Your Train is Expected to Arrive Shortly....

A bag in my right hand and other was on the back. I was running towards the blowing whistle of train with fast breath and a cramp in my left leg. Coins in the bag on my back were ringing with the frequency proportional to my speed towards the railway platform. Finally I reached the platform with a great happiness on the face. One could find the happiness on my face same on the face of marathon runner when he touches the ending ribbon with his chest. Eight Minutes of my run from auto stop to the railway platform all gone waste when I found, wrong train making unnecessary sounds. Though, those sounds were unnecessary only for me at that moment.

Setting the breath I moved forward to the desired coach number on the next platform. Well, getting a TATKAL ticket one day before your journey date is like victory in a war against thousands of passengers to get one seat out of 256. Fortunately I was a winner of that war & hence confident enough to stand at the coach with the ticket in my spare hand with Smartphone in the same hand. Mentioning “SMART” before Phone is to tell the additional weight that I carried in my hands in the Eight minutes of run, which unfortunately had no medal at the end.

While I was confirming on the display that I was on the right platform, I found the expected train number 12759 coming towards me. That was my train. I made my way to the reserved seat. Pushing the bags of other passengers I made place under the seat for my bag. Removed the shoes and made sure that the socks do not smell as they mostly do for bachelors. I folded my legs and kept laptop bag on it when I sat on the side lower seat of the boggy. Window seat and train journey, when the rout includes amazing natural beauty, is a best match. It was 7:45 in the morning and train was about to leave in 20 minutes.

Children present inside and outside my train were active enough to catch the attention of others. Some because of their loud cry and others for their cuteness. A child on a seat diagonal to my seat was crying in high volume for an unknown reason with no tears in eyes. A child sitting on the opposite seat of first kid was pointing to the snacks stall visible to him from his adjacent window. Their faces matched with their parents holding them, which confirmed me that they were brothers. Later I noticed that both brothers were crying for same reason. Another child from next compartment was busy in dancing on the song running on the phone in his hand. Whereas his little sister was watching at him silently with her super cute reddish cheeks.

Station was fully crowded. Thousands of words spoken by people, station announcements, sounds of tracks and trains all were mixing in each other to combinedly make it NOISE. Rollers of the bags sliding on platform floor were addition in the noise at station. A handicapped beggar with no legs had same rollers to his rolling pad on which he was sitting on, but they were steel made. His rollers were making louder voice than the rollers of the bags of passengers. Meanwhile in the noise I read couple of notice boards hanging on side walls of platform. One of them was explaining the manners to passengers about how to get IN and OUT of the train, what to carry and what not to, and how to inform to police if they found any unknown bag in the station area. The other board had two sections. One of it was warning passengers to stay alert and keep watching their luggage. Remaining half part of the poster was filled with 5 faces of criminals with a bold black lettered tittle, “WANTED”!! I scanned the faces with eyes and started imagining what I would do if I find anyone of them around?

Two soldiers hanging riffles on their shoulders had their eagle eyes on the public. May be because of festival rush two of them were assigned on each platform of the station. Military haircut, Fit body with perfect height, unstable eyes, Military shoes, Heavy riffle and firmness in their behavior was telling what they are all about. I had got my answer for whom to inform if I found anyone out of those 5 wanted faces.

A group of girls was busy watching in the mirror and making up their faces as if they were going to attend their own marriage. Boys on platform (Including me) didn’t miss the chance to watch them. They were exchanging their ‘Beauty enhancing materials’ when I found “fair & lovely” packet in a girl’s hand. That packet reminded me of Shahrukh Khan’s advertisement “Fair & Handsome- A mardo wali cream”. For some minuets I was busy in thinking that, what would happen if such creams will really work? What would happen with countries like South Africa? What if we all will have same color? I smiled remembering the add when I saw a girl from that group looking at me from the window of a train standing parallel and 10 to 11 meters away from my train. She was quick enough to turn her face when we collide our sights. No need to mention that she was one of the best looking girls present at the station.

Tea, coffee & snacks ferywalas were more in number than the passengers standing inside the boggy. Different stall makers had their unique way of marketing their stuff. Their marketing skills worked on me even when I heard someone saying “hot and fresh onion samosa at just RS 10!” I got two packets from him which contained 5 small onion samosas in each. 10 samosas were enough for me for next 2-3 hours.

A family of 10 bald men and women with four bald kids playing around was sitting at east corner of platform. It’s no wonder in India especially in south if you find hundreds of bald men and women roaming around. It’s a ritual where people when they go to the oldest and biggest pilgrim of Lord BALAJI Temple who is reincarnation of Lord VISHNU. It was really a pleasure to see another Tamilian family of twenty persons who might have had a family get together. Granny and Grandpa, their three daughters and three sons, their spouses and 6 kids made it to twenty. That was a perfect example of Indian culture and India’s Joint family system.

All of a sudden blowing whistle of the train with a small jerk in forward direction broke my thoughts. The train was accelerating slowly. It was running two and half hours late. Thoughts made me forget the time. Even all the 12 samosa I had finished in addition with a cup of coffee .Well, finally I was going home a long time after.