Happy new year, Banaras,day 3, part 2

Day 3, Part 2

After finally sitting for a late lunch at a rooftop cafe, I received a text saying that my train would leave tomorrow morning at 5, I was expecting this as it had happened with the train last night too. I looked for tickets in other trains from nearby stations and found a train going to Jaisalmer via Delhi, surprisingly it was running late by only 10 minutes and had a few seats left. It was 5:50 already.

My phone died trying to book a ticket and my hostel was still 3 kilometres away, I paid my bill and power walked through ghats, avoiding hitting the scores of people that had gathered for the arti, taking an auto wasn't an option because of traffic jam on the stretch due the presence of Vishwanath temple on the route.

I reached my hostel around 6:20, out of breath and sweaty, gathered all my stuff by 6:25 while my phone charged, there were still seats available on the train and I booked my ticket immediately. I decided to push the limits by taking a hot shower, my roommates advised me against it, but I had to take a shower.

I was all packed and clean by 6:50, bid adieu to the room mates and ran down with my backpack, I saw the hostel manager and asked him about taking an auto to the Railway station, it was 7 and google maps showed the route be 35 minutes to drive. Abhinav( the hostel manager) asked me to relax and said I still had time in hand. "How much do you wanna pay for the auto? 150 or 20?" I said 20 is preferred, he guided me to the lane where I'd get the auto. I gave him a hug, promised to return and ran for the lane.

An old auto rickshaw driver came to me even before I had stopped and asked where I wanted to go, "Cantt station" I said, he asked me to sit in the auto, I asked if he was going on sharing basis and he nodded his head in affirmation. He was driving with ease and was complaining about the weather, I chided him that it wasn't that cold, "You have young warm blood, my bones are cold" he laughed.

Everytime he shouted at a probable passenger, I shouted with him to speed things up and he just laughed, we managed to get three more people and reached the station at 7:40, and the train was running late by 20 more minutes.