From Pondicherry, India: "Love Stories – A Valentine’s Day Special," by Sairam Krishnan

It was raining hard that Sunday evening as I got on to the bus to Villupuram from Pondicherry. I had screwed up. Yet again. Dad had warned me that not booking the ticket to Coimbatore early would land me in a terrible soup. And, as my Dad is right almost all the time, it did. I did not get any direct bus to Coimbatore and had to resort to route buses to get to Etti on time. Also, the course, that is, Pondicherry-Villupuram-Salem-Coimbatore was so crowded, that I barely had space to stand, let alone sit. But, duty beckoned! I would not be absent on the first day of semester, I had decided. That decision, in hindsight, was one of the best I ever made in my life.

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