I was on a train from Madgaon to
Bengaluru. I stocked up on food and drinks for the train journey. I have a
sleeper seat in the upper bunk, in a relatively less crowded coach. That is a
good sign. Life is kind. As soon as you get into the sleeper coach, there is a
ritual you must follow. You place your bag in one corner, lay out the bed sheet
and pillow, and take all the things (books, laptop, food) you will need for the
journey. Just before the journey starts, the coach starts filling up. This is
when an experienced train traveler in India stays detached. It is chaotic and
messy. Egos are hurt. Bags are thrown around. People fall. You just observe, or
even better listen to music, so people do not know you are observing. If you
try solving any of the train problems, then you will end
up further aggravating it. You are no messiah. So shut up and stay seated.
"Sir, you are sitting on my
seat."
Ma'am, can you please move your
bags?"
"I have the window seat for
this journey
"My family is here, do you
mind taking a seat in another abandoned corner of the train, so that I can sit
happily with my family here. It is only a 24 hour journey"
And more. If you have an upper seat
bunk, you can just observe. It is almost like you are God. Silently observing,
aware that we beings fight over the silliest of thing. But if you are in the
lower bunk, prepare to be bugged at least a 100 times before the journey
begins. Who causes most of the problems?
The people that travel on RAC, a
Reservation against Cancellation Ticket. This ensures certainty of travel, but
does not guarantee the ticket holder a berth. The ticket holder gets a berth,
only if the person that has a confirmed ticket, cancels his trip. What are the
chances of that happening? I mean which person in his right mind, would cancel
a railway ticket that you have to hire three months in advance. Yet it seems
like on every trip, there are at least a 100 extra RAC Passengers. The poor
things just want to get to the next destination. They find an empty seat and
they sit down. But what do you do, when you have a young person that has a
confirmed ticket, and an old person that has an RAC ticket. Yes, the young
person that booked his ticket three months in advance will have to give up his
seat for the aged citizen. Yes, this must be done. You should give your seat to
somebody that needs it more. But why in the world would you design a ticketing
system where such a situation will arise? Why are there 100 extra RAC
passengers on every journey. Well, I had an upper bunk today. I would not be a martyr.
But beyond all the problems of rail
journeys in India, there is so much to look forward too. If you are the kind
that likes observing people and their behavior in different situations, train
journeys are a great place to learn. I remember observing a young couple and
their baby son. The father had got a new smart phone and wanted to get the
child to pose for a picture. The child was so excited, and kept walking around
and bumping into people. The parents tried their best, to make the child stand
stable for a year. But what was interesting was how unafraid, the little child
actually was when he was around his parents. I thought about this situation,
and wondered if it that was why little kids were so curious and explorative. It
seemed like they had this innate awareness, that their parents, would be there
for them, if they fell down. How did kids pick up and communicate a new
language before the age of four? Was it because they had a safe environment, to
explore and understand things around them? What happens when these curious,
brilliant four and five year olds enter school. Are they allowed to fail at
school, knowing that when they fall down, somebody will pick them up? Or are
they considered a failure or given a low grade when they do not score well
enough on a test? When a little children fall before the age of 4, nobody
labels them. When little children fall after the age of four they are
considered a bad student.
Another thing I noticed was how
observant, little children are. The little child fell down and was about to
cry. Then the mother picked her baby up and started laughing and making funny
faces. When the baby boy saw his mothers face, he forgot about his pain, and
started laughing as well. It seemed like he was trying to imitate his mothers
face. Was that how kids learned. Through observing people around them and
failing repeatedly. Why weren't they allowed to observe for long periods of
time and fail repeatedly at school?
The drinks, the food, the friends, the parties. I think I
did not speak a word for the last two hours. It was so nice to shut up and just
listen to another person for once. I always had to put forward a point in
school. I never listened much. Quite an arrogant young man, I had become. Later
in the night another individual, took his seat in our compartment. The old man
was reading a gold smuggling article in a magazine he had brought in one of the
stations. He started criticizing the bureaucracy and the government structure,
saying that they did not do their job well at all. I just listened. At one
point, he criticized the detective agencies working on the gold smuggling case.
A little while later, the other man sitting in our coach introduces himself. He
was part of the bureaucracy. He was from an indian detective agency, that
worked for the government. We did not speak too much for the rest of the night.
Sat-chit-ananda
@AbhishekShetty_
No comments:
Post a Comment