chandigarh

time to leave ludhiana and meet up with another cousin, tony, in chandigarh. tony has his own hotel business in sector 17, smack in the middle of town. auntie and prem drove me to the bus station, and as i was getting out of the car, she slips a $100 bill into my hand (i had mentioned before to her that i would go to nepal and this would be the cost of the visa). i try to refuse but it’s too late. once auntie has made her mind up, there’s no turning back. i thank her and go to get one of the many buses to chandigarh.

the inter-state bus terminal is way out of town and so i had to take one of the clean and air-con local buses to the centre. i found ‘the komfort inn’ quite easily from memory. tony was not there, but i was expected and shown to my room. when he did finally show up, i noticed that he had put on a lot of weight since last i saw him 8 years ago. we had a brief chat but it seems like he is always busy. he and his assistant were in the process of drafting a letter to the financial ombudsman regarding the high interest rates on loans they got from the bank. being the english expert, i helped them to draft the letter.

i went to get my ticket for haridwar. at the reservation office, there was a line of about ten people. still, i didn’t expect to be there an hour later. someone at the front was taking a long time to get his ticket. when he finally walked away from the counter, i couldn’t help but break into some sarcastic clapping. everyone was looking at me as if i had gone mad. still, better some sarcastic clapping than some unnecessary ranting and raving. better still just to achieve some more tolerance.

i pottered around sector 17 for a bit before coming back to the hotel. tony was a businessman... he wanted only to talk business. something about promoting his hotel to other travellers. “let’s talk about it when i return to chandigarh”, i told him.

i was up early to take the bus to ambala cannt station. i had a reserved seat for the train to haridwar, and boarding the train, i found that someone was already sitting there and all the guys there were laughing and discussing with each other who would have to make way for me. just too long for me. indian trains and rude passengers were trying my patience once more. and once more, i snapped: “hurry up”. obviously oblivious to the load i was carrying on my back, they just laughed some more before one of them finally makes way for me. it put me in a bad mood again. tolerance, man, tolerance.