The first and the best travel experience

by Yash Pal (India)

A leap into the unknown India

So, this was my first a real camping activity experience. Everything was planned according and next morning I had to meet my friends around 7:00 am at CST station to catch the train and had to reach Karjat station(our destination) around 1.30 pm where organisers and other members will meet. To my and your surprise things din't go as they should be. I was so excited that I just kept disscussing things with my friends whole night and slept late. Next morning my friends had reached CST station on time and I wokeup late( you guys must be know what could be the reason 😴). My friends kept calling me as train was about to leave. I was in all hurry and missed the train by just 5 minutes. I was still in college and din't knew much about routes and transport outside my hometown and train timmings. I thought it's okay I will catch the next train but to my surprise next train was after 2 hrs which I got to know after talking to regular travellers. Till then my friends who had already boarded the train called me and said that other 2 of our group members have missed the train and that I should meet them and try to reach destination as decided and they will try to convince organisers to wait for us for sometime (which organisers were not ready for) With no option left either we had to make ourselves present at Karjat station by 1.30 pm or forget our camping and go home with disappointment and even the camp money was not refundable. I met other 2 group members and we kept on asking regular travellers to guide us how and which train to catch from where so, that we reach destination that even on time. We were do getting suggestions but not a single suggestion was helpful to us reach destination on time which was before 1.30 pm. We took on suggestion to catch a bus from kalyan station but we knew bus won't make us reach on time. There was a another train beside us which was not local train it was state to state run train which have fast speed and very few station halts. We asked everyone whether this train will halt at Karjat station(our destination) or not?. We used to get mixed response. Some used to answer yes it will halt and some used to answer no and some clueless. We knew this train will help us to reach our destination on time as it has faster speed and few halts but unsure whether it will halt at out station or not. The train was about to leave and guess what we just jumped into that train that even without tickets and took the chance. Stations used to keep on passing but train was not halting and we were not even able to see passing by station as train was really fast and if it dint halted at our destination then we would have been reached in some other state. Suddenly train slowdown it's speed and we were curious to see which station it was and to our surprise it was our destination (Karjat station). We thought that train might not halt and so, me and my friends just jumped out of the slow running train once reaching the platform. We looked at the time it was 1.15 pm and we had to reach before 1.30 pm and my other friends had reached at 1pm. We were so happy that we started dancing on station and for few minutes even forgot that we had to meet our friends and organiser. Then after celebrating we called our friends and told them that we have made to the destination. We meet our friends and started towards our camping. Truely, that day was the best day. I learnt so many things: 1. Value of time 2. How to help yourself in difficult situations 3. And last never loose hope , keep trying and expect the best from life. These things and experiences no school or college can teach anybody except travelling, this is what I learnt. Hope you enjoyed it.😊