They all show it in Indian films, when a guy goes on a train journey he is sure to travel with a good looking girl. Eventually they get into love or at least become good friends. I have been always fascinated by this kind of imagination, but practically thinking this cannot happen in reality, or someone should have tons of luck for this event to happen. I never had that much amount of luck with me. But whenever I go on a train journey I just hope that I at least make an acquaintance with a good looking girl.
This was the expectation that I carried with me when I boarded Chennai-Dadar express on a fine drizzling Sunday morning. Previous night only I had called my team leader to inform him about my leave and he wished me fine journey thus implying that I din’t have important works in the project. After making my parents get seated and settled in their berths, I moved forward along a few coaches to find my berth, which I got due to a late booking. I found my berth and sat there, observing that the nearby berths were still unoccupied. I kept my fingers crossed hoping that cinema will turn into reality today for me. But the fate was written before itself in the reservation chart which I didn’t notice. A typical old Mr. & Mrs. Iyer occupied the empty berths near mine and my crossed fingers automatically opened up for helping the Iyers with arranging their luggage. Shrugging off my shoulders and exerting out an ‘Hmmm’ I started to find out the page where I had left reading ‘THE DETECTIVE’ by Arthur Hailey.
The engine blew out a long whistle and the wheels started rolling after a jerk crashing all my hopes and indicating that even on this trip I don’t have the required amount of luck. As the train picked up its speed I too started turning the pages of the book faster. Around 150 pages would have been read, when suddenly I felt a touch. A strange boy was standing with gaudy make up wearing a salwar kameez. The boy clapped his hands and kept them on my head saying something in telugu. Then I realized that the boy was a eunuch. I have heard that sometimes these people pester the passengers too much and if they don’t get money they try to harass them. My body shuddered at the thought and I feared that I don’t get into such a situation. So immediately I searched for some change in my purse. Fumbling with the money and conscious of the boy watching me I took out a 10 rupee note n handed it to the boy with fear. The boy again touched my head moved to the next block of berths. The passengers sitting nearby gave me a puzzled look as no one had cared to give money for the boy as if I am fool. I gave them a wry smile unable to explain my fear and felt a fool myself.
Unable to concentrate on the novel again, I started staring through the window hoping for some green pastures. On the due course of looking out, I found a station’s name as ‘Veeravenkatanarianarajupet’. Really a big name for a small town/village!!! As the train passed through many small stations in AP I had some eatables from the noisy advertising vendors and encountered many handicaps, old people and children turned beggars in the form of singing and begging, begging in the name of gods, children dress up like mythical characters, etc. One has to master the art of begging from these people I thought. But at the same time it came to my mind that the government and the people are also quite responsible for their current state. But of the many beggars I saw, one gave me a shock. It was a terrible sight of a blind boy who was crying in pain and shivering constantly carried by a man. I immediately gave the boy money, but then thought what if the man carrying the boy had intentionally poked the boy’s eyes to make a living out of him. Pondering over these ghastly thoughts and reading through the last of pages of the novel, I felt my stomach grumbling and sensed that I am hungry. I got up and headed for my parents’ berth to have lunch with them. On the way through other coaches a group of eunuchs were collecting money. I immediately sensed that they would surely ask me also. So I got into a nearby toilet and from time to time I checked whether the group had passed by me. Bearing the smell I stood for around 5 minutes and passed by the danger.
After lunch I came back to my berth with Kushwanth Singh’s ‘The Company of Women’ and started reading it right away thinking that the book would be a humorous one. After casually going through 30 pages of the book, I sensed that the book is going to be full of sexual encounters. But as there was nothing to do I carried on reading it and I fell asleep. A shaky halt at a station woke me up. As the train rolled on again I continued reading the book. After sometime when pacing through the book interestingly a sudden clap disturbed me. This time I decided not to give even a single rupee. I continued to read the book seriously though my heart was beating hard as the eunuch was pestering constantly. After sometime the eunuch gave up and moved on and I felt a sense of triumph (thought a childish one).
Dusk was nearing and the train was running near Andhra & Karnataka border. Amidst the landscape yellow patches of sun flower fields came to view. Some were fully blossomed smiling in yellow, while others were just newly formed with their heads dropped as if in sin. Also I saw the sun nearing the west horizon, glowing with bright red at the lower half and orange in the upper. The view was beautiful with all the higher wavelengths dazzling my eyes. Crossing the fields, the train passed through a thermal power station. Then the fields disappeared and tall pylons were visible everywhere over the land standing tall and proud in transmitting power. Quickly the sun began to come down gracefully turning into a big pinkish red disc making the size of pylons very small. I felt like the sun was emphasizing its supreme power and watched it slowly sink into the earth splashing the dark blue water into sky.
Lights went on in the coaches and I began to continue to read the book aiming to finish it off before dinner. Reading continuously for two hours I finished the rest of the book only to find that book had taught me two good things. First info - another word for condom is ‘effel’ and second - always use effel if you are in doubt. After finishing the book I ordered dinner from the pantry. Unfortunately I found that the food was of the same quality as before Lalu(ji)’s period. Luckily I didn’t find any plates made of clay or any fodder in the food. After dinner I immediately went to sleep and got up at Dadar in Mumbai hoping to find my distant relative waiting in the station, whom I had never met before….
Note : 2164 - is the train no. for Chennai-Dadar Express.
This was the expectation that I carried with me when I boarded Chennai-Dadar express on a fine drizzling Sunday morning. Previous night only I had called my team leader to inform him about my leave and he wished me fine journey thus implying that I din’t have important works in the project. After making my parents get seated and settled in their berths, I moved forward along a few coaches to find my berth, which I got due to a late booking. I found my berth and sat there, observing that the nearby berths were still unoccupied. I kept my fingers crossed hoping that cinema will turn into reality today for me. But the fate was written before itself in the reservation chart which I didn’t notice. A typical old Mr. & Mrs. Iyer occupied the empty berths near mine and my crossed fingers automatically opened up for helping the Iyers with arranging their luggage. Shrugging off my shoulders and exerting out an ‘Hmmm’ I started to find out the page where I had left reading ‘THE DETECTIVE’ by Arthur Hailey.
The engine blew out a long whistle and the wheels started rolling after a jerk crashing all my hopes and indicating that even on this trip I don’t have the required amount of luck. As the train picked up its speed I too started turning the pages of the book faster. Around 150 pages would have been read, when suddenly I felt a touch. A strange boy was standing with gaudy make up wearing a salwar kameez. The boy clapped his hands and kept them on my head saying something in telugu. Then I realized that the boy was a eunuch. I have heard that sometimes these people pester the passengers too much and if they don’t get money they try to harass them. My body shuddered at the thought and I feared that I don’t get into such a situation. So immediately I searched for some change in my purse. Fumbling with the money and conscious of the boy watching me I took out a 10 rupee note n handed it to the boy with fear. The boy again touched my head moved to the next block of berths. The passengers sitting nearby gave me a puzzled look as no one had cared to give money for the boy as if I am fool. I gave them a wry smile unable to explain my fear and felt a fool myself.
Unable to concentrate on the novel again, I started staring through the window hoping for some green pastures. On the due course of looking out, I found a station’s name as ‘Veeravenkatanarianarajupet’. Really a big name for a small town/village!!! As the train passed through many small stations in AP I had some eatables from the noisy advertising vendors and encountered many handicaps, old people and children turned beggars in the form of singing and begging, begging in the name of gods, children dress up like mythical characters, etc. One has to master the art of begging from these people I thought. But at the same time it came to my mind that the government and the people are also quite responsible for their current state. But of the many beggars I saw, one gave me a shock. It was a terrible sight of a blind boy who was crying in pain and shivering constantly carried by a man. I immediately gave the boy money, but then thought what if the man carrying the boy had intentionally poked the boy’s eyes to make a living out of him. Pondering over these ghastly thoughts and reading through the last of pages of the novel, I felt my stomach grumbling and sensed that I am hungry. I got up and headed for my parents’ berth to have lunch with them. On the way through other coaches a group of eunuchs were collecting money. I immediately sensed that they would surely ask me also. So I got into a nearby toilet and from time to time I checked whether the group had passed by me. Bearing the smell I stood for around 5 minutes and passed by the danger.
After lunch I came back to my berth with Kushwanth Singh’s ‘The Company of Women’ and started reading it right away thinking that the book would be a humorous one. After casually going through 30 pages of the book, I sensed that the book is going to be full of sexual encounters. But as there was nothing to do I carried on reading it and I fell asleep. A shaky halt at a station woke me up. As the train rolled on again I continued reading the book. After sometime when pacing through the book interestingly a sudden clap disturbed me. This time I decided not to give even a single rupee. I continued to read the book seriously though my heart was beating hard as the eunuch was pestering constantly. After sometime the eunuch gave up and moved on and I felt a sense of triumph (thought a childish one).
Dusk was nearing and the train was running near Andhra & Karnataka border. Amidst the landscape yellow patches of sun flower fields came to view. Some were fully blossomed smiling in yellow, while others were just newly formed with their heads dropped as if in sin. Also I saw the sun nearing the west horizon, glowing with bright red at the lower half and orange in the upper. The view was beautiful with all the higher wavelengths dazzling my eyes. Crossing the fields, the train passed through a thermal power station. Then the fields disappeared and tall pylons were visible everywhere over the land standing tall and proud in transmitting power. Quickly the sun began to come down gracefully turning into a big pinkish red disc making the size of pylons very small. I felt like the sun was emphasizing its supreme power and watched it slowly sink into the earth splashing the dark blue water into sky.
Lights went on in the coaches and I began to continue to read the book aiming to finish it off before dinner. Reading continuously for two hours I finished the rest of the book only to find that book had taught me two good things. First info - another word for condom is ‘effel’ and second - always use effel if you are in doubt. After finishing the book I ordered dinner from the pantry. Unfortunately I found that the food was of the same quality as before Lalu(ji)’s period. Luckily I didn’t find any plates made of clay or any fodder in the food. After dinner I immediately went to sleep and got up at Dadar in Mumbai hoping to find my distant relative waiting in the station, whom I had never met before….
Note : 2164 - is the train no. for Chennai-Dadar Express.
Thanks to : Frau Radhika for correcting the blunders in the post.
