by vidit chopra
Chapter 3: The Train Journey
We reached the station ten minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive. We asked a coolie where our second class two tier AC bogey was supposed to be. Following his instructions we reached our bogey and then took a seat on the bench. I went away to bring two cups of tea so as to energize ourselves and prevent ourselves from falling off to sleep before the arrival of the train.
The train arrived bang on time, to be honest, that came as more of a shock than a welcome! An Indian Railway train arriving on time is more of a shock any day! We boarded the train, even though our bogey was a bit to the left from where we were told it would be, but that much is expected out of the railway system or rather the Indian way of functioning. Nobody is willing to give you the right information for free, be it a request of asking where the public toilet is, way to a location or anything for that matter. Any information you are provided for free is bound to be wrong! I realized this on falling prey to the above stated situations more than a couple of times which strengthened my faith in it!
Anyway, so we boarded the train and settled down in our compartment. Our compartment had four other occupants as well, a middle aged man who seemed to be from the corporate world, his father and a couple with an infant who seemed to be around a year old in the arms of the mother. It was funny how almost four generations were right there in that compartment itself! An infant, away from all the life worries, nothing to do, people around to clean up his shit (pun intended), a school going boy i.e. me, frustrated with life already, still unsure what I have to do or what I want from my life, a college going girl i.e. Simran, who has no clue as to why is she doing what she is doing, two middle aged men, working and earning money for the family, trying to raise the family and making ends meet, finally an old man who has passed all the above stated stages and is waiting for his fate, the end to arrive. It was an entire lifetime in that coach.
After settling down and sharing my thought process with Simran we had our breakfast which Kabir’s mom had packed for us. We both were in a dilemma trying to remember what all did we do in the past one week. We were pretty much tired. It was a fun filled yet a hectic week so we didn’t care much to get up or talk. We just laid back in our seats and kept on remembering the things that conspired.
“It was a fun filled week.” Simran said.
“Oh sure, it was but much more fun for the three of you than it was for me.” I said.
“Oh come on, that’s not true. You too enjoyed it. I can’t believe you didn’t.” she said.
“Yes I did, but I was mocked too much for my liking.” I said.
“You know Vishal once you only told me ‘the person who gets irritated easily is the one who is irritated the most by the people around him. One should never react.’ Remember?” She replied.
“Hmmm.” I replied for I didn’t have anything better to say.
“The only thing that you did wrong which most probably spoilt your fun was reacting to whatever prank Tanya played on you. If you hadn’t reacted at any one of those pranks she would have stopped troubling you! But no, prank after prank you got all the more irritated which made it all the more fun for her.” She explained.
“Yes you are right.” I replied trying to cut down the discussion on the topic.
“So what’s up with you and Tanya anyways?” She asked.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked a bit taken aback by the question. The last conversation she heard between us was the heated one and I didn’t want to open everything that happened last night after they all had gone off to sleep because if I had, the teasing would have started all over again and as it is with gossip it spreads faster than a forest fire!
"You did hear the last conversation the two of us had. Still expect something from me" I said
"I am not expecting anything from you. I am just talking she talk asking the ask and well I am pretty much sure I didn’t hear the last piece of conversation the two of you had." she said and smiled.
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"Well that depends on whether or not are you willing to disclose what happened after the three of us had slept off." she said
"What do you wanna know?" I asked
"Everything!" she replied.
"Why would I tell you?" I said.
"Because if you don’t then I will tell Kabir, Ayesha and everyone else how you and Tanya were sleeping last night or rather this morning." she said and winked.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“I woke up at around quarter to six in the morning and I wouldn’t like to describe.."
"Go ahead tell them. I tried to sleep on the couch in the living room, wasn’t able to do so. So she came over and asked if I would like to sleep on the bed. I declined, she insisted, as we had to travel, so a bit of sleep would have helped so I said fine. Making her sleep on the couch wouldn’t have been kind so I gave her enough space! We were just lying on the same bed and as she didn’t have any pillow she used my hand as one. What’s the problem in that?” I said.
"Oh well then I think you yourself are unaware of how the two of you were sleeping at quarter to six in the morning. Here have a look. Maybe this will give you a fair idea." She said and showed me a photo in her mobile phone. I too was startled on seeing the photo.
I was sleeping the way I was supposed to the only difference was that Tanya's head rested on my chest maybe the hand as a pillow didn’t work so she decided to use a better one, my chest. The only difference in the way I was sleeping was my hand was resting on Tanya’s back around her body. I had option other than telling her what happened. Even though I am a lover of technology but when such things happen I start hating it. This reminds me of my famous video on youtube. No, I am in no way going to tell you the name of that video. It has got enough views, likes and comments, much more than I can bear actually!
So I had to succumb to her demand and told her what all happened roughly seven hours ago after the three of them had slept. She was enjoying it and I was also kind of enjoying telling it to her for I could remember her and relieve those few precious moments.
“That’s all what happened last night. Happy?” I said once I was done telling the tale to her.
“Very.” She replied and started smiling, a wicked wicked smile it was.
“What? Why are you smiling like that?” I asked.
“Because something is cooking.” She said.
“Nothing is cooking. We are just friends. It’s just a fresh start and in fact it will be a fresh start when I meet her again.” I said.
“Oh so you are already looking forward to an opportunity to meet her again.” She said, hence the mocking began!
“Why do you guys always have to take out an alternate meaning of everything? Chuck it.” I said.
“See you are reacting. Remember what I said a while back? Do not react, but given the topic, you must react. You have full right to defend yourself even though I am not going to buy it!” She said.
“Shut up. Sleep off. We will reach home in around 5 hours. Sleep for a while.” I said.
“Okay. If you say so and FYI which for your information is how people refer for your information nowadays, you know when that picture was taken, Ayesha and Kabir were wide awake staring at the two of you so I don’t have to show that picture to anyone to prove it! Good night! I think we should sleep for a while!” She said, smiled and lay back on her seat!
“What the hell.” I had nothing to say. Given that they both too knew about the picture, I was in for a miserable time the next time we talk over skype, phone, chat online or any mode of conversation we might have.
I also laid back in my seat to take a nap for couple of hours and reach home fresh but due to some reason I just couldn’t sleep. As soon as I tried to sleep, Tanya’s face would pop up in my mind and I would keep looking at her. It reminded me of the first time I saw her. She entered the room and it was as if it were a Bollywood scene setting and the entry of the lead actress was
to happen.
She entered the room and I looked at her and was bowled over by her beauty. Her hair looked black but appeared to be dark brown as soon as she passed the area when the sun rays fell on her hair. Her upper lip and lower lip close together and her cheek bones moved a little as she started smiling and what a smile it was! The smile made a cute little dimple appear on her left cheek which made it look all the more precious and made her look all the more beautiful. She was wearing a purple dress, which suited her and she looked perfect in it. The makeup she had put on was apt, nothing flashy, not too many pancakes were wasted to spoil her natural beauty. She had fair skin; no, fair might not do justice, angel like skin, a small nose which looked perfect on her face. It was if when she smiled along with her lips and cheeks, her nose and ears smiled as well. It was a sign of a naughty human being. Her eyes had a sparkle which was hard to miss and once my eyes met hers I just couldn’t avoid looking at her. It reminded me of an old song which goes by the name “Kitna haseen chehra” not that I remember the lyrics or anything but that song came to my memory as soon as I saw her. (As I said, a perfect Bollywood setting!)
All this while I kept thinking of her and I don’t know when I dozed off. By the time I woke up we were forty minutes from destination and what was most surprising was that the train was running before time! This sure was going to be a historic day in the history of Indian Railways, a train arriving not on time but before time and I was more than happy to be a part of it!
I woke Simran so that she could freshen up.
After around ten minutes or so the train stopped and it looked like the historic day wasn’t going to be today! The train started off again in a couple of minutes. From then on, it was a misery; the train didn’t pick up speed and practically halted every two minutes. It looked like my appreciation of the Indian Railway system was just unbearable to God, the end result being, train reached half an hour late. There you have it, Indian Railways for you!