Day 6

Today is the last day of The Kerala Diaries and indeed one of the saddest. We were not at all happy to go back home because we were enjoying so very much. Though due to strikes and other unavoidable things, our IV was a mess, but the time spent with the friends was amazing. This was our last IV with this bunch of people; I will definitely miss them.




We had to get up early. My roommates had slept later than me last night, and so they woke up almost an hour after I did. I brushed, had bath, and wore a blue Forever 21 crop top, Forever 21 jeans, black flip-flops, and grey fringe bag. As I had to take a tablet, I went for breakfast alone, without my roommates.

I went down and asked the receptionist about the breakfast; she directed me to a small dining area. I went there and I realized I was the only person in it. While I was serving myself, some really tall and well-built young men came in there. I was a bit scared as I was the only person inside the room. The young men had INDIA written on the jerseys that they'd worn; they were players.

I quietly filled some breakfast items in my plate and sat in the dining area attached to the area where the food was displayed. I was scared. I know I shouldn't have been, but I still was. Maybe it was because I was weak that morning.
Later, I again went to that area to take more food. I was fully aware and kept my consciousness at its peak. They were looking at me like they had seen a girl after many months. I believe they were Army men, because all of them had zero cuts and no fancy hairstyle. I quickly stashed food in my mouth and left the place.

While going, I asked the receptionist whether this was the place for the IV students too. On that she said that she was mistaken and that the place for students' breakfast was yesterday's marriage hall. I told her that I had had breakfast in the other dining area and not in the marriage hall, and to that she said it was all right.
I went to the marriage hall to have some drink and also water to take the tablet. Even in the marriage hall, there was no single student. There were two staff members and in their presence, I filled my cup of tea, and went outside the hall and sat on the bench that faced the lake and the pool; the view was gorgeous.

I messaged the group saying the breakfast was served in yesterday's marriage hall and asked where everybody was. Soon, those guys who were shifted to a different hotel at 1:00 yesterday night came with fresh faces. I felt relieved as there was somebody of acquaintance there. Shortly, I took a glass of water, consumed the tablet, and went back to my room.

My roommates were almost ready and were almost about to go down. I rested on the bed, while they went down for breakfast. After some time, they came up, and we went down for Cochin Railway Station. On our way, they stopped the buses at Cochin Drive, I suppose. We then went to a nearby market to shop. The market had nothing but grocery items and vessels and the like. Anyway, we took Banana Chips, Kerala's special snacks and sweets, showpieces, etc. After that, we went back to our buses, which were parked not very far from the market.

We left further for the station. We reached and later dragged our luggage to the station. We were waiting for the train, and soon went on to our places on the platform. Unfortunately, the place for our G1 bogie had had no shade. We waited for the train by literally covering our faces and sitting on the platform where there was a little shade; it was horrible. The train was delayed by fifteen minutes, and trust me, those fifteen minutes were hell.

The train came, and we pushed in our luggage. There was a problem though. The railway guys had given our seats to the juniors. As they had given the money late, their seats weren't confirmed. But when their seats got confirmed, they happened to be our seats. After lot of brain-hitting as in how could this happen, the Ticket Collector came over. He resolved the issue, and guess what? He told us that our seats were shifted to GE1; and where was this bogie? This bogie was to the extreme end of the train.

We had to push our luggage, handbags, camera bags, and shopping bags all the way from the first bogie to the last. I was very frustrated with all of this, and in the mid-way, tears started rolling down. I was too angry, because this wasn't fair. The worst part was constant opening and closing of the doors while entering a new bogie, and also the hindrances between.

Finally we shifted our home to the last, abandoned bogie. In the entire bogie, only our compartment had our students. The bogie next to us had professors, and all other classmates were in G6, which was too far. We put our luggage below the seats and rested. The professors came to see us and asked if we were comfortable. The other three students in our compartment had their friends in G6. They were with us only for 10% of the 24 hours journey.

The day was superb as we played Uno with professor and the juniors. Literally, ten of us were playing Uno--eight were seating on the seats, and two were standing; this was the best part of the journey.

Another great thing was sleeping at 9:30 in the night, and waking up the next day directly at 8:30; we had slept for 11 hours!


The next morning, our home station arrived at around 1:00. We were contended and happy knowing that our IV was so much fun.

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Here we end 'The Kerala Diaries' series;  hope you enjoyed reading it. x