Chapter 14: Rishi is back

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"Everything is fine here, beta. I called you to know when are you coming back?" His mother answered.

"Don't worry Ma, I 'll be there before the wedding date." He informed her about his plan.

"Not done. You are the brother of the bride. How can you be absent in tomorrow's tilak?" She asked him deliberately.

"Ma, it is really important for me to come that early, how about I come after the next two days?" He asked to know if there are some chances left for him.

"No way, things are not going to work like that... I don't know about anything, all I want is to see my son be present on tilak, that's it...." She tried to convince him.

"I won't be able to come till morning, I will be present till evening." He asked to confirm if that could work.

"Alright... it's fine anyway tilak will be in the late evening so you will be there till then to attend." She was quite happy with his answer.

"Fine, then let me start packing. I'm hanging up, Ma. See you, be..bye."

He ended the call once he reached finally his house. Though he had piles of work left but for him, more important is to fulfill his mother's wish. He decided to continue his leftover, once he will be back from Benaras.

The next thing that he decided was to call his cousins who stays at Gaziabad. Gaziabad is one of the nearest stations to Noida and his hometown too. When he came first to join for his posting in Noida, he intentionally didn't show up in Gaziabad. He was afraid that he won't be able to reach his destination on time because of his grandparents.

His cousins got agreed. Later, he called his PA and He asked,

"Book some tickets to Benaras for a wedding. I m sending you the details."

After half an hour, he got a text from his PA,

"Done sir. Have a safe journey."

Rishi woke up early as he had to reach Gaziabad station before 4 am. It takes 12 hours to reach Benaras from Noida. He took train route because by road the journey will not be very comfortable.

He reached the platform first than his cousins. No matter how close they may live, they somehow managed to reach before the deadline. Luckliy, the train arrived after 15 minutes of arrival time which made them comfortably, board the train on time.

They got second-class AC berths

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They got second-class AC berths. All four of them settled their luggage and then went to sleep. It was not that he preferred second-class tickets but due to such an instant plan, he was only lucky to get them.

Next morning, the train halted to a junction, Rishi and one of the cousin, Ram woke up and went outside. They brought tea and some fresh snacks for breakfast.

After having their food, they were talking about trivial things. Ram asked out of curiosity,

"Bhai, please tell na, how you cracked UPSC in your first attempt? For others, it nearly took 2-3 attempts to make it!"

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