MBA ian in every group, there was one in our family too, busy drawing a fish bone diagram :) . Soon he found out the problem and also the solution. In the 25 members group booking, all the berths allotted were UPPER berths and the fact that made everyone worry was that 60% of our family members who were travelling were above 50 years in age..


Hmm.. so this happened when we were all returning after one of our cousin's marriage in Tirunelveli. We desperately needed 3 lower berths - one for the aunt who was sick , second for the aunt who had a phobia for upper berths and the third for my cousin who had an eight months old baby. Good that our uncle who booked the tickets was not in the train , otherwise.. :)Without a question of doubt, my cousin got a lower berth ( even if she had not got one, shez smart enought to make her husband get one for her :) ) . And with the help of our MBA cousin, we managed to get more LOWER berths :). So by 9 pm, we were all set to have dinner and sleep early as we all had to wake up with MONDAY blues :( . Dinner was over.. Kids tucked in berths.. lights switched off.. and we were all asleep by 10 pm..


Suddenly there was a loud noise and the train stopped. People were running around. I hopped out of my berth expecting to see something wrong going around.. Guess what I saw ? ................................ I couldn't believe my eyes.. there was this man looking like a gypsy with a SNAKE in his hand. I could hear my heart beat fast.. And to make my heart beat still more faster, he bit the tail of the snake that was fiercely moving forward to attack the TTR who asked him to get down frm the train... There were few more gypsies and also a monkey which made strange noises.. My heart almost stopped when I saw my husband in the upper berth just closest to that gypsy and right above the SNAKE.. my GOD !! I closed my eyes tightly and opened again wishing it to be just a nightmare... but it wasn't... :( ....The TTR ran away and there came a railway police officer who threatened that gypsy and even hit him in his stomach.. Guess what happened ? he took the SNAKE out again and the scene looked much worser. Almost all in that compartment crowded near the gypsy and some even clinged tightly to the upper berths with the fear of the SNAKE being let down in the train..

All this happened in a deserted area somewhere near Dindugal. So the police officer knew that nothing could be done unless we reach a station, so the train started heading towards Trichy. One of our aunts was by now running between compartments and woke up all our cousins whom she could.. Trichy came.. The gypsies closed the door towards the station side and jumped out of the other door.. They didn't expect a 15 member police force waiting to attack them in Trichy.. The gypsies getting beaten up left and right was a pathetic scene yet they deserved it for scaring people (young and old) to death for more than an hour.. People breathed lightly and relaxed after they knew they were saved from the SNAKE and also from the stampede if he had let it down (dreadful to even imagine!!)

What a night it was !! Still fresh and scary in our memories.. The superfast Nellai Express was late by 2 hours that day and finally we reached CHENNAi... Actually I wanted my hubby to write this blog, as he was the closest eyewitness for the scene :) ..if you are interested in knowing more technical details..please do contact him... :)

Note from my hubby : There were 5-6 baskets of snakes ( 20 was the count given by the gyspy ) and that is how the gyspy scared everyone shouting that he would let them down in the train...