HRC is my beloved gang that I tumbled upon somewhere in 2014 and by the time we collected ourselves in a single whatsapp group, we coined us as HRC-ians. #HRC has been a trending ever since and rocking even in 2020. Well, more on HRC and its members in later posts (as I need to repair my time-machine to set in 2014 😛 ) but for now lets wind a throwback to April 20, 2016.

Chapter 1: Shaadi Pakki ho gayi bhaiyya…

As the clock and calendar was about to turn to another year, our beloved Hero of this story – Ankur Bhaiyya announced that he was ready to settle down to the next phase of life with the heroine – Ankita Bhabhi. Ankur was in China and had planned a trip to Hyderabad earlier (the Mecca for HRC) with this surprise news and pinned down each and shared every detail about his marriage plan with an obvious invitation to the 20 member HRC. All I can say is – we did a good job (on behalf of all HRCians) as a good crowd turned out to the wedding. And Ankur & Ankita got married and they are living happily ever after.

End of Story.

‘Wait, What??? That’s it!!! Where’s the fun and yes, You promised drama, melodrama, adventure, crazy stuff and what happened on 20th April 2016 and hey no details about marriage – give me more’

Well for now – Shaadi Pakki hao gayi hai, The marriage is fixed. Coming up with (dramatic music) what happened on 20th April, 2016. Stay Tuned!

Chapter 2: Eh-tu Juggi !!!

Starring Juggi as Brutus…

Juggi aka Jugal along with Pooja, Prachi, Komal & Tyagi and myself booked our tickets well in advance. But we – the gen next and advanced people of HRC could not keep our pace with the IRCTC ticketing system and thus had to do a partial booking till Lucknow – Ankur bhaiya’s homeland – Lucknow and the venue as well. Leaving no stones unturned, we could manage the below itinerary for our onward journey

21st Apr 2016 – Morning Train from Hyderabad till Jhansi.
22nd Apr 2016 – Reach Jhansi at 2:00 AM.
– 6:00 AM Train from Jhansi to Lucknow.

Oh yes, worth mentioning one point, we got reservation in AC for Hyd-Jhansi but could not get reservations for Jhansi to Lucknow. Well – we planned for tatkal services for this part but I decided to have a plan B and booked chair car tickets for this leg of our journey. Just keep in mind coz this trivia and smart work (raised few eyebrows) was applauded later.

All was fine until the morning of 20th April when we had several updates in the ongoing preparation for the trip. My whatsapp messages read this way.

1. Poojambo (Pooja): Arey yaar, I have a last min family plan. Sorry can’t make it to Ankur bhaiyya’s wedding.
2. Aakriti: Hey, I’m in for Ankur’s wedding; have another wedding in Delhi so will join for this. Lemme know the schedule…will book flight tickets.
3. Adopted Mummy (Prachi): Oye, office me pange ho gaye, weekend work ka scene hai.

1, 2 and 3!!!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!

Confused, I got ready for work as I had no idea what to do. Komal texted asking how are the preps to which I replied – lets meet post lunch. Meanwhile, we convinced Aakriti to not plan for flight till Lucknow but insisted to take the flight from Lucknow to Delhi as Pooja’s extra ticket was already with us. 1 & 2 sorted. Cool. The Only thing that was on mind was point 3.
Juggi, myself, Prachi & Chandra, we met for Lunch and then came Juggi with the 4th update – Guys, some personal stuff came up, can’t make it to the wedding. So now we were left with Me (confused and not sure what to do), Komal (had no idea about – 1, 2 , 3 & 4), Tyagi (he had no clue about anything) and Aakriti (All she knew that she has to book a flight from Lucknow to Delhi). As we all were engrossed in discussion – Komal came to our lunch table and asked Chandra about why was he not joining. Chandra replied ” Main toh waise bhi nahi jaa raha tha but ab to Juggi bhi nahi jaa raha“. All eyes turned towards Juggi. I, Prachi and Chandra just turned our eyes but Komal turned the canon toward Juggi. Juggi replied ” Arey ye Pooja aur Prachi bhi nahi aa rahe”.

Komal turned a step back and rushed upstairs without saying a word. Juggi could feel the canon being shot by Komal but it was him who turned the direction towards himself. Even though it was chaos and confusion since morning with tentative plans – somehow it all came down to Juggi. Chandra finding supporting voices in me & Prachi said – Eh-Tu Juggi !!! Aise kon bolta hai!!!

Realms apart, the online booked Reserved tickets of the train was starting to feel betrayed, as if they have been stabbed by their friend Brutus. History was repeated again and Julius (the train tickets) voiced in bits & bytes and turned to Juggi at this point – et tu Brutus?

The tickets folded themselves and went back in dark as we could see Komal going away from the sight and the plan was pushed to the corner seat of the food court with less hopes of seeing the light during the lunch hours of 20th April.

Time machine to move to 21st April 2016…whizzzzzz……