Maiden Voyage to CST Mundgod

After completion of Matrics from CST Darjeeling, we (Late Lobsang Gyaltsen, Mr. Tashi Dorjee, Tenzin Choeying, Kelsang Tsering and me) decided to join Science Stream in Mundgod. On 7th July, 1997, we hired a taxi from Darjeeling to NJP Railway Station. On the way to Siliguri, an accident took place and the road was jammed with number of vehicles. All of us were worried as we'd to reach NJP Railway station before 2 pm to board the train but luckily, we got an auto and just paid Rs. 100/ to NJP. On the way to the Railway Station, we met Mr. Lhundup Choephel, who was our senior and studying in CST Mundgod at that time. We had waiting tickets and as Mr. Tashi Dorjee has not booked the ticket in advance he got a current ticket. Our Guide Mr. Kelsang Tsering (bylakuppee) hired a Coolie to get us seats in the General Compartment but he got only one for us. Quickly then we entered into S6 of Reservation Boogie with our entire luggage. We had no seats. Choeying had a huge box which he placed near the toilet and wanted to sleep on it by himself.  We all jumped on his box and shared his seat. The train started its voyage to Bangalore. After an hour or two, the T.T.E. entered our boogie and asked for our ticket. (In between our conversation, Tashi Dorjee hid in the toilet) We showed our tickets to him and asked for seats but the merciless T.T.E. asked for Rs. 400/ each per seat and we requested him but in vain. After travelling nearly 4 to 5 hours, the T.T.E. came again and asked for Rs. 200/ per seat. We paid him Rs. 800/ for four seats.  As Tashi Dorje had a general ticket, we adjusted him on our seats. The next day we reached Vijayawada Railway Station and Mr. Kelsang Tsering told us about the South Indian specialty Idli. As we all (I mean Late Lobsang Gyaltsen, Tashi Dorjee and Myself) were new to south and know nothing about it, we listened to our guide and decided to have Idlis. Each one of us bought 10 Idlis for Rs. 10/ but after tasting a piece of it, we had to throw the remaining idlis. The taste of the idli was unpleasant to us. On 9th evening at around 6 or 7 pm, we reached Bangalore. Mr. Lhundup Choephel told us to buy bus ticket for Hubli. We all bought ticket and headed to Hubli with our New Guide Mr. Lhundup Choephel. We reached Hubli early morning and stayed at Natraj Lodge. We then roamed around the city. At noon, we went to Ajanta Restaurant for our Lunch. We bought coupons (Rs. 14/ for each meal) and waited for our lunch. After few minutes, we were served with different varieties of vegetables and two puris which we finished so quickly and left our seat but the other person sitting next to us was having his meal and the waiter served him again with a bowl of rice. As we had gotten up from our seats, we had nothing to do but leave. After that we went to watch the newly released bollywood movie “GUPT”. We stood in line to get the tickets. Mr. Choeying was standing ahead of us and he got balcony ticket while the rest of us only got Dress Circle ticket. During Interval, we all looked upward and saw Mr. Choeying was sitting alone and I think he was missing us too. After the movie, we all made fun of Choeying by teasing him (The main matter was kept secret). We spent the night at Hubli. The next morning at around 8 am on 10th July, 1997, we hired an ambassador taxi for Rs. 250/ for Mundgod. At around 10 am, we reached Mundgod but we had told the taxi driver to enter the main gate near office and he did that. We were greeted by all the Ex East friends and guided us to hostel. Some of the seniors were playing cards and smoking Beedis. I thought them as a teachers or staffs but the next day, they were getting dressed for the school like us. I was surprised to see the first scene at hostel as we came from CST Darjeeling, where we didn’t have as much freedom as we were having in Mundgod. Really I’d very good times at Mundgod but sad to tell you all that we lost one of our friend Lobsang Gyaltsen at Mundgod due to a freak accident (I’ll add his incident very soon). I am still missing him badly…

The next part will continue very soon….