It was a Monday morning; the city was bustling with energy, children running to catch their school buses, working men and women rushing to reach their destinations on time. I was the on the go too to the railway station to catch up the train. Monday mornings, although energy levels are high my mind would be lingering over the weekend, reluctant to leave home. Like a little kid who wears a long face at the bus stop with the school bag in his shoulders trying to give naive reasons to bunk school, I would force myself towards the railway station, awaiting for the surprises the day had in store for me. Electric trains are a middle class boon. I would have a seasonal pass so that I could travel as many times within the time frame in the local trains. I would usually get down at Guindy from where I would have to take another mode of transport either share-auto or bus to reach my destination.
The ladies compartment of the train would be relatively less crowded when it reaches my station and would become almost full there. I would locate a window seat and sit at ease enjoying the morning breeze and the scorching heat at times. When I start gazing through I would be amazed and simultaneously felt bad for the women who would be panting for breath having hastily caught the train for if they had missed the train they would be late to office which would result in penalty, loss of pay or loss of half day leave. I would be amazed by their time management skills, few of them would comb their hair, few apply powder and do a little touch up, few would buy vegetables sold by vendors inside the train (although this is not permissible by law, we still find many people selling vegetables, eatables, groceries and few gypsies selling fashion accessories inside the train), few pray with their sloga books in hand, few have breakfast in the train, few teachers correct the answer sheets, few lecturers would prepare for their lecture, few over the phone instructing people at home of the electricity bill or telephone bill that was due to be paid and few lost in thought. Due to lack of time these women would try to make best use of their travel time.
On the other hand there were few others having fun in the train playing anthakshari and large chunks gossiping either about their bosses or their in laws or about the television serial the previous night or about the disrespectful behavior of their neighbors, few school students whispering to each other and few IT guys displaying their tags and headset in their ears and few completely occupied with some story book. Every day of my train journey was full of interesting experiences with one or more of these characters.
One day it happened so that my co-occupants were few middle aged women nearing their forties who were clerical job doers in the treasury office. They were a gang of five and posed as though they were the SMART FIVE at their office. There was one central figure who supposedly seemed to be the gang leader , was trying to reveal her thoughts over every topic of discussion ranging from the hurricane that hit the United states ,the storm and rains at Mumbai to why and when electric trains were discovered. The topic became all the more hilarious when she started narrating the quarrel she had with her mother-in-law at home and the disgustful behavior of her in law. She then said that her mother-in-law had slipped in the bathroom for having quarreled with her and that GOD had punished her for her misbehavior. She was able to relate it with karma. Her description about her in law was so realistic that I started to visualize her figure in my mind. I felt she would have made a good writer sans the humor interwoven. Then the topic sidetracked over to a fellow colleague at office who had made an irrevocable mistake in the document he had typed and she boasted of her eagle's eye to spot the mistakes made by him. She blasted of the guy’s insincerity in his work and concluded that the youth of these days were not so obedient and sincere compared to their days. Then on noticing a girl sitting cross-legged opposite to her she started advocating that girls were not supposed to sit cross legged since one it was a sign of disrespect to the elders and two it would increase body’s heat and affect her uterus. Now I felt she could have made a decent doctor too.
Finally I was nearing my destination and I had to take enormous efforts to reach the door, like a fish that swims against turbulent waves I had to fight my way through swarm of people who were never courteous enough to move away and give way for the people getting down. I received the final piece of advice from my fellow passenger. She said I should never feel bad to move forward pushing people behind and that if I were timid I would have a tough time. She was able to correlate this act of mine to real life and she was delighted on being able to make such a brilliant comparison. She was beaming with pride as her group was awe struck by her philosophy. I couldn’t refrain from laughing despite my jam-packed situation. I finally managed to reach the entrance by the time the train had halted. It was then I was pushed down by all the ladies who were getting down too and I had to pull my handbag and shawl which was caught up in the menace. I was almost drenched in sweat when I got down from the train and started walking outside the station awaiting for the surprises the day had in store for me
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