Date 3rd Dec 2010 Time 2:30 AM Location : 6345
Now you would be thinking what is this is this time or date ??? was there any tragedy that occurred on that day ???? :-) but no this is time at which I have started writing this blog as I am a half sleepy but I don't want to sleep so thought crossed my mind to write about some thing and it ended in writing about the journey till now in train number 6345 .
Travelling in train is usual for Mumbaikars , getting pissed off in the Mumbai local train crowd with no space to breath and as the station arrives the commuter becomes a object who moves along with the person trying to get down .One doesn't have to iron their cloth , just get in the train with a wrinkled cloth and you will get out with a much better iron cloth(still having few wrinkles) without any charge .
As all things have their good and bad sides , travelling in train also has some good side and the best one is when one has to travel a long distance . I would prefer using train for that for many good reasons , though the time taken is a bit to much in todays world but hey you need to give yourself some time for relaxing , as todays fast world no one gets time for them self .Travelling through train is the best as it slows down the world around you of course after switching off your mobile phones :-) ) .
In my childhood when I used to go for a long trip it used to take around 3 days to reach the destination , now this has been reduced to 22 hours (Who says India is not progressing?? It is !!! ).It used to be the best time , we used to have our vacation almost a month long and this 3 day journey train used to be our playground .
I still remember the days when Me and my brother used to go to take a walk in the boogie to check out the other kids in the group so that we can play cricket in the small space that is available between the seats .
We used to ask our parents to close the doors and start playing ....it was the best time now when I think about it I start laughing.
When I grew a little older there was a incident where my neighbor was none other than my Hindi teacher , and I was really afraid of her as she looked like a devil .In my class she asked the students to read a lesson para by para and when my turn came I had a bet with by friend sitting beside me that I would make the whole class laugh and he said that it is not possible in the presence of this Mam , when my turn came to stand up and read the paragraph the I read lakdi as ladki . I didn't realize that I did it and I was continuing to read the rest of the paragraph but when I looked up I saw that the whole class was laughing and Mam was completely red eyed and she was coming towards me with a big stick I wont write the rest of the story but from that moment I was frightened of her . Now when I saw the same Mam travelling with us believe me I just ran from there and through out the trip I was atleast 3-4 blocks away from that place .
As of now I have a dozen of friends whom I have met in 6345 and still in contact , we make sure that atleast once in a year we meet up .
The best one happened today while I am writing this blog , a guy came into our boggie as I was the only person who was not asleep this guy came in and asked if he could sit here for few minutes as he is going back towards home and the train will take an hour to reach there . I said that its not a problem he can accompany and relax till the time his stop arrives . After few minutes when he got settled down we started having a conversation as to who he was ??.... as soon as I came to know that he is a Defense guy posted in Siachen I was keen to know how they lived their life out there ?? with firing all the time ?? not sure whether they would be able to see the faces of their family ?? I had many more questions and atleast I didn't know how the time flied . It was really good one hour that passed by .When his stop arrived as a good citizen I helped him get his luggage and he was really happy to see a helping hand for him...the best part came in when I also got down from the train just to say him good bye he continued to have a conversation and back of the mind I was thinking its almost 4:00 in the morning and he is still having a conversation . His wife , kids , parents wont have slept the night waiting for him as he was coming back home after 2 year.I stopped my thinking and interupted our conversation and asked him to leave for home and there are people waiting for him for more than a year..they are more important at the moment !! While he was leaving he gave me his contact details and told me to contact him and asked me to contact him when ever I go to north ... he owes me !! I happily accepted it and when I came back to my seat I was thinking are there these kind of people still living in this world !!!!!
So travelling in train has been a good for me as I got to meet from lovely persons and make really good friends....I call them as MY GIFTED FRIENDS as in todays where do you meet people and have a conversation when one doesn't have time for them self .
