Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The 65th Art




At times when I travel in train, to my home-unreserved-it gives me some special experience.


Getting seat in a crowded train is an art, especially in festival times like Diwali, you should be in station at least one and a half hour earlier to the departure time, you should stand in queue, you should stand inside train till you are able to grab a seat, you need to talk to somebody so that they would give you a little space to sit. Even after getting seat you will feel some troubles-you wont be able to even stretch your legs.
This time I was more cautious that I reached Egmore Station at 15.40 for my train starting at 17.00(remember friends we are talking about trains so railway time is given), still I was not able to get a window seat(ya... window seat is more preferable during long journeys especially when we did not reserve... you can get some cool air in a sweat stenched unreserved compartment). Train started... Two hours had gone as the train was moving at its own speed, my eyes were closed and my mind was in a futuristic dream about diwali... Sudden yelling from my right woke me up, One man-probably aged between 50 and 60-was about to break a young guy's neck-that young guy did not retreat. They were fighting for an international issue of not getting enough place to sit(their act was like world war), bashing to each other, disturbing other novices'-as me- sleep. They were non-stop for half an hour. I lost my dozing eyes for next three hours. Started listening to ARR songs. I had to talk to my neighbour to kill time as my battery was down in one hour. He was a Srilankan Tamilan, had a newspaper stating "Indonesian navy has caught 260 illegal immigrants to Australia". He started telling about the experiences he got in Srilanka for the past 3 years and how he arrived India. When he ended his story it was 2.30 and I started having my second innings towards my dreams. This time I woke up when I heard Manamadurai-nearby station-had arrived. And my last part of this diwali journey ended with a lost ticket that was not taken care by the checker...