It was India's independence week of 2017, I was returning back to Delhi from my hometown.
I catch my train at 5:55 from a Dhariwal (a small city in Gurdaspur, Punjab district)
The members of two families which were from Rohini-Delhi was seated. Even they were traveling on a long weekend to Dalhousie, Dharamshala, McleodGanj. They both have 2 children.
The way they are enjoying reminds me the days of my past when I was traveling with my siblings. In my train coach, only those 3 children were shouting to the fullest. Before getting on the train I thought of listening music from my headphones.
As I approached towards my seat I got a warning from the mother of one child that you won't be able to sit as they are playing shouting to the loudest.
So as I thought of listening to the songs I really stopped doing that and started enjoying them.
I had beautiful memories of traveling with my sibling on the train. It got to my mind after watching them play.
As I reached Amritsar I opened amazon prime app and saw the banner of lipstick under my burka, so I thought of downloading that movie.
After eating my dinner, which was my all-time favorite Gobi parantha, then I put the sheet on seat and opened the blanket and watched the movie which I downloaded earlier.
So from here the dreams start, I don't exactly remember when I slept, but after watching those beautiful souls around me for the past few hours I was about to reach the Moroccan desert in my dreams.
I was on the train going down the hill and gazing upon beautiful sand desert where people are riding the bikes driven on the sand, having competitions there. So as I reached my destination I get into the hotel which was bunker kind of thing.
We get into it and had a word with a person over there. He gave us chit and said you can follow him which will help us return home quickly. Then we get to know that name written on chit is of camel. We have to follow a camel for the tour.
As I was in the desert along with other tourists from where we have to take cab one by one to have our ride, a group of people came there. They said they will not harm anyone but just have to play a game with them.
They took us to some place in their cars and I heard that they are thinking of some game, I was getting nervous about it as I was in the middle of people whom I do not know. Then one of them has given me some dried grass type of thing and asked me to eat. Maybe it was a weed, but I was not actually sure. I released all my tensions and my nerves got relaxed, although I was still with those unknown people.
I was worried about my travel plan as it was only 2 days halt to that location. They assured me they will take care of our plans will help in visiting all places I thought of.
Then they gave me and one random girl a powerful bike which I can never think of riding. It was like some 1100cc bike.
Then we have to reach a place name Nougoush without any navigation help. We can just talk to people who do know English or just by following signboards.
I don't know any path and I started my journey, after 2km in the wrong direction I got someone who can understand English. Then I got to know I was moving in the wrong direction and I have to follow sign boards which will take me to Nogat and from there I can go to my destination.
I was enjoying the bike ride going towards Nogat with sand dessert around me and one beautiful road in the middle of it. As I was about to reach Nogat my alarm started and the time was around 4:15 and I had already reached Sabzi Mandi. Then I woke up and got ready to deboard at Delhi station. This below is the picture of old Delhi railway station.
Now I am sitting in a metro heading towards Noida city center and writing the whole story in my notes as I don't want this memory to fade away. It was really a good train journey. Where I got reminded of my childhood memories and then this beautiful dream. People sometimes mention that they cannot sleep on the train but I would say this time I just not had a sound sleep but with beautiful dreams.
This is Rakesh, signing off on this story writing in the metro at 6:11 in the morning. Cheers.