Rest Day (26th October 1999, Kanpur)

The advantage of having a Test match finish in four days is that it gives everyone a day to rest and catch their breath. Boy did we rest. Duane and I woke up well after lunch time on our final day at Kanpur. We were both clearly still in the process of recovering from flu. Just when things began to look good healthwise, the pendulum would swing back and put us in bed. We finally mustered up enough energy to make one final visit to the Internet browsing centre before we left.

Having reached the browsing centre at around 6 pm we had about one hour to spend there before we left for the railway station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9.30pm. First the connections went down at the browsing centre. Before we could reconnect, the electricity failed and the generator had packed up. So there was no real chance at using the Internet. After an hour of waiting and trying in vain we made our way back to our hotel room. Back at the hotel room we packed in a hurry and our local co-ordinator met up with us to take us to the station.

Unable to find any motorised transport we were destined to make another trip in the auto rickshaws of Kanpur. Except, the ride to the station was much longer than anything we had undertaken in our last few days at Kanpur. We piled into an rickshaw with all our luggage and there was barely enough space for the two of us without our luggage. So we squeezed in and decided to enjoy the ride. Boy, did we enjoy it. We were taken through all the bylanes and shortcuts possible and saw Kanpur in a way that I didn't think possible. There were whole streets lined with shops that had sprung up for the festival season. On any given street the aroma of freshly made food wafted through despite the dust and smog that enveloped the city. After several very cramped bumpy kilometres we made it to the station.

As has been the case throughout our recent journeys, our coach was the one furthest away from the entrance. We found our berths in time and chugged away from Kanpur.