Chp 821. Game Achievements

As I mentioned in my blog update yesterday, I've finally set up my computer here at home, six months after packing it up in Pune. I even forgot my login password, and thanks to Sanga and Hiren BootCD, we managed to solve that problem [read my previous post on how to reset Windows 10 password].

And so, for the past three weeks, I've been doing almost nothing but play games the whole day. With over 1000+ games in my Steam library collection, there were soooo many games I haven't played even once, and so, this lockdown was the perfect time to catch up on those games.

I installed a lot of games since then, like Borderlands 2 and Borderlands Pre-Sequel, Epistory, Gaucameleel, Mass Effect, Terraria, L4D, Metal Slug, Human: Fall Flat, OneShot, etc., along with "small games" like minimalistic puzzle games and brain teasers (my favourite casual gaming time-pass).

It was only around four days ago that I happened to look at my Steam profile and saw that my Average Game Completion Rate had drastically fallen to 48%!!!

Oh nooooss!

I mean there is no written rule or law that says one must maintain a certain % completion rate, nor does it affect one's profile physically in any way, but I've always maintained a completion rate of above 50% because that is a nice number, and it also shows other gamers that you're serious about the games you play.

Of course it's not possible to know how much a player has actually progressed in each game because most games do not have a linear progression or even a definitive ending. It's not like the good old days of Super Mario Bros where you move from world 1-1 to 1-2 to 1-3 and so on until you reach the last stage, world 8-4, and defeat Bowser, only for the ungrateful princess to send you on the same linear quest all over again, albeit a bit more difficult.

No, games have evolved so much since then. There are many games with countless different endings and multiple outcomes, games with NO endings, sandbox games that don't even have beginnings, arena battle games that may be short but replayed infinite number of times, and even games that have missions which can be played only at a specific date & time of a year! Hence it is impossible to know what % of a game a player has actually completed.

To counter that, Valve Corporation, the company that owns Steam, had decided to use the in-game achievements of different games as a metric to measure game completion rate. It's definitely not perfect, but it is the closest method of measuring one's progress as most games have achievement unlock criteria based on different milestones within the game.

Here's a comprehensive thread on how Achievement Rate is calculated by Valve.

To put it plainly, suppose Game 1 has 500 achievements and Game 2 has only 5 achievements, and you have played for many hours and managed to unlock 300 of the 500 achievements in Game 1, while you got 4 of the 5 achievements in Game 2. Then your completion rate in Game 1 (300/500) is 60%, whereas in Game 2, your completion rate (4/5) is 80%.

You actually get a higher percentage from Game 2 even though the number of achievements unlocked from Game 1 is more. This is quite fair because, like I said before, not all games are the same or follow a linear progression, so they definitely cannot have the same uniform number of achievements. (This also discourages developers from spamming a game with multiple useless achievements).

And the Average Completion Rate of the two games above, that is, 60% and 80%, is (60+80)/2 which is 70%.

Thadaaa, 70%, this is your current Average Game Completion Rate. This amount is re-calculated every time you play a new game and unlock the first achievement of that game. In a way, having a high rate kinda fills you with a small sense of accomplishment and pride :)

So how did my completion rate reduce so much? It was because, like I mentioned above, I started playing a lot of new games recently, which increased the denominator value in the above equation. Hence, 48%.

Now let's be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong in having a low completion rate, this is just how I personally feel about gaming. It's like... how women always say they are dressing up for a party not because they want to make their man feel good but rather because they want to make themselves feel good. Well, this is my ladies make-up moment. I want to have at least a 50% Average Game Completion Rate because it makes me feel good. :)

How do I bring this value up again? Simple mathematics. I must stop playing new games so that the denominator does not increase further, and keep playing a lot of my old games that I have already played before and try to get 100% achievement in those games (also known as "Perfect Games") so as to increase the numerator value.

And that's what I've been doing for the past four days now :D. Those of you who are my "friends" on Steam will notice your daily activity feed like this...

Lolz, yeah, sorry for spamming you all, but my aim is to bring my completion rate to 50% before the Steam Summer Sale starts, which is this coming June 25th, so I'm just playing all my previously installed games until I 100% them, or at least come as close as possible to 100 percenting them.

So until then, cheers everyone, and happy gaming to you all.

Chp 820. Hiren to the rescue!

I wrote my last blog update from Pune on November 27th, 2019, and then packed up my computer for the Movers & Packers to send to Mizoram.

I left Pune two days later, and my belongings reached Mizoram two weeks later.

We unpacked all my stuff slowly, box by box, but the one thing that remained unopened was my computer set. Since I was finally moving back to Mizoram permanently, my family was of the opinion that I shouldn't unpack my computer stuff in my bedroom upstairs, as I spend most of my time in front of my computer. Instead, they said I should unpack my computer downstairs because I was the "man of the house" now and I should be ready to welcome any visitors etc.

Our tiny office room by the main door was a good place to unpack my system, as it even has our CCTV monitor. Perfect place to spend time on the computer while at the same time vigilantly checking the CCTV feed for intruders & shenanigans, you know, the role of a "man of the house" :P The only problem was, my sister's stuff were still in that room. Long story short, with all the CoVid-19 lockdown and stuff going on, I didn't unpack my computer for a very long time as I was anyway using my sister's laptop to update my blog.

Finally on 23rd May, 2020, almost exactly 6 months after I packed up my computer in Pune, I decided to set it up. My fingers trembled as I ripped apart the multiple layers of packaging material and bubble wrappings. Nothing was broken. Like a hyperactive 6 years old opening his Christmas present from Santa Claus excitedly, I unpacked everything and assembled my computer. Finally, everything was ready, all my hard disks and RAMs and VGA cards etc., all properly attached, as well as my 43" Panasonic TV that I use as my monitor.

With one anticipated push of a button, my machine came back to life. Six months of slumber, now ready to function as it has been designed to. The wonder of mankind's creation whirred for a few seconds, spluttered out a few bits and bytes, and finally threw open the Windows login screen!

Yayyy!

Except... there was one problem.

I could no longer remember my password!

Lolz. Yeah, that was such an anti-climax build-up.

So the thing is, I used to use my office workstation password for my home PC password as well, so that I won't forget my workstation password. And in an ironic twist of fate, I could no longer remember that password :D

The thing about office workstation passwords is that, you should never use any of your regular passwords like personal email password, bank password, social media account password, etc etc., because your office IT department has total access to that password. Yes, in case you didn't know that, now you do. Never use your regular passwords for any of your office related passwords.

I used the default password format given to me by our IT department, as I didn't have anything to hide from my colleagues or bosses. I only changed the last few numerical values whenever our IT server prompted me to change the password due to expiration, and every time I changed it, I would also immediately change my home PC password upon reaching home, so that I will remember that new password.

But it had been 6 months since I last typed that password!

After trying more than 100 different password combinations that were all incorrect, I asked my former colleagues for help, and they too sent me all the different possible password formats used in office and I tried all sorts of different permutations, but to no avail. I even called up Irfan and Sidhi from our IT department, asking them if they could retrieve the last password I had used on my workstation. They tried their best, but unfortunately, it had been six months since my system was formatted, so that data was no longer in their records. Drats!

Eventually, there was no other option but to hard reset it. To do that from command prompt, I needed a Win10 boot-up drive, which I didn't have, so one of my friends Thanpuia came to my house and gave me his. Together, we tried all sort of methods, from replacing utilman.exe with cmd.exe to editing system32 and using PCUnlocker, but nothing worked.

We looked at every different solution online, but of course, the main problem we faced was that most of these solutions which might have worked in the past before, were no longer valid because of continuous firmware and software updates. We gave up that night.

The next day, Sanga came over to my place to help me out.

His process was super simple! All that you require, is a pen-drive and a working computer with an internet connection. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Format the pen-drive. A 2 GB pen-drive is more than enough.

Step 2. Using a different computer, download Hiren OS.

Step 3. Burn the ISO onto the pen-drive.

Step 4. Plug in that pen-drive to the computer with forgotten password.

Step 5. Start the computer and boot-up from pen-drive.

Step 6. Thadaaa, your computer is now alive, running on Hiren BootCD.

Step 7. Go to Windows, Start Menu, Security, Passwords, NT Password, and reset it. Done!

Step 8. Restart system, remove Hiren drive and let the computer boot-up normally using the existing Windows 10 OS.

And that was it. The Windows password prompt was no longer there and everything loaded properly, nothing was changed or deleted, my system was just as it was back in Pune.

So simple!

Just eight steps, and if you already have a Hiren boot-up drive, then you can skip the first few steps and start directly from Step 5. In less than 10 minutes, my problem was solved. Thanks a lot, Sanga. And thank you too, Thanpuia, for at least attempting :D

For the love of God, I have no idea why such a simple solution does not come up on Google search. Try looking it up yourself, search for "Windows 10 password reset", this Hiren OS solution will not appear in the first few pages (unless of course you directly include "Hiren" in the search query, duh).

Maybe the moral of the story is, you can't google everything :) That the best things in life can only be learnt from work experience and not through short-cut searches. So deep, much wow. :P

And that was it. I got to gaming immediately once my system was set up. Hope you find this post useful in case one day you too forget your password.

Cheers for now.

Chp 819. Mizoram 100+

June 2020 started off very well for Mizoram. On the 1st of June, 2020, Mizoram was still having the unique status of being the only Indian state with no active CoVid-19 positive case. [read: Mizoram Zero]

And then the tables turned quickly from there on, and by the 2nd of June, twelve new cases were detected. [read: Mizoram 12]

Things spiralled down pretty quickly from there on, and as of this morning, 11th June, 0700 hours, Mizoram has more than 100 active CoVid-19 cases!

The number you see above may increase by the time you read this post as there are more than 200 tests awaiting results as of today, according to DIPR.

The Government of Mizoram too declared a Total (but not exactly total) Lockdown across the state earlier this week as the number of detected cases started increasing.

However, this ongoing Total Lockdown is very different from the first Total Lockdown we experienced. Most shops are allowed to open (but at specific timings, which differ from locality to locality), state borders are open, there is no curfew, all government departments are operational, and even home quarantine is allowed for those entering the state. It's like a "Lite" version of a Total Lockdown.

Well, is the government correct to declare such a lenient Total Lockdown in spite of crossing 100+ positive cases? That's not for me to say or opine because I'm sure the government is doing what it thinks is best for the people and the state, but here's a question I would like to ask you all - Are you scared?

I mean, of course I know you're all worried. So am I. And it is perfectly natural to feel so. But you aren't exactly as paranoid as you were three months ago, right? That same level of anxiety or panic that seeped through our community is no longer there.

Some of you may have short-term memories, but I still remember how all of us felt at the beginning of this pandemic. The beauty of blogging is that we pen down all our thoughts and feelings right when something happens, and when those memories start to fade, we recollect those thoughts by revisiting our old blog posts.

The amount of fear we all felt back when we had just ONE positive patient was astronomical compared to how we feel today with 100+ positive patients. And this is evident not just from an individual's point of view but from the way our government is handling this situation.

We're no longer as scared as before because we have slowly come to accept the ground realities.

The psychology behind this is simple - this is because of the Kübler-Ross model, more popularly known as "The Five Stages of Grief". Your psychologist friends will know what I'm talking about, you know, those people who wish each other with: "Hello, how am I?" "Oh you are fine, how about me?" greetings. :D :P

Just kidding, psychologists are one of my favourite people because there's just something so intriguing about them, the way they speak and communicate, how they perceive things in general. The Five Stages of Grief, also known as DABDA (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance), is a popular structure and framework used by grief counsellors to handle patients with anxiety, depression and trauma.

From my observations, these are the five stages that we have seen in our Mizo community:

Stage #1. Denial.

Remember how we all felt in the beginning when we had our first positive patient? We tried to convince ourselves that the test result could be wrong because back then we didn't have a testing facility in Mizoram and so it was done at Silchar Medical College. And the fact that he was a Pastor, a Man of God, further made it harder for some of us to believe the news.

Stage #2. Anger.

Once the confirmation had sunk in and he was admitted at ZMC Hospital, we were no longer in denial. Some people expressed their anger, accusing him of being irresponsible and endangering the rest of us for returning to Mizoram. A few others even wrote scathing posts and comments on social media, attacking not just about him but his family as well. That was indeed a sad day for our Mizo ethos.

Stage #3. Bargaining.

As we remained confined to our homes under a strict lockdown rule, gospel revival movement on television took off like never before. We prayed and prayed, asking God for forgiveness, and many spiritual speakers even proclaimed that Mizoram will be cleansed of this virus once we have all atoned for our sins. We felt immense guilt and desperation to change our life, which were all a part of the bargaining stage.

Stage #4. Depression.

This is the point where we all felt helpless and empty inside. And the fact that people just kept forwarding more and more unfavourable news on WhatsApp, even factually incorrect ones, made it even worse. We felt like we were trapped in this twisted and terrifying nightmare that we desperately wanted to wake up from. The daily ritual of staying behind locked doors and listening to the local town-crier announce information seemed to somehow drain us of all senses, including life itself.

Stage #5. Acceptance.

Now that there are more than 100 times the number of our original patient, we ironically seemed to be pretty cool about it. This is because we have reached the acceptance stage. Slowly, we have learnt to accept that this virus is not just going to go away any time soon, and that many of us cannot just stay locked up inside our homes forever because we have mouths to feed, businesses to save, and lives to live.

Those are the Five Stages of Grief and I think this is where we are currently, based on my observation - The acceptance stage.

By the way, these are all just my own interpretation of the Five stages of Grief within our Mizo community, and it should by no means be taken as a professional insight or technical postulation because I have absolutely no degree or experience in psychology.

I could be wrong in many of the aspects above. Even Elisabeth Kübler-Ross herself admitted that the stages do not necessarily follow a linear progression as everybody deals with grief in a different way, while other notable psychologists pointed out that the Kübler-Ross model is just a theory with no empirical evidence. David Kessler also mentioned that the stages may repeat themselves, and there need not be a definite end point as well.

Having said all that, just take this as a layman's observation, the musings of a blogger with too much time in his hands.

Like I mentioned before, we should be mentally prepared to face more negative news about new positive people from the thousands of Mizos who returned home recently. Crossing the Century threshold in just a few days seems alarming, but the saving grace is that, at least all the infected people are our recent returnees, and there has been no case of community transmission... yet.

Hitting a century is usually a remarkable achievement, but in this case, it is a milestone that we neither want nor need. From the number 1 position in the official Indian CoVid-19 chart under "active cases", we fell down to the 9th position in less than two weeks.

Remember, we can face this together. It is only the first time experience that leaves the biggest impact, and after that, a repetition feels normalized. We have seen this happen to us during the past three months. I'm not just talking about the acceptance stage that I have mentioned above. Take for example, the ambulance that carried the remains of a departed Mizo from Chennai to Mizoram.

Yes, you all remember that one, right? It was all over our Mizo social media. People hailed the drivers and the Mizo companion as heroes. They were given gifts and accolades at almost every town in Mizoram that lies in their path. Mizos shared their story and pictures everywhere, from Facebook and Instagram to WhatsApp statuses.

Now, do you know how many such ambulances carrying the remains of other Mizos entered Mizoram after that?

Yup, me neither.

I know at least five such ambulances but I definitely do not know the total. Because, people stopped talking about the next one and there weren't that many shares and likes on social media either. Suddenly, the next instances weren't considered to be that much share-worthy anymore.

Similarly, when the first batch of Mizos returned to Mizoram by train from Chennai, everybody was talking about it. Even I wrote a blog post about them. People praised the CMWA (Chennai Mizo Welfare Association) for what they did, and the Mizo welfare leaders were highlighted and even interviewed all across Mizo social media platforms (and they rightfully deserved to be praised too).

But how many other trains from other cities entered Mizoram after that batch, how many other Mizo welfare leaders of other cities worked tirelessly to send home Mizos too? Those news never made as much impact as the first batch.

The point I'm trying to make is, even this current situation will soon feel normalized, so don't feel disheartened. We need to adjust our lifestyle and carry on with our lives amidst the pandemic, while following all the rules laid out by the authorities. It is the least we can do for all our frontline workers who are the ones in the thick of the battle. We owe them that much.

I hope my next blog update do not see a very large increase in the number of positive cases. With more than 200 test results pending, which might be announced tonight, let's keep our fingers crossed and continue praying for all our doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other frontliners out there.

We will prevail.

See you all in my next update. Cheers.

Chp 818. Mizoram - 12 positive

After enjoying  a status of being the only Indian state with no active CoVid-19 case for a few days, Mizoram is now back to being an infected state again, after 12 people were tested positive late last night.

All 12 of them are recent returnees, with 10 from Delhi batch and 2 from Kolkata batch according to DIPR tweet. "All of them had been quarantined at their designated Quarantine Centres upon their arrival in Mizoram, so there is no need for panic," assured DIPR in another tweet.

My cousin Dr. Mash too left immediately this morning for ZMC Hospital, Falkawn, the only hospital in Mizoram designated to treat CoVid-19 patients.

And now, she'll be at ZMC indefinitely until everybody's cured. Will the size of the dedicated CoVid-19 medical team be increased now that there is 12 times the number of patient they had initially treated? Will the number of beds in the ICU and Isolation ward along with ventilators be increased? I guess we'll know those answers soon enough in the next few days.

Meanwhile, for the medical team at ZMC, this means getting back to a life of complete isolation from the outside world. This also means reverting back to their daily grind of working in uncomfortable PPE suits for hours within a contagious environment.

If you're interested, you can read about what the nurses and doctors of ZMC go through every day in this post - ZMC CoVid-19 Warriors (though this was written back when they had just one positive patient, things will be much more hectic now as there are currently 12 patients).

In spite of all that, when I walked into Mash's bedroom this morning, she was all prepped up and ready to fight the battle for all of us again. Her bags were packed and ready to go.

She didn't have much luggage at all for an indefinite stay at ZMC, and she said this was because most of her stuff was still at the hospital as they knew this day would eventually come...

And so we bid her a sad and uncertain goodbye as her colleague, Dr. NTa Sailo, Respiratory Medicine Specialist, came to pick her up.

Bye bye Mash! Stay safe.

Everything felt so surreal, how things could change so drastically in just a couple of hours. Just last night, we were celebrating Mash's birthday with a cake and small family dinner, having our small share of fun and relaxation, completely oblivious of the tsunami ahead.

Now that the CoVid-19 wards of ZMC are functioning again, let us remember to keep all of them in our prayers. Meanwhile, the best we can do to flatten the curve is to obey all rules implemented by the government and LLTF.

As the DC of Kolasib stated this morning, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to panic as all 11 people tested positive are from the same Thingdawl Polytechnic Quarantine Facility, and they had all been following all quarantine guidelines right down to the letter. Their beds and rooms had been sealed off from the rest of the inmates and staff of the Quarantine facility, and Contact Tracing had been completed. Moreover, a 5 KM radius from the Quarantine facility had been declared a Containment Zone and the National Highway leading to the place had been blocked.

Still, the after-shock of this grave news was noticeable even here in my locality. For instance, all shops were ordered to close down immediately this morning at 6 AM from our locality loudspeakers. LLTF members patrolled the streets to make sure people were following this rule. The roads were deserted in just a few minutes as everybody read the news about our new positive patients.

On a comical side though, our locality crier [read more about the town criers of Mizoram here] did lighten up the mood this morning by announcing some funny stuff, like for instance, he said, "In our Mizo community, it is a common practice for our elders to tell us to go and buy this or that from a shop outside. We obey them dutifully because that is our Mizo way of life, our zonunmawi. However, right now, it is ok to say no to such errands." :D

Also, he tried announcing in Hindi, lolz. I guess the person who was supposed to announce in Hindi hadn't reached the office yet, he started off slowly... "Bahar mat jao" and then there was a long silence and then he continued in a very low-key tone, "Ghar jao". :D :D

With 12 people positive so far, let us keep our fingers crossed that the numbers do not increase. But at the same time, as I mentioned in my previous update, let us be prepared to expect the worst as we still have our brothers and sisters returning home every day.

Today, the train from Maharashtra carrying our fellow Mizos from Mumbai and Pune is bound to arrive. Due to the railway track repair work going on at Badarpur-Lumding section, they will disembark at Guwahati instead of Bairabi, and will continue their journey on buses [source].

Let us continue to keep them in our prayers too, as they had already been through a terrible ordeal, from over-crowded compartments to a tragic death in the form of an accident. On top of all that, they are coming from a state with the highest infection in India, so the chances of more people testing positive are quite high.

I hope I can update better news in the coming days. Only time will tell. Until then, see you all, folks. God bless you all.

Chp 817. Zero CoVid-19 case Mizoram

Today's weather in Aizawl is chilly, windy, wet and gloomy. Mizoram has been getting some parts of Super Cyclone Amphan that devastated Eastern India and Bangladesh for the past few days now. Fortunately, the damage so far isn't as bad as those regions facing the brunt of the cyclone.

Also, as of this morning, according to the official Indian CoVid19 website, Mizoram is now the ONLY Indian state with no active CoVid-19 case!

I see a lot of my friends sharing this on their status and expressing their relief. While I appreciate their sense of alleviation, I must admit, I do not share their enthusiasm. Because you need to look at the underlying reason why our neighbouring states like Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, all with zero positive cases in the past few days, suddenly have so many active cases now.

It's not that they were careless or negligent. These states were also as vigilant as us, but their positive cases came from their recent returnees. Yes, with the operation of buses and special Shramik trains, stranded migrants from different parts of India are returning to their respective home states. And with them, came the inevitable CoVid-19.

Mizoram too has been seeing almost 1000+ Mizos returning daily at Bairabi Train station and Vairengte check-gate. At this stage, there are only three possible reasons why Mizoram still doesn't have any new CoVid-19 case:

Reason #1. All the returning Mizos had been extremely careful and taking utmost care of themselves to guarantee that they were not infected by the virus.

Reason #2. They were extremely lucky not to contract the virus from their point of origin, as well as on their journey home too.

Reason #3. We have faulty testing kits in Mizoram.

I wish it is because of Reason #1, but we got to be a little bit more practical and I think Reason #2 seems to be the most rational option, while I hope and pray to God it is not because of Reason #3!

And that is why I feel the fact that we are currently a Zero positive case State should by no means be a cause for celebration. It is still too early to let our guard down. A lot of our Mizo brothers and sisters are still returning to our beloved homeland, and we should be prepared to accept the worst, both physically and mentally.

I added the word "mentally" above because we need to prepare our minds to a possible scenario of mass infection that should not cloud our judgment with hate or scorn upon those who are returning home. We have our Quarantine centres and frontline medical warriors to handle those cases. Let not the worst moments bring out the worst in us.

We still have a long battle ahead in this fight against CoVid-19, and meanwhile, the best we can do for now is to welcome back our people with loving and open arms, not literally though, and convey to them the assurance and sanctuary that they so desire.

These are the reasons why we should continue to be ever vigilant, and these are also the reasons why I will not share this jubilation of being a Zero positive case State, yet. Not to sound clichéd, but this is our "calm before the storm" moment.

I'm sorry if I'm being such a Donnie Downer this morning, maybe it's because of the weather. Like I said, today's weather in Aizawl is chilly, windy, wet and gloomy.

Chp 816. Journey to School

While I was writing my previous blog update - The Long Train Home about Chennai Mizo Welfare Association (CMWA) sending home a train full of Mizos back to Mizoram, I felt nostalgic about the good old days when we too used to travel by train on that same Kolkata - Chennai railways track.

However, I didn't want to dilute the content of that post with my personal experiences, especially since the CMWA had done such an outstanding and commendable job. And so here is a separate post on some of our "train experiences" with my school seniors :)

I did my schooling at Montfort, Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, from 1993 to '99.

It was a popular destination for Mizo students back then because the institution was run by the same branch of Catholic Brothers who also ran St. Paul's High School in Aizawl, Mizoram. And so, every year, there would be around 7-10 new Mizo students joining at class 11 in Montfort, since St. Paul's didn't have class 11 and 12 yet back then.

It felt good to have quite a sizeable number of Mizo students every year as it took away some of our homesickness and loneliness. However, there were only just a handful of us Mizo students at the lower level classes.

Back then, one of the things I used to dread the most was going back to school after coming home to Mizoram for a brief vacation. It wasn't much of the being at school part or the missing my family part that I hated, what I really hated was the journey between school and home.

Yup, travelling between Tamil Nadu and Mizoram was a harrowing experience, because those days, air travel was out of the question as it was a luxury most of us couldn't afford. Only the uber rich schoolmates and children of politicians used to travel by air back then. Hence, for the rest of us plebeians, we had to endure that long-ass bumpy ride on a passenger train for many days and nights.

Back then, Chennai was still Madras, and Kolkata was still Calcutta. Most of us would catch a train to Madras from Howrah station, Calcutta.

[image source: iamrenew.com]

Ah I can still smell that musty, humid, suffocating odour of Howrah railway station, the moment we stepped out of the cranky old ambassador taxi near the entrance gate.

It was just us students, with no parental supervision. We always travelled in a group, and my school seniors of class 11 & 12 lead the way.

Sometimes we would hire a coolie, and then we would follow that coolie like a mini-train within the congested railway station in one single file, slithering past the sweltering crowd until we found our platform, and then from there it took us a few more minutes to find our coach.

[image source: telegraph.co.uk]

We usually booked our tickets for "Coromandel Express", as it was the fastest train between Calcutta and Madras back then (maybe now too, I don't know).

There were also times when we didn't get tickets for that train, and so we used to take the "Howrah Mail" instead. Now I don't really remember how much faster "Coromandel Express" was compared to "Howrah Mail" or any other trains for that matter, all I remember was that it was the fastest train in that sector.

The best part about traveling in a group with my seniors was that we used to occupy an entire compartment or two by ourselves, and so we could sleep or sit anywhere we wanted. Once we had placed all our luggage beneath the lower berths and on the upper berths, being the youngest, I was always put on guard duty to sit inside our compartment and guard our luggage, while my seniors stepped outside on the platform to buy water bottles, snacks, magazines etc.

And soon, the Loco Pilot, which is what a train driver is known as here in India, blew a whistle and waved a flag, and the train slowly started moving out of Howrah Station. Chug, chug, chug, chug…

Looking back at all that, I can't help but wonder how much confidence we used to have in each other! Because when the train started moving, there were always members of our group missing. But none of us used to get worried or concerned about them, and soon enough, those missing members would turn up, talking about how they managed to jump into one of the coaches at the end of the moving train and then walked all the way to our coach.

I mean, if it was today, we would be frantically trying to call them up, or sending them WhatsApp messages in bold letters, "WHERE THE EFF ARE YOU, THE TRAIN HAS STARTED MOVING!!!" Right? :D Ah those good old, carefree days. :)

Everybody was just expected to be responsible by themselves, nobody was looking out for a particular person to see if he made it to the train or not.

Once the train started moving, there wasn't pretty much anything to do except stare outside the window at the monotonous landscape changing in similar patterns over and over again.

I mean, the Howrah-Chennai route was a pretty boring route; there weren't any mountainous scenery or sea view or romantic bridges or anything like that to pique our interests.

We also didn't take many photos at all, and this pic is apparently the only photo I have of us travelling inside a train from my old photo album collection.

The reason is because, back then it was expensive to own a camera. It wasn't just the cost of the camera but the various expenditures incurred in purchasing new roll-films and developing them and printing copies etc., that made it a luxurious device, whereas today, any Tom, Dick and Harry carries a 16 MP phone camera with +64 GB storage space to click unlimited photos and videos.

One of my favorite pastimes was to stand by the door next to the toilets and feel the speeding air hit my face and body, while gripping the handle tightly so I don't fall out. :P

[image source: telegraph.co.uk]

Other than that, I usually spent my time lying on the upper berth and reading a Sidney Sheldon or Robin Cook novel, as I didn't quite fit in with the conversations of my seniors. I ended up reading a lot of novels on those train journeys because we didn't have mobile phones back then to chat with friends or play games.

In fact, this was the only hand-held "console" we had back then :D

Believe me, it takes a lot of skills and patience to play this game! In fact, guys who had played this game are known to be great husband material because of their ability to understand and bear their wife's naggings and complaints! :P

And then of course we had those "Walkmans" to entertain and quench our musical thirst. Though the name walkman specifically referred to the portable music device manufactured by Sony, pretty much like "Xerox" or "Band-aid", the name "Walkman" became a common noun.

And all walkmans would be incomplete without the accompanying Reynolds pen!

Yup, Gen Z won't understand the meaning of the two combination above :D. Back then, we had to conserve the AA batteries running our walkmans (because they were expensive), and so if we wanted to rewind or fast-forward our cassette to a particular song, we used a Reynolds pen instead, as it fits perfectly inside the cassette reel, and then we would wind it manually, hence saving up on battery life :D

Back then, people would treat you like Royalty if you happened to own a "special" walkman, for example, a walkman with TWO earphone jacks, or one that rewinds or fast-forwards to the next song automatically. Man, those were extremely innovative inventions back then :D

Another favorite pastime was to indulge in playing cards, and since we had the entire compartment to ourselves, my seniors would play various card games (dawl inchuh, dost patti, rummy etc) right there itself. We never played for money, but instead, the losers had to drink a jug of water, lolz. Yes, people who lost frequently had to pee all the time. :D

So that was how most of us would spend our time in the train, as our body grew accustomed to the never ending shaking and jerking of the train wagons. There were a couple of stops we used to look forward to on the Howrah-Chennai route.

Kharagpur - They served the BEST alu-puri I have ever tasted :) And since the train used to stop for a long time on this station, having their alu-puri from the many vendors on the platform is a must. Also, it felt great to walk on the longest platform in the world and boast to our friends about it! It was only many years later that I found out the longest platform in the world is actually Gorakhpur in UP, not Kharagpur, lolzzz. All those years of false glory and pride! :D

Vishakapatnam - This was where the train engine head was changed and we started moving in the opposite direction. Every time, we would fool the first time travellers among us (those who joined in class 11) that we were heading back to Howrah, just to see their expression and shock :D

Vijayawada - We usually stopped here for a long time too, and all I remember was that it had a very industrial structure, with factories and smoke coming out from the surrounding chimneys etc.

And in between these stops, there were also certain places where a group of transgender used to enter our coach, clapping and singing while demanding money. I used to be terrified of them because they wouldn't leave you alone until you gave them money, and if you ignored them, they would harass you and even grab your private parts! Man, thinking about that now, that was actually not just a form of sexual abuse but even child abuse, as we were all juveniles back then.

Waking up to the sound of tea and coffee vendors shouting "Chai chaiii, kaafi kaaafi" was a pleasant experience. Nothing felt better than a strong cup of hot coffee after a sleepless night of rocking back and forth, especially when you finally managed to fall asleep, only to be woken up rudely by the loud rattling noise of the train running over a bridge, lolz.

Yup, coffee was a welcoming sight indeed. But opening the window to enjoy the morning view wasn't, because there would be scores of people lining up outside along the railway tracks taking a dump! Some of them would even grin and wave at us while they squatted, lolz.

In the midst of enduring this long, monotonous, noisy, uncomfortable journey with unbearably hot and humid climate in a second class sleeper coach, at least the fun part was that we were in one group. Sometimes it would be even more fun when other Mizo students studying in Kodaikanal Public School, St. Peters Hr Sec School, Kotagiri Public School, etc., were in the same train. :)

But there were times too when it wasn't possible to book tickets together due to different reopening dates, like when Stephen and I were in class 9, it was our seniors James and Franklin who chaperoned the two of us all the way from Aizawl to Yercaud. We stayed for a night in a hotel in Chennai. Oh we were so cool back then :D :P

 

We even found the time to quickly chill at Marina beach in Chennai before catching our connecting train to Salem.

So yeah, once we reached Chennai, it was another 7-8 hours or so train journey from Madras Central to Salem junction. We would usually take a short break and book a room at one of the hotels opposite Madras Central to regain our strength.

Since we weren't staying for the night, the hotel owners usually allowed all of us to book just one room. There were usually around 10-15 of us Montfort boys including a few girls from our adjoining girl's school Sacred Heart Convent, Yercaud (SHY) like Dorothy, Maria Grace, Joy, Becky, Christina etc. Maria Grace and Joy were infamous for drinking toilet water, as they reminded our "Yercaud Mizo" WhatsApp group about that many times :D :P

From Chennai, we would usually take the "Kovai Express" as it stopped at Salem junction for the longest duration. It was a "Chair Car" train.

Below is a picture of Salem junction when I was in class 10, where my seniors Hruaitluanga, Margaret Khuma, Mildred and I were trying to figure out how to transport our luggage to the opposite platform because there was a long freight train blocking our path, lolz.

We eventually passed our luggage one by one between the carriages to the other side. Here is Hruaitluanga Ralte and me posing with our coolie (who was reeking of alcohol by the way). I was so extra even back then :P

From Salem Junction, it was another hour's drive by taxi, climbing up the winding Shevaroy Hills with 20+ hairpin bends and precarious cliffs. Your body better be accustomed to the quick change in climate as that meant moving from a hot and humid Salem which lies at 300 metres above sea level to a really cold and frigid Yercaud at 1500 metres above sea level!

Before entering our school, we would usually chill one last time at the restaurants nearby, as once we were inside, we weren't allowed to leave the campus. Hotel Murugabhavan was one of our favorite restaurants, and their "Kothu Parotta" was to die for!

And so that was our long journey from home to school, and believe me, it was extremely tiring! In a way, it really made us look forward to reaching school as quick as possible, lolz.

The most memorable travel experience I had between Howrah and Chennai was when I was in class 12. I was finally one of the "seniors" leading the other juniors back to campus, so I was no longer the designated luggage guard :D :P

It was fun because I was with my Mizo batch-mates (who joined in 11th standard) and we all stayed in Mizoram House, Salt Lake, for the night.

What made that journey even more precious was that our dear friend Francis Lalhrilhtluanga was still with us then. Oh those happy times! :(

Even though the journey between school and home was terrible, at least doing it in a group with friends and seniors was a silver lining.

Today's generation is really fortunate because the price of air travel is quite affordable now and there are so many Mizo students going back to their hostels in South India or North India on a direct flight in a matter of hours. I just feel a bit sad though that they would never experience what we did as kids, as those were memorable moments and they gave us something to talk about even till today. :)

So adios for now, my friends, hope you find this short train journal experience of mine interesting, and let me know if you too had experienced anything like this when you were little in the comment section below. I'll see you again in my next blog update.

Cheers.