Meeting this good ol' friend!

Sorry for not posting tomorrow! I had no interesting things to post about yesterday, and to top it I was too tired to post! Anyways, going about with today's post:
This day, the 29th day of December 2006, will surely find a distinct mention in my history book. The day was quite normal till I reached Thane in the morning. While entering the MSRTC bus station right outside the station, a friend in my college informed that there are NO MSRTC buses towards my college due to some traffic problems. I decided to confirm it. By this time, another friend of mine (a classmate) joined me. We took a seat inside a bus that usually runs via my college. About 5-7 minutes later, the Conductor came in, and announced that the bus is taking a different route today!!! Totally dejected by the announcement, we walked out of the bus station to find some other alternative.
We were now queuing up near the local TMT (Thane Municipal Transport) bus station. Their buses were running way behind schedule, and were jam-packed. Soon, we were joined by a teacher of our college. Finally at around 0820 (Twenty minutes after I reached Thane), we got a bus bound to our college. The bus was already full, and there was no space to move around. There began a journey....Around 30 minutes of running, we hit the first huddle! A long line of trucks, cars and what not! Our driver was smart enough, and he kept maintaining the left most lane. We managed to slowly crawl ahead. At 0900 - We were still stuck up midway. I called up a friend, and his condition was no better. He was about 25 minutes ahead of us (but just 3 kms ahead!).
The teacher in our bus kept our spirits high. She maintained that NO action would be taken against us for reaching the college late. Time crawled past, and it was 0930. We had just covered 2 kilometres in the past 30 minutes. The driver was too smart, and he made it about a kilometre before our college by 1015. So that was a 1 hour 50 minute long journey to cover 11 kilometres! We walked the remaining distance, and made it to college by 1030!
We were AWESTRUCK! There were just 10 students present out of the 200 students of the Pharmacy department! We were 11 more in number! Our teacher was more surprised! Final years' were present in more number than any other class!!! Even most teachers were absent! Finally, I left college at 1245! I made it to Thane station by around 1340. In the return direction, the traffic block was much less! Just as I entered the station, the Coimbatore-LTT express pulled in (Argh! I couldn't see the loco!).
Some time later, While I was on Platform 6, the KR4 passenger from Ratnagiri pulled in. The loco in charge was WDM3A #18754 from Pune. Main-Line trains were running late, and the delay was 5-20 minutes! At about 1410, a light WDG3A from Kalyan rushed towards Nahur. I decided to wait until the Matsyagandha comes in. At around 1430, an announcement was made that the train is expected soon, while i could already see the loco pulling in. The loco was WDM3A #18596 from Erode. I got back to Platform 5/6. At around 1440, the CSTM-Chennai Express pulled in with WCG2 #20141 in charge. I got at EMU at 1447, and reached Kurla at 1508. A Belapur bound EMU was already pulling in, as I was walking on the FOB. I made a mad dash, and got into the train. I reached home by 1600!
Thanks for reading......The New year is now around! The countdown has already begun, and it is just 52 hours and 52 minutes more for the new year! (AS of NOW!)

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