FLOATING
TRAIN
Guide’s announcement
came again. ‘All of you need to get down here. This is the entry point to
Britain and they will verify your documents here. So keep your passport with
you and answer correctly to the
questions. In case of any doubt, they can detain you here and will not be
allowed to cross the channel. Remain silent in the queue till you are called."
We were
in France and needed to cross the English Channel to reach England.
Crossing of the English Channel
is made possible through the through underground rail tunnel. The train takes around 40 minutes reach the other side.
Luckily
there was no issue at the checking point and we got into our bus again. To our
surprise, from there our bus was
driven into the parked train directly. Train coaches were big enough to drive
the bus straight into the coach. One bus after another, nearly 5 buses were parked
inside the train. The train did not have any seating arrangements for passengers. Once the bus was parked inside the train, we were allowed to
de-board the bus and walk inside the coach from one end to the other of train.
There was
lot of excitement as we were told that the train will travel at high speed and
cross the sea. As the train started moving someone from the crowd commented "
We can see the sea soon and train may float in water and go like a boat.” Blindly
believing this,some of them were anxiously glazing through the window to see water. They never realized, by chance they see
water, then they will never see the land again.
Left hand drive is followed in Europe whereas in England, right hand rule is followed. But both types of buses were allowed here. It was amazing to see our driver driving through the England roads with ease.
It was also interesting to see the houses which do not
have a compound wall and all of them looking very similar. Back in my state, everyone
want to design their house to be of unique design.
The climate was slightly chill and the
places looked almost very similar to the buildings in India. We could see
similar buildings of Mysore and Calcutta including the road names.
THE EXCHANGE
We found the euro was not very much traded in England and we needed to change some Euro to Pound. On enquiry, it was informed that it could be done across the counter. I went down and saw the counter was empty and only one gentleman was standing there. So happily I went and stood behind him and occasionally tried to peep in to his transactions. Then suddenly the counter person looked at me and said 'please stand back and be in the queue'. Then I looked back and noticed the queue. But surprisingly the people standing in the queue did not shout or say a single word at me even though I jumped the queue. I just imagined how it could have been, had it happened in my country.
Sheela's friend
They came
all the way after travelling for 80 Kms to meet her. They were meeting after a gap of 25 years. They talked for some time and the visit became a memorable because of this. As we retired to our room, we realized that we live as long as we are
able to survive in the minds of others. That is the age of a person in reality.
