Blessing in disguise

Surya and Chandu got an invite for friend's wedding in Bangalore. Being a married, Chandu was hesitant but both agreed to go for reception as it was on Saturday. Surya booked train tickets from Chennai to Bangalore and made sure to return on same day so Chandu gets time to spend with his family on Sunday. On travel day, both planned to meet at a common spot at 5:50am, 15min walk to Guindy metro rail station, take 20min train to Park metro station and then 10min walk to reach Central railway station around 7 am. This will be ample time to eat and board train at 7:25am. They agreed to turn on Whatsapp live location to coordinate each other better.

Both are usually night owlers and worse in getting up early in the morning even with lot of alarms. As Murphy's law says whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. And then add these two to mix for early morning appointment, everything will go wrong. After 5:15am alarm failed to wake him up because of low volume, Surya woke up by 6:10am. First thought for him was Chandu might have reached spot and thought of his missed calls. But there were no calls, he called Chandu many times to check if he is awake and start as early as possible. As usual, Chandu never picked the call and was in good sleep irrespective of alarms and calls. Surya got ready and started walking to Guindy station thinking that Chandu might be getting ready to start.

Chandu managed to wake up by 6:25am and then called Surya to check on his status and got to know that he is almost near Guindy station. Chandu then said that he will get started to station in few mins. Meanwhile, Surya bought 2 metro tickets expecting Chandu in few mins. There was already 6:35am train by the time he reached platform but missed it to catch 6:45am train along with Chandu. Chandu called and said he started walking to Guindy station. By the time Chandu reached, next train came in and Surya had to board the train or else none of them can make it to Bangalore. When train left the station, Chandu sent a message in Whatsapp that he saw the train leaving the station. He said his chances are slim to make it if there is no metro train within another 10 mins. Hoping for best, Surya asked him to wait for next train and try to make it.

Chandu messaged Surya that he boarded the train and he might have to run to catch Bangalore train. Surya reached Park station by 7:05am. Usually, there will not be a check for tickets but as luck turn out on that day, ticket collector stopped Surya for tickets. Having both metro train tickets and hoped that ticket collector will not stop Chandu, Surya walked fast to Central railway station.

Surya boarded Bangalore train around 7:20am and started waiting for Chandu to join. Chandu messaged that he reached Park station and asked for platform to save time as he was running towards railway staton. Train started at 7:28am which is unusual 3 mins late start. Chandu called Surya saying that he is waving bye on platform as train leaving Central railway station. Having heard twice the same reason for missing train from Chandu, Surya started thinking about whole episode again. He realized that Chandu kept him busy in calls and messages but never started to railway station. He got reminded of whatsapp live location that they turned on and checked Chandu's current location to be at his home. Having been friends for sometime, he laughed at his friend's trick played on him to escape reception and get more family time. Surya went for reception and sleeping overtime was indeed blessing in disguise for Chandu :)