The strangers

Hi, I am Sanjay, Just after entering into the compartment of 2138 Punjab Mail, the young guy introduced himself in a very friendly way. He was around 26 year old with a professional body language and was looking bit stylish in his lower and white Reebok shoes. These days it’s becoming quite common to travel in lower and slipper, may be because of the comfort it gives or maybe due to the fact that it adds a bit into your cool look. A family of four (with two naughty boys) also joined us. Soon after our introduction, we began to talk about our college, work, company and colleague. As I am more of a patience listener so my smile was participating more than my words. During the chatter, I realized that it’s a common human tendency to boast as much as one can do especially in front of some unknown person. I am not sure why people try to prove there superiority to the strangers especially when they know that their artificially lifted stature is going to be forgotten once the journey ends. Any way it’s a different philosophy!! Normally after few conversation things settle down and normal talk begins. We all befriended very soon. The boys had their breakfast and everybody except me took a break for a small rest. I was trying to find out and justify the criteria of ranking engineering colleges in the current issue of the India Today which had ranked Indian School of Mines at 20th position and I was not quite satisfied with that rank.

My curiosity dragged me to the door to enjoy the beautiful valley of Chambal. I always love traveling by train standing at the door, holding the bars and fighting with the mighty wind trying to push me in. it’s lovely to watch the fields with different crops, the villages with changing culture, small mountains with young rivers and dense green Jungles. You get lost in the thought, natural beauty and the rhythmic thud of the train. Chambal is unique in the way that its small mountains are made up of soil and not of rock like other valleys .I was surprised that why those mountains of soil have not been weathered or eroded yet. I got a glimpse of what I had seen in Bandit Queen but later on my co passengers informed me that whatever I had seen was far less than the actual Chambal valley.

The last co passenger in that compartment joined us at Jhansi. When Pratigya enquired about her seat I directed her to the next compartment, but when she returned back I realized that the berth I was seating at was hers. She was a young girl, fairly tall with an endearing round face adored with a beautiful smile. Her small delightful eyes together with slightly elongated nose and fairly round temple were creating a cute aura. She was looking very elegant in those neither so traditional nor so fancy, simple and sober cloths. From the beginning itself she was very friendly and easy to go with, a smooth talker, showing no sign of tedium even with our useless chatter and no artificial attitude which is generally very common in modern day’s girls. At first she looked a very normal girl but as we spent more time I realize that her sheer presence was mesmerizing and she was a perfect personality with all the positive energy. In fact she was a well balanced story which you cannot resist to tell again and again.

Soon it converted into a small family with uncle, aunty, and their two kids, Sanjay, Pratigya and me. It was a very pleasant environment. We found out a better way to pass our time and started playing cards. Aunty shared some snacks with us which she had brought from some local shop. (Everybody ate it forgetting the instruction of our parents to not to share foods with co-passengers). Those two kids were the centre of all liveliness and always made us laugh with their funny styles. Although Pratigya had not played cards before but she picked it up very quickly and soon she was an active player… of course with passive support from us. All of us were enjoying the game and the gossip with it. We engrossed ourselves so deeply in the game that we could not realize how fast the time was actually flying. We passed almost 6-7 hours playing cards. I felt like I was sitting with my close friends and my family members. I never had such nice people in my train journey. We were so involved with each other that I never felt the need to open my magazine again .It was a memorable journey and I was so happy to witness the love and affection in the environment. It was not just acquaintance but a close association, as if we knew each others for years.

It’s a completely different kind of feeling when you make friends, sometimes close friends, within few hours, exchange all your thoughts and then say goodbye for almost forever. Although they often cross through your mind but there is no hope to see them again. I have started loving the train journey of late, which every time gifts me some beautiful experience and some golden friends with the tough lesson of life which Rabindr Nath Tagore has taught us in his story The Postmaster.

Be in touch my friends…………………………………………