I was traveling on a train after a long time. Traveling by air does not feel like traveling at all: at the most, it feels like going to a shopping mall. But traveling in a train feels like real journey, with all the insecurities and uncertainties associated with going to a new place. After repenting for a few days for booking a train ticket, finally I had to go ahead and travel.
The train was one of the new trains started by our futuristic Prime Minister Modi after coming to power. It was as good as Rajdhani express. To top it, I had got a lower berth; and our compartment did not have anyone old or greedy enough to ask me to exchange it for something worse.
As I settled on my seat, a boy and a girl came as they had the middle and upper berth over my seat. They must be undergraduate students in the city and going to hometown or somewhere. All through the journey, the boy played the role of a good companion or a demi-husband if I can say that without offence. He took care to make way for the girl, arranged the bedsheets, carried the luggage, brought food and water, while the girl just had to be there and be entertained. I have seen such boys and girls several times who travel as a couple in trains, and I wonder if their parents know what kind of convenient setup that they have made for themselves. I never had a girlfriend, so I don't understand their psychology. But to a layman like me, it appears that if they do not get to marry each other, this 'setup' is morally wrong and a waste of time. Anyways. After few hours, the boy and the girl vanished and went to sit in some other less-crowded portion of the bogie, and I saw them again only in the morning.
The 'side-lower' seat got occupied by a lady who was traveling alone. She was wearing shirt and trousers and must be employed in the city where she boarded the train from. She was of about 40, broad faced and of heavier built (no offence meant). There was something distinct about her. I am not knowledgeable enough to guess, but she looked like a Parsi or someone from the Middle Eastern countries. She made some phone calls in a low voice, perhaps to her husband.
Now, in the seat in front of me, three boys came together and sat down all at the same time. They must be of about 20 and I could not help but notice that they looked so young. No shade of grey in their hair, no extra fat, nothing. I remembered my own college days for a while before moving on.
Then the TTE came wearing a coat and just confirmed the names of all those occupying the seats. He made everyone take their first names and moved on after verifying in his chart. In half a minute, everyone's data privacy was breached thanks to him, and everyone also got known to everyone else by their first names. With first names, everyone was supposed to be Hindus, including the lady I had assumed was a Parsi. The last of the three boys sitting in front of me was using a Bluetooth earplug and had to ask the TTE what he was asking. This guy was interesting.
When I looked at this third guy, he looked exactly like an actor in Hollywood movies who plays mostly goons and small criminals often in comedy movies (I tried to search this actor's pictures and will post his picture if I get it).
I had brought a Hindi book specifically for reading in the train, hence I was reading it. Everything was going fine, until I noticed that the lady in the side-lower seat and this third boy who looked like an actor I liked had started a long conversation. I paid attention and found that the boy had booked "French fries" from a food ordering mobile app and the food was delivered in the train at a particular station. Now this lady appeared to be really surprised at this and started a conversation with the boy curiously asking how she could order it too. The boy tried to help her place order with her mobile phone, and since she was having issues in logging into the app, the boy offered to order for her too using his own phone. Now the lady asked for his phone number in order to transfer the money to him via UPI! Red flag! The boy gave his number and the lady transferred the money to him. French fries won.
For the next two hours, the two kept talking. The lady kept proding the boy and he kept telling "everything" about him. The boy was a Kashmiri Pandit whose family was based in Srinagar but settled for some time in Jammu (of course referring to exodus of Kashmiri Hindus due to terrorism); his grandfather had 7 children; his cousins were based in Pune Bangalore, Delhi, ..., he was doing MBBS in ... college in ... and was in second year, after MBBS he wanted to do MD in general medicine, he was going to ... where his cousin lived in ... area; the guy gave every little detail about himself and I was worried for him if the lady happened to be a serial killer or a criminal, like it happens in newspapers and movies. The guy gave elaborate description of the kind of worships Kashmiri Pandits do, e.g. their biggest festival is Maha Shivratri when they get three days of holidays, and the head of the family starts fasting and puja a day before the Mahashivratri. The boy was more innocent than fearless in sharing all personal details. The boy also explained elaborately how Kashmiri Pandit cuisines are not only different from North India cuisines but also from the cuisines Kashmiri Muslims. For example, KPs use souf-powder instead of dhania powder. All this, while the lady gave zero personal details about herself, except that she was from ... city (where the train was going) and she worked in ... city (where she and the boy boarded the train from) and she was going there to meet her family. No personal details.
After knowing that the boy did not like South Indian dishes and missed Kashmiri Pandits food, she talked to one of her friends who was also a Kashmiri Pandit and got names of restaurants for the boy and also gave him the phone number of her friend and asked him to talk to her to ask about the Kashmiri food.
The boy offered some French fries to the lady who declined and then the boy said, "I insist" and she took it. She ignored the red flag in taking food items from strangers in a train as if having French fries was so important. The boy noticed that I was there too, and hence offered me some French fries too which I politely declined.
The two chatted till late night and I struggled to be able to fell asleep. Then, finally, something happened. The boy had started telling about his studies and said that except one department, no other professor taught well in the class and students had to rely on self-studies. Then the lady said, "and you are going to be future doctors!". It appeared like a criticism and the boy stopped talking. There was complete silence for five minutes during which both of them did not speak. I thought, "finally it is over". But them after a long pause the lady said something, and the boy immediately responded as if nothing had happened. By then it was too late in the night anyway and hence both went asleep.
In the morning, when both were deboarding the train, the lady brought out three Lollipops from her handbag and gave all those to the boy saying they were all of different flavors and he would love those. Taking Lollipops from a stranger? I ran a few scenarios in my head: what if the Lollipops had sedatives and the boy had one and fell down on the platform? The lady would claim to be with him and she anyway had his number and knew all his details. So, she would take him to some hospital where his organs will be stolen (script of a movie) or abduct him as she hated his race or ethnicity (hate crime news).
Most probably, nothing wrong would have happened and the boy would have enjoyed the Lollipops and moved on. Life, after all, is not scripted like movies or novels. Most probably, he would never call the lady's friend for address of Kashmiri restaurants; or maybe he called her and she helped him with the information and the story ended there.
Whatever happened afterwards, for me, it was shocking to see these two folks trusting strangers in a train like that. I hope the boy grows up to be more careful in future. And the lady learns to control her curiosity and respect the privacy of others (since I think she should not have made the boy reveal all his personal details to a stranger in a train). The boy was young and naive, but she must have been wiser and could have been as friendly without being too inquisitive.
Thus ended my interesting train travel.
Have a safe journey!
- Rahul
