5000 miles for Love

by Kiran Kumar (India)

A leap into the unknown India

Naani(myself) and Ammu(my love) were madly in love with each other few years ago. Whenever ammu asked "Naani, how much do you love me"??? Naani came up with answers like As deep as seas, as long as the sky, as many stars in the sky etcetera. One fine opportunity popped up!!! Naani did get a chance to tell Ammu how much she meant to him. It was ammu's final year college graduation trip to Shimla in January 2014. Ammu informed about the trip to naani on October 2013 and he instantly made his mind for a surprise Trip. Naani couldn't continue studies after 12th and had to work any given job. Though there were financial knots and a lesser paying job, naani was determined to pull this off. The day of departure to shimla arrived, Ammu left Bangalore and Naani was still waiting for his pay-check. Two days later naani packed his bags after a brief argument with the manager for a 10 day leave and also delay of pay. Naani asked couple of his friends to join him, but had to travel himself. The journey of 8000+ kilometers started with the first step onto the train at 7.30pm in the evening. Naani had to travel unreserved as nothing was pre-planned due to financial constraints. Though nothing was planned and no friends along, things started to fall in place. Naani's first train friend Mr. Chethan, helped him get into a reserved compartment as the travel distance was 3500+ kilometers and there was just minimum place to stand in the unreserved let alone sitting. Naani then paid the difference amount to travel in the reserved compartment but a berth wasn't confirmed. Luckily there was enough space to walk around and other passengers were willing to share their seats. Similarly , a lot of co-passengers were very helpful to Naani. A punjabi guy (Mr. Tables) sharing his berth to sleep. As it was a 3 night and 2 day travel. A Punjabi family helped with their delicious food. Few Manipur guys helped me with their jackets and bedsheets cause it was getting colder as we approached northern states. Naani also made some friends to smoke while the train was moving, looking around for the train authorities while each of them had their turn to smoke. Naani finally made it to Delhi, capital city of India at around 11am in the morning. Mr. Rableen gave clear directions to reach the interstate bus station. Naani reached the bus station, purchased the ticket for shimla but had to wait for the bus. Meanwhile Naani ate some Maggi noodles and then gave a call to ammu. Asking for the hotel name which she had boarded. A few of her friends were teasing her like "Tell your room number too, he might come". At 3.30pm in the noon,Naani got into the bus confidence with just Google maps for rescue and started to shimla. Shimla is 380+ kilometers from Delhi and surprisingly the price of the ticket was also 380/- INR. Around 2am in the morning the bus reached shimla and as soon as the passengers got down from the bus a group of guys jumped in listing out the prices for hotel rooms around. Naani couldn't find the hotel at which ammu stays and hence sat at the bus stop watching a Hindi dubbed Tamil movie on the public television. Around 3am the weather was unbearably cold and naani decided to take a room for time being, he also found a guest house in the best price. Until morning naani didn't knew it was a best spot to stay as there were hills covered with snow on the right hand side and greeny hills on the left. The scenic beauty made the morning more wonderful. Naani called ammu over the phone and asked what's the plan for the day. She said they are planning to visit kufri hills and with a bit of curiosity she asked "where are you" Naani replied "where else would I be while you are in shimla". We decided to meet at the kufri hills, naani headed to kufri first as ammu was waiting for the hotel transportation. Halfway through the 5000mile love story