As I was feeling bored during the Diwali vacation, I decided to go to Delhi. I wrote to my old friend Anil who lived in Delhi, asking him to receive me at the station at 6 p. m. on 25th October. With great difficulty I managed to reserve a seat in the Frontier Mail leaving Mumbai in the evening on 24th October.
Things began to go wrong even before I left Mumbai. I live at Khar. At 4 p.m. I and my sister, who insisted on accompanying me to Bombay Central to see me off, boarded a Church gate-bound suburban train, but the train, for some mysterious reason I could not discover, stopped for an indefinite time at Dadar. We got down and went to Bombay Central by a taxi. As I was paying the taxi fare, I asked my sister to go to the platform and locate my compartment, as little time was left for the departure of the train.
After I had paid the taxi fare, I ran to the platform. As bad luck would have it, in my nervous flurry, I happened to go on platform No. 11 instead of platform No. 10 from where the Frontier Mail was to leave. Even, though I searched frantically for my sister and my compartment, I could not find them there and naturally so. I did not realise my mistake until the Frontier Mail on the next platform had left and I saw my sister looking bewildered and sad.
The trouble I had taken to reserve my seat ended up in smoke. I sent a telegram to my friend that I would be coming by the next train and bade good-bye to my sister. After four long hours I succeeded in forcing my way into a crowded compartment of the Janata Express. I had to stand until the train reached Baroda. Although I then got a seat, it was impossible to doze or have a wink of sleep. The journey was an ordeal, as the compartment was noisy and so crowded that there was hardly any freedom of movement.
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The train reached Delhi two hours behind schedule. So great was my faith in postal efficiency that I hoped to see my friend on the platform. But, to my dismay, he was not to be seen. As I knew that my friend’s house was not very far from the station, I hired a taxi to go there. The taxi raced through complicated streets and reached my friend’s house after an unexpectedly long time. I had to pay Rs. 203/- as taxi fare. This was the last straw. When at last I met Anil, he told me that he had not received the telegram!