Train - UNRESERVED!! PART THREE

PART THREE :

Hour Two!!!

In an hour, there came a blind beggar in rags, who, to my surprise sang my favourite song and I realized that amidst all difficulty, there were happenings which were interesting and entertaining. I could vaguely remember a Eunuch who clapped hands and demanded for money fully knowing that all of us were firmly bonded to the small areas allotted to us and one person’s move would make three passengers on the diagonals to collapse like a pack of cards. It was quite strange as to how the above two people got space for locomotion between compartments. Something reminded me of the Hollywood movie “The Mummy” where the villain tiptoes into the heroine’s room in the form of fine sand through the keyhole and the scene where the library bookshelves fell like a pack of cards in a circular fashion. I knew that I was correlating my real life too much with the movie, but I loved it :)

Hour Three!!!

Time passed by in a rotten manner and I hated myself for being idle for nearly two hours though I had managed to make few conversations with a middle-aged man about the Campus Interviews in Engineering Colleges and the Reservation for OBC s. The 50,000 saree old woman’s grand-daughter seemed to like me so much as she loved me making funny faces that she pulled my hands and insisted me to sit down with her in the tiny space left out. ‘Poor Girl’, I thought. I can see her enormous love for me though the vacuum area was minuscule. I remembered how the little girl was refused a place at the end of the seat by a dogmatic fellow passenger an hour ago. The typical human mind-set, I thought again. Meanwhile, a person near the door managed to buy food packets for our family in one of the stations. I ate like a starved person struck in famine, which was so evident from the mirror which reflected the manner in which I finished the food packet:) Through the mirror, I had occasional glimpses of the guy with whom I almost fought with for my bag in the melee. I giggled to myself churning those moments in my mind.The train was nearing its destination and I heaved a sigh of relief by that very thought. My novel was still in my hands and I clutched my two bags and had a final look at the mirror. I looked dishevelled, but WHO CARES !!! :) It had been a tiring journey with three hours of standing in the same place and I swore that I will never make this UNRESERVED decision once more in my life. I made a huge call to my dad from the far end of the compartment and looked for my exhausted mom. I took her bag also and got down from the train. Standing in the platform, I felt I was breathing after a long time. I waited for my parents to get down from the train. We didn’t exchange even a single word between each other. We sat on the platform bench for a long time in profound silence ..

Train - UNRESERVED!! PART TWO

Hour One !!!

Three hours of gruelling travel ahead of me made me get reminded of the Theory of Relativity and I cursed myself for the instantaneous spark of knowledge, which certainly was useless as far as that moment was concerned. Rather, it had made me realize the arduousness of the situation. I had everything in the train which I wished to have in my life, and mind you, I am not paradoxical. I had everything I wished there, a mirror where I can see how gorgeous I look, my favourite novel with a nerve-racking climax yet to be covered, my mobile, my parents beside me and of course a handsome young man in the same compartment to make the scene comprehensive and a reminder that all those right things were put in the wrong place! Conversely, I was standing in front of the washbasin mirror with the dog-eared novel clasped in my hand so that it would not fall down and get trampled in the chaos, my dad whose face I never saw since I boarded the train till then, but heard him seriously debating about Lalu Prasad Yadav with a fellow passenger whom I guess was also standing with him.Akin a crowded Chennai town bus, the train continued the journey in its own way and I felt as a victim of the situation. I consoled myself by the fact that I was standing in front of the mirror (though forcibly :) ) and that I can check out how I look like in demanding situations. But I never dreamt that it could be a worst nightmare of witnessing how I deteriorate slowly as time ticks by.Few characters get embedded in memories no matter how much are irrelevant. I can remember some striking characters in the train – a inverted-pot shape headed man standing near me, busily reading the newspaper though he had no place to turn the pages and that kept him confined to one folded page, an old woman in a “50,000 colours” duplicated saree and her charming grand daughter who opened a packet of Biryani, trying to feed the kid and a slim girl in her teens, listening to her favourite music in the I-pod. I wished I were a Barn Owl so that I can observe people in 270 degrees!!!

Train - UNRESERVED!! PART ONE

The word "Unreserved" with regard to trains seemed to be remote until THAT DAY when me and my parents had to return back from Chennai to Ariyalur on a fine Saturday afternoon with an unplanned and unexpected change in schedule... I mean, a ' supposed to be ' fine Saturday afternoon!Five big baggages of which two large ones hanging down hopelessly down my shoulders, I should say I wasn't ready at all for the departure .. We looked at the chart to know the timings of each train and finally ended up buying three tickets from Tambaram to Ariyalur in Pallavan Express . I had bought a couple of magazines to read while travelling and a half read Sidney Sheldon novel in my hand bag.. We were informed that the train will depart within four minutes it arrives at the station..Five baggages and the heavy crowd thronging made my head spin... Everyone there had a mission in their mind I guess , to get a place to sit .. I mean, to rephrase it in my language . "a place to stand " .. and for hell sake, it was a Festive Season.. I wondered how my poor mom would be able to board the train in this heavy crowd ..I could hear the sound of the train coming and I turned hard to have a glimpse of the arriving train .. You know, the sight of the approaching train can send butterflies in stomach , no matter how many times you have seen it.. And I expected Butterflies again this time and that thought made me rub my eyes only to see numerous heads blocking my view :(The train halted with a horrid screeching sound and I found people from nowhere pushing me aside in unknown directions and swarming like bees towards the door which had to be opened by people inside. I gulped which lasted only halfway down my throat and the next nano second running towards the reserved compartments, the train being a West-Build one. In a next few nano seconds , I found myself inside the train , pulling my bag towards me which got caught in the mely between a lady and a (smart) guy .. Well, I guess I am getting into very intricate details .. lol. I then understood that it was cunningness in the passenger's eyes before boarding the train that I clearly misunderstood as curiosity ..With people squeezing inside the tiny place left out, I never knew till then that two and half people can stand in a 30 cm * 30 cm area , well.. Forgive me for that "Half" :) I have to be accurate in this description .. Finally , I searched for a trace of my mom's presence . SHE WAS THERE ! PHEWW !!! My dad was missing , but god had blessed him with a divine high voice which made me identify his presence.