Next day we got up lazily. It was just the second day but body seemed so tired as if we had been on the bike for weeks. First thing we did was to check the parcel office at the station. Bike had not yet come. No one knew where it was. Damn these government systems. Parcel office staff sent me to the translocation office. They said that if I could get some number that is assigned to each parcel, they could try to track it. I called up home and my father said he’ll send someone to the Delhi station to find the code. Meanwhile I went to the station manager. He was pretty cooperative but said he could do nothing. He told me to the Assistant District Commercial Manager. He would them contact the head office in Guwahati who would contact the Delhi station. Frankly all this dint look like wild goose chase to me but I dint have any other option. We went to his office and found all the staff standing outside the office. There was some strike going on and office was closed. Once again I cursed the bureaucracy and my luck. I tried asking for the officer in the crowd. Couldn’t find him but luckily found his boss, the Area Manager. He said that I should come and meet him at 12:30pm. By this time the Mumbai guys had landed in NJP, taken their bikes from the courier company and reached the station. It was 11am and we couldn’t do anything there, so went to meet the others. The Mumbai folks had had a terrible journey in an over crowded train and were pretty tired from it. So we went back to our hotel. My mind was still pre-occupied with my bike and the chances of getting it in a few days seemed dim. It had started evaluating the counter-plans again. The others ordered lunch. I was in no mood to eat. I was waiting for 12:30 to get started again. Around 12 I got a call from a weird number. I picked up and someone in a Bengali accent asked for me. He asked if I was waiting for a bike from Delhi, I said yes. He said it had arrived. It was the porter from the station parcel office. I had given him my number and had told him to call me up. My heart skipped to my mouth. I re-confirmed if I had heard it right. I had. A wave of relief hit me. I must have smiled for the first time in the day. I had lunch. My mind kept telling me that the porter could be mistaken, it might not be my bike, don’t get too happy before you see it. After finishing the food, Jithu and I went back to the station. First thing we did was to see in the godown if the bike was the correct one. IT WAS!!! Yup my bike was here.. I would be completing the trip on my bike, not the taxi, not the train, not as pillion.. We went to the office to get the paper work done. After seeing my receipt etc the officer asked for my train ticket. Shucks.. I dint get it.. How could I be so forgetful? He wouldn’t give the bike without it. So again we came back to the hotel. This time we were not in a hurry. Jithu had been ferrying me from hotel to station(8kms of heavy traffic) for the past 3 days. So this time I took Amit with me. Again we reached the parcel office, gave the necessary papers. The officer took his own sweet time to inspect the papers, tried proving that the computerized system in Delhi is of no good, their manual system of making the receipts by hand was the best.. Amit was loosing his patience and almost offended the officer. The last thing I wanted was an offended government officer. I quickly changed the topic. Finally after 10-15 minutes of inspection, he accepted the documents and gave me the gate pass for the bike. Quickly I ran to the bike and before someone could detain me further, I got it out of the station. I left some money for the porter who had called me, as a token of thanks. When I started driving it, I realized there no petrol. The station guys must have taken it all out. Thankfully we were very near to a shop which sold the petrol in black. I took a litre. But as the guy was filling I realized that my fuel pipe had been cut. Damn those government idiots. Couldn’t they just take the pipe out? Another stroke of good luck. We were standing right in front of a bike repair shop. I bought a new pipe and we returned to the hotel. It was already 4 and now we could not go anywhere. So we relaxed in the hotel, washed our bikes and watched a Cindy Crawford action thriller..
Distance traveled in the day: 0kms
Total distance in the trip: 320kms
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