Children of The Sea 2: The Orangeville

Maybe it was an impulse decision, or maybe it was not--but it was a unanimous decision that we'd avail the train route whilst going to Chittagong from Dhaka. At the beginning, there was minimal opposing, from a few, but soon we all agreed that a train journey would be really interesting and different. I was really excited, as it was going to be my first train journey in almost 10 years. I don't even clearly remember what happened on that journey. I was coming back with my family from a place called "Kaoraid (Cow ra eid)", somewhere near Gazipur. My mother's father's brother (mother's chacha) lived there with his family.

Anyways, me, Pintu, Tushar and Ashique went to the Komolapur railstation on 19th July, 2005 to buy the tickets. We couldn't decide what type of tickets to buy. There are several categories of tickets available, ranging from first class to berths and chairs and some other stuff. We were attending an extended adda and planning session in Murshid's home, before leaving for the ticket buying adventure. He was hospitable, and we had a great adda at his place, after a long, long time! Actually we haven't quite addafied in his place for a long time due to lack of space.

Well, that day was a house full day. All 7 of us were there. Even Afzal was there. There was a time when he was the most regular attendee of these sessions. But in recent times, due to his busyness in job, and probable change in priorities, he's become quite irregular. It was good to have him there with us. The adda was lively, and we were making all kinds of plans. Finally, at around 9, we packed our bags and four of us went for buying the tickets. Sujit said he was too tired to go anywhere, and headed off towards home. Mursh

The late night journey was pleasant, and the traffic density was low. After pondering for about 30 minutes or so, we finally bought 7 tickets for the Turna express, each costing 150 Taka. The train would start at 11 PM the next day. We did get adjacant seats, but not the facing ones. In every compartment, there are two facing rows of seats in the middle. Those are the most sought after seats. But we couldn't find any such vacant rows, in any of the 10 something compartments of the only train destined for Chittagong at 11 PM that day.

I was on leave on 20th July, the day of our departure. Infact I took the rest of the week leave, starting from 20th. The day was spent in excitement. I wanted to take a gameboy advance with me, but I didn't have one. So I requested Tawfiq bhai to lend me his one. He came and gave me the cute lil' thingy at around 11:30 AM, with 4 games. I actually wanted to take my sick monitor to the computer shop that day. But it didn't happen due to a mixture of lazyness, inconvenience and weight! Damn the monitor is the heaviest computer gadget, and the 17 inched ones are literally huge. It's been while since the monitor is producing obnoxious red, horizontal lines every now and then. Amusingly, the lines often disappear if I hit the monitor from the side. I've been hurting my hands quite often in this process!

Pintu came to my home at around 10:10 PM. I was playing Unreal Tournament, for the last time(!) before leaving for Coxsbazar. As soon as he arrived, dad started complaining about my irresponsible behavior and lack of concern for meeting the train deadline. So I had to shut down things and head off towards the door. I bade farewell to the folks, and together we headed towards the station, with a bag full of usables and a heart full of hopes and anticipations.

It wasn't before 10:45 PM that I came to know that Afzal wasn't going with us....

To be continued