Hi..

I know I am late. But circumstances have been such that, I had topics to be written about, but could never find time for them. Now that I am starting let me start with a narration.

Ten thirty in the morning. I am standing at Nampally railway station waiting for the train. I was getting ready for the war, the war for getting a seat in general compartment. I had tried for a reservation but in vain. The train slowly comes into the station. The crowd runs along with it. Some climb it just as they do in a running bus. At the end of it I end up the loser, as I always had been in a crowd, unable to push myself into the crowd and find a seat. When everyone is settled I set out to find out that hidden seat kept ready for me. There are three general compartments, and I move along each coup only to find bunches of clothes or hand kerchiefs. I find a place and I just sit down when a burly lady comes and shouts words in Telugu, I quietly get up move on, understanding from her expressions that she had reserved it already. Then a guy finds pity on me. He removes his bag from a seat and tells me that I can sit there. I thank him and quietly settle down. I have one and half an hour more. Inwardly, I am happy that I got a seat without much fuss. I called my parents and told them that I am on my way and started reading a book. Occasionally, I lift my head up to study my fellow travellers. I find a bunch of people all together and two Ayappa devotees on their way to Sabarimala constituting the majority. Suddenly, I hear some shouting. I did not dare to get up from the seat lest I lose it. But I guessed from the voice that it was the same burly woman shouting.

The train started at twelve and thus started my journey. The bunch of people I had mentioned before were going Katpadi and many among them were Tamizhans. The guy who offered me the seat was going to Erode but was silent throughout the journey. There was another family going to Guntur. Initially, everybody was silent. I did not get the luxury of a side seat but I managed to while away my time with my book. I made use of my ipod when I got bored with my book. I had already brought a dozen of bananas to give me company for lunch and dinner as I had planned not to get up my place. It was a war and no king will let go of his place. Slowly, everybody introduced themselves and got friendly and I remained engrossed in my book and learning these people. There was one guy who was very silent initially but later on revealed himself to be a chatterbox. One disadvantage was my poor command over Telugu. So I never understood what they were talking exactly and always kept guessing.

An interesting thing happened. At one of the stations two girls and a man got into our compartment. They had two chairs with them. I thought they were transporting it somewhere because they looked brand new. But then as soon as the train started moving they opened the chairs in the pathway in the compartment and one of the girls sat in that just like a Rani. I did not understand a deal of it. And the girl was either talking on the phone or laughing. Nobody objected for a long time until when an old man did. But this brought no change to the situation when the old man was satiated by giving a place to seat.

I continued my journey among this unknown people all gossiping and chattering in Telugu. My co travellers told me in broken Hindi about the plight of people who do not know Telugu in Andhra. I could just nod at them because I had heard all that stories already and right then was experiencing one.

Then, at one of the stations a man boarded the train. He looked to be a professional, with a neat shirt tugged in a formal pant. He looked young and I thought he was some salesman. I do not know what made him interested in me. He started up a conversation with me. He tried learning who I am where I am going to and all such stuffs. I, from my part tried the same, (mainly because I was too bored reading the book and listening to songs else I would have simply ignored him). I learnt that he was a primary school teacher in Guntur and was going back home. A married guy, I tried gaining insight into the kind of work he does and how he feels about it. Well, I thought he should be really happy with the profession. But the answer he gave me was quite unexpected. He told me that the profession offered no promotions and menial pay rises and it is difficult to lead a quality life with such a profession. Though I tried emphasising that the kind of job he was doing was great, he kept countering saying that it was not that rosy. He told me that he was married with two children and it was tough. He gave me good company till he alighted at Guntur. We parted exchanging our phone numbers and promising that we would keep in touch which I really doubted whether I would keep.

I had some bananas and guavas for lunch. I was averse to the food they provided in the trains and also my stomach was not in a good condition. At lunch I found people taking food rich in oil, packed from their houses and in no time making the so called cleaned up compartment into a mess.

Towards night, I left my seat in the lower berths and graduated to the luggage racks in the upper berths. This was a better place because you wouldn’t be constantly disturbed by the movement of people. The Ayappa devotees whom I had mentioned had stay put in their berths ever since the train had started from Hyderabad. When I came face to face with them, they started a conversation. They had found out that I knew Tamil and one of them being a Tamizhan, he did not hesitate in starting the conversation. I came to know that he was a cook in a mess in Hyderabad. I told him about my plight with Andhra food and cooks. And so he took my phone number and promised that once he is back in Hyderabad he would arrange one cook for me. This promise has not been kept till now. It was almost ten in the evening and I had almost six more hours to go. I thought of sleeping and hence clutching my bag I leaned over to one side and went to sleep. Of course, it was not a cosy experience. I was in and out of it every half an hour though in a half conscious state. When we reached Salem I got up and woke up myself. In another hour, I was in Erode and home sweet home.

The journey was good considering the usual bus I used to take. I decided that I will take train here onwards and it reinforced my feeling for the trains.

Later on the day, when I had come to the railway station to see off my friend the teacher called me up and asked me about my journey and whether I had reached home safely. Though I had forgotten him for the time being this call made me remember about him and I ended up with a lot of unanswered questions as to why a total stranger would call up another stranger with whom he had spent meagre time in a train journey.