Friday, October 2, 2009

23 hours of solitude….
I have two other friends who are from my city and study in my college, yet every time I go home during the holidays, I have to travel alone. Of all reasons- attending summer semesters, not wanting to go home, or a trip to Agra with friends (or Lucknow or any god forsaken place) -this time I wasn’t graced with their presence for the worst reasons of all-they missed the bloody train.
Most of the time I have a smooth ride home owing to the delay in the arrival of trains. No, I’m not trying to sound ironical-when my train from Allahabad is late, it actually shortens my journey-coz the time gap between the two trains which take me to Rourkela is reduced. But this time the impossible happened-the train reached before time at both the stations-which means I reached Bilaspur at 3:30 in the morning, and my next train was 7 hours later. To make matters worse, I had forgotten my earphones at my hostel….music, my faithful companion had ditched me this time.
The first hour passed with me trying not to fall asleep….then the tea stall opened-and I don’t know what the owner put in that small cup of hot brew but it kept me awake for the rest of the journey. I didn’t go to the waiting room as I was afraid I would step on the numerous people sleeping on the floor. And I didn’t go outside coz my luggage was punishingly heavy….how did one laptop and 6 pairs of clothing weighed more than a 7 year old is another story. Not to forget I needed protection, coz two months of hostel food had made me hollow from the inside. So there I sat… surrounded by hundred different kinds of people yet alone. And then I observed very interesting event…..

I was trying to find if my e-mail about a Michael Jackson article had made it to the ‘Your letters’ section of the latest issue of TIME magazine I was holding when I saw a young kid dressed in what appeared to be very old t-shirt with a printed message: ‘I was born intelligent but education ruined me’. He was holding a broom in one hand and was possibly waiting for a train to make money by sweeping the floor. He looked as if he hadn’t eaten for days….he sat with the bridge of his nose tucked between his knees and I saw his that forearms were unbelievably thin. I had a box of fried rice I bought from a takeaway restaurant at the Allahabad station and was about to reach for it when a generous looking woman offered him a 5 rupee note. He looked her in the eye and replied ‘hum unke jaise thodi hai aunty, kaam karlenge phir dijiyega’ pointing at a beggar woman(I am not like them, pay me after I do my job). The ‘aunty’ guiltily withdrew the money. The box of food was in my hand. I put it back, returned to my magazine and let the boy have his moment of pride.

6 comments:

  1. That boy is really amazing .....these days you rarely witness these incidents....This dedication of that boy even makes us proud nd even encourage us to work hard and become strong to face difficulties.
    Begging is an addiction and people into it never wants to do any work.They just want to remain into it.So it is the responsibilty of the citizens not to encourage begging.So always spread th thought "Don't give money to beggars this will make them beggars for life".

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  2. wot did u do for the 7 hrs of waiting i want to know :P...waise wrent any hot chicks around in bilaspur??

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  3. i'll post another blog about that..and hey...it bilaspur man...not goa!

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  4. hey u never told whether ur email made it or not?????

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