
The lushful Green grounds, low and high terrain , shiny sky and another moment cloudy one, nothing being permanent, small huts at the sides with smokes coming out of chimney as the train rumbles over the rails to Delhi. The visual inspection takes over the verbal deliberation while moving from one station to other.
Aah!! The Indian Railway is great. Presumably, the best means of transportation in India connecting every dots in the campestral and it offered me a very amusing experience while travelling.
It was a huge rush after train was half an hour delay with 5 min. stopping time at the station.Anyhow i managed to occupy my berth. The first happenstance was with a ‘Railway employee’. I didn’t knew that earlier. For a moment i thought him to be someone travelling without ticket.
I asked him ‘Bhaiyya, kaun si Berth hai aapki’ ? very formal indeed..Need to be.
“ye side mera hai, 3 seat hai ” came the reply.
Befuddled.
I wasn’t sure. I asked him for his ticket as he was travelling alone. The three name showed on his ticket , I asked the reason for wasting money on extra two tickets.
He said ‘’ye Railway mere baap ki hai. Ye ticket Free hai. Railway employee hoon, mera kya jata hai”
I went ice frozen after hearing his glib statements. ‘Aam aadmi’ pray for waiting tickets to get confirm at the time of journey. Anyhow,
Indian Railway is awesome!!
I went on to my berth for rest and slipped to my dreams. The next morning was clear and fresh while my globe of eye felt the coldness of air. I could figure out a man of scrawny figure, faded moustaches, somewhat worn-out clothes with a twinkle in his eye staring at me. Incessantly!
“Hello , good Morning” I said.
“Nice to meet you” came the reply. “We never met and do i Know you ? “
“I am unsure about me but you know me very well”. He said. God damn! How in this earth i came to know him. By the way , is he crazy. I suspected.
Pardon! My memory is freaking out. It would be great if you honour me with your identity.
“Barrack Obama is on his way from US to meet me in Delhi”. WTF!!
Deadly Frozen!! I interpreted his mental state of sub consciousness and went on to brush my sparkling teeth.
Again.Indian Railway is awesome!!
Then came the ‘Banaras’ the religious centre in North India and I saluted the sacred river ‘Ganges’ as train strolled over the rail before stopping at Varanasi Station.One of the Berth at the side went vacant. Then appeared a bugger, He was medium built probably of my age, football shaped belly with well suited attire. He dropped his bag on the seat while cribbing “ Gender Imbalance in India is on the rise, kitni kam bandiyaan hai yahan?” He raised his eyebrows to look for someone. Thereafter he went numb and Frigid!
“ There is none” Finally he spoke something. The Indian Goverment should be proactive in handling such major social concerns.
I went on laughing on the floor.
This time” Indians are awesome”
The air of anonymity disappeared within few minutes as we exchanged our views on present social concerns within India, too serious to procrastinate on such an issue. The vastness of knowledge which he had was amazing, the flow was nevertheless flowing like a river. Remarkable!
After an hour of intellectual discussion i heard some altercation between two persons.
One was a feminine voice and another one was a male voice. I went on to next compartment. What was that? I could see a lady fighting to a man for a seat. According To her “The seat is reserved in her name but this man has occupied the seat and refusing to return the same”
“How can you do that? You don’t have any sense of humour?” Jesus!! What has sense of humour got to do with a person occupying someone else’s berth.
To add more embarrassment she continuously kept on repeating the same words.
SHEER GENIOUS!!
Now i knew the reason of the Female Brains developing at such a different pace. Poor soul!
We could do nothing but to call the TTE and finally matter was resolved. She took a deep breath after a continuous show of absurdity.
I returned to my seat and dozed off at the melody of ‘lemon Tree’ and ‘Pink Floyd’.
There were many instances of such an experience but these were ultimate classics in their way. I have started enjoying talking with people of extra flavour of humour.
Just for Fun!!
P.S: This article is not meant to offend anyone or so rather pun intended in the same.