Travel Tales - Surat, Gujrat

After the extremely slow train journey in the Janta Express, I get down at 1 in afternoon at the Surat railway station. I am welcomed by long forgotten gujrati script and uncountable Narendra Modi's posters (I have never been able to respect him for anything).

The city is as hot as it was in my childhood memories of Gujrat. I hop on a bus and reach my friend's house in Bardoli about 30 kms from Surat, I met him in November last year after 15 years and he hadn't changed a bit. I wanted to visit him again.

In evening I get to know he is doing his PhD on how people change by traveling ( though he is focusing on Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar and Khan) and I have already started loving him more.

We go out for a walk in late evening, mostly to experience local food and get a feel of the city and lifestyle. I see jhoola (cradle/swing) in front of almost every home here. Feels good to see the entire family sitting on it and enjoying the evening together.

At local roadside joints we eat a few things and I notice there is no Racism here or ''language barrier or hatred'' here. There are no eye-brows raised when I ask the guy something in hindi instead of gujrati. I mention this to my friend and he tells me the 'equation for hate' in gujrat is ''enemy = muslim'' & ''muslim = enemy'' and after all how much hate can you have within. So Bihari and U.P walas are not hated here. Gujrat doesn't have racism it has communalism like Bihar has casteism.

Gujrat seems so happy and progressive after murdering a few thousand muslims, people praise Mr.Modi for the work he has done. Now there is nobody poor, there are no beggers, all the kids go to school, everybody has enough food, there are rivers of milk flowing and everybody has a smile across their face. And if there is something missing, I am sure it would come after killing Christians, and even after that if there is something missing, we can murder Sikhs and after that we can murder every ''non-hindu'' and what after that........ don't forget we have the scheduled castes and tribes left, their elimination would surely make this world a better place to live and worth loving.

We eat a dinner and end the night arguing how the people growing food are dying and how the people selling food are becoming rich.

At night I am still moving, inspite of being off-the-train for 10 hours. The train was horrible, I mean

स्टेशन की पहचान होती है ''चाय चाय .. चाय गरम चाय".... ये साली ऐसे स्टेशनस पर रूकती थी जहाँ चाय वाले भी नहीं होते थे....

Next day early in the morning we head to Dhule, 5 hours journey by bus, to meet Mausi and Sayali, old travel time friends. The reception was nice and filled with love. We see each others travel photos and share thoughts. Mausi is one of those who have done the mother of all treks, the kailash mansarovar and wants to do everest, hope we both do it together. Sayali was as bubbly as she was last time and it once again felt good to be near her. She is a lovely girl but I missed Anuja(mausi's daughter) she is the sweetest of all of them. I spent few hours with them talking about the old times when we trekked together. It felt nostalgic. I think one of the best feelings of love shows up on face when you meet old friends. I wish we meet again and do some travelling together. In evening we bid good bye and I traveled back to surat travelling 5 hours but dozing off most of the time.

Next day, a late start of the day, a typical gujrati breakfast, some gujrati snack shopping and I board the train back to delhi. What better way could there be to spend the long weekend.