Lesson 1: To some life is more about the journey to the destination than the destination and sometimes travel becomes more exciting than the destination. Interesting huh?
My recent travel to Ujjain by Jaipur express taught me few interesting and invaluable lessons. Before we entered the bogie my colleague and I checked the reservation chart pasted near the door. Apart from re-affirming our reservation we wanted to know about our fellow travelers, their age, and destination. Curious cats were at work. Ha ha ha….
The train departed Chennai at 5.30 PM and both of us were mentally preparing to welcome strangers and spend the next 28 hrs with them. To our surprise none of them on the reservation chart boarded the train till bed time and we were both happy and we assumed they may have cancelled the journey and hoped it would be the same till we reached our destination. Isn’t it human nature to get protective about personal space and whom we want to share with and how close we want to get to them?
4 young men in the early and late twenties boarded the train at Nagpur. I am sure they must be having the same thought about sharing their personal space with us. Pradeep and I moved our baggage to safe and secure corner and made room for the fellow passengers. The first few minutes were silent and there was just mere exchange of glances. We felt like some aliens were invading our territory. Our minds were busy trying to make first impressions and comprehend names on the chart to the faces that boarded. Profiling never stops!
Our conversation started to flow freely after they opened a box of sweets. We were apprehensive to accept after hearing various numerous biscuit bandit stories, but there seemed to be an element of honesty and affection behind their sharing. Within minutes they invited us to join them for a game of cards and shortly after that they put their hands into the plastic bag containing Nagpur oranges that we left on the table. They were full of energy and seemed free spirited. Was it sugar from the box sweets or from the orange that made the mood high? Didn’t matter if it was sweets or oranges, the Berlin wall came down and boundaries and personal spaces vanished.
An hour into the journey the guy from the pantry car came by to take orders for dinner. Before we could give our order, Irshad the leader of the gang offered to get us good vegetarian dinner at Bhopal. A friend of him was anyway coming to the train station with their dinner and getting a few extra rotis and veg dishes wasn’t a big deal. We were kind of hesitant to take help from a stranger who only turned into an acquaintance an hour ago at Nagpur. He offered us a choice of menu and convinced us to go with Chilli paneer and smsed his friend for extra rotis. How many such passengers do we come across who travel so freely like air and offer help to strangers? In my 33 years on travel by train I have never come across any one act with such benevolence and care.
Lesson 2: Swap bays and compartments if you find oversized men/women or infants
On the return leg of the journey we had a family of 4 travel with us. They boarded at Bhopal and were traveling till Chennai. Should I have high expectations from my earlier companions? Hmm….Boundaries were marked and demarcated but when it came to food there was no boundaries namkeen and a box of sweet was shared, magazines and newspapers were exchanges, but still the conversation was kept to a minimum. Seldom did I realize that some conversations were reserved for the night.
It was thirty minutes past 9 and the couple pulled up the middle berth and the chain held the berth. They made the bed and the husband, (6 feet tall, with 42’’ inches girth – sign of opulence or corpulence?) snug under the blanket on the middle berth and I was on the berth right opposite to him. Within ten minutes I heard a roaring noise and I thought it was the brakes on the train, but the sounded never ceased to stop. I opened my eyes and fumbled in the dark to trace the origination. I turned on the light on my mobile and flashed it on people above and below me. The rumbling volcano was 3 feet across from me and it was the same (6 feet tall, with 42’’ inches girth) and by now the decibel level went up. I shined the light on his face and what I saw made it feel like watching animals on night safari. His diaphragm expanded, mouth opened and then came a grumble and warm carbon di-oxide was flushed out and the oral cavity closed again and the cycle repeated. May be he was an additional engine pushing the train forward? I was afraid I would be sucked right into pit of the volcano. I pulled myself back into the berth and buried my head under the pillow like an Ostrich. I tossed and turned but still sleep was distant and eluding. I had no choice but to wake up his wife and ask her to mute the rumbling volcano. She had no choice but to wake her husband, but that just helped for a few minutes and rumble returned. For a second I thought how on earth is she putting up with this man night after night for so many years.
My recent travel to Ujjain by Jaipur express taught me few interesting and invaluable lessons. Before we entered the bogie my colleague and I checked the reservation chart pasted near the door. Apart from re-affirming our reservation we wanted to know about our fellow travelers, their age, and destination. Curious cats were at work. Ha ha ha….
The train departed Chennai at 5.30 PM and both of us were mentally preparing to welcome strangers and spend the next 28 hrs with them. To our surprise none of them on the reservation chart boarded the train till bed time and we were both happy and we assumed they may have cancelled the journey and hoped it would be the same till we reached our destination. Isn’t it human nature to get protective about personal space and whom we want to share with and how close we want to get to them?
4 young men in the early and late twenties boarded the train at Nagpur. I am sure they must be having the same thought about sharing their personal space with us. Pradeep and I moved our baggage to safe and secure corner and made room for the fellow passengers. The first few minutes were silent and there was just mere exchange of glances. We felt like some aliens were invading our territory. Our minds were busy trying to make first impressions and comprehend names on the chart to the faces that boarded. Profiling never stops!
Our conversation started to flow freely after they opened a box of sweets. We were apprehensive to accept after hearing various numerous biscuit bandit stories, but there seemed to be an element of honesty and affection behind their sharing. Within minutes they invited us to join them for a game of cards and shortly after that they put their hands into the plastic bag containing Nagpur oranges that we left on the table. They were full of energy and seemed free spirited. Was it sugar from the box sweets or from the orange that made the mood high? Didn’t matter if it was sweets or oranges, the Berlin wall came down and boundaries and personal spaces vanished.
An hour into the journey the guy from the pantry car came by to take orders for dinner. Before we could give our order, Irshad the leader of the gang offered to get us good vegetarian dinner at Bhopal. A friend of him was anyway coming to the train station with their dinner and getting a few extra rotis and veg dishes wasn’t a big deal. We were kind of hesitant to take help from a stranger who only turned into an acquaintance an hour ago at Nagpur. He offered us a choice of menu and convinced us to go with Chilli paneer and smsed his friend for extra rotis. How many such passengers do we come across who travel so freely like air and offer help to strangers? In my 33 years on travel by train I have never come across any one act with such benevolence and care.
Lesson 2: Swap bays and compartments if you find oversized men/women or infants
On the return leg of the journey we had a family of 4 travel with us. They boarded at Bhopal and were traveling till Chennai. Should I have high expectations from my earlier companions? Hmm….Boundaries were marked and demarcated but when it came to food there was no boundaries namkeen and a box of sweet was shared, magazines and newspapers were exchanges, but still the conversation was kept to a minimum. Seldom did I realize that some conversations were reserved for the night.
It was thirty minutes past 9 and the couple pulled up the middle berth and the chain held the berth. They made the bed and the husband, (6 feet tall, with 42’’ inches girth – sign of opulence or corpulence?) snug under the blanket on the middle berth and I was on the berth right opposite to him. Within ten minutes I heard a roaring noise and I thought it was the brakes on the train, but the sounded never ceased to stop. I opened my eyes and fumbled in the dark to trace the origination. I turned on the light on my mobile and flashed it on people above and below me. The rumbling volcano was 3 feet across from me and it was the same (6 feet tall, with 42’’ inches girth) and by now the decibel level went up. I shined the light on his face and what I saw made it feel like watching animals on night safari. His diaphragm expanded, mouth opened and then came a grumble and warm carbon di-oxide was flushed out and the oral cavity closed again and the cycle repeated. May be he was an additional engine pushing the train forward? I was afraid I would be sucked right into pit of the volcano. I pulled myself back into the berth and buried my head under the pillow like an Ostrich. I tossed and turned but still sleep was distant and eluding. I had no choice but to wake up his wife and ask her to mute the rumbling volcano. She had no choice but to wake her husband, but that just helped for a few minutes and rumble returned. For a second I thought how on earth is she putting up with this man night after night for so many years.
