Your watch says 17:30 hrs. You are still hanging around, strolling, talking, enjoying the office gossip, gloating about all those fun trips you are making to Bangalore and back. Your friend says, "Leave now!! Or you won't make it if you are taking the bus to the station.". You laugh. You haven't booked your tickets yet and the train leaves in an hour and a half. "Why would I care if I miss the train?", you tell her. But you do. You want to be there Friday morning, that was the plan. You walk down to the bus stop. You butt out a half smoked cigarette when you see your bus. You hop on and find yourself a place to sit. You think about the next 12 hours and you are grinning. "Slightly Mental", you think of yourself.
About half way to the station, you realize you have exactly 20 minutes to buy yourself a ticket and get your cocky ass onboard the train to Bengaluru. But you make it and in good time. You wait impatiently in the slightly long queue to get your ticket. You cannot express the relief, the feeling of joy when the ticket guy, well, pretty much throws the ticket back at you. Your adventure begins. You wish that the rest of your trip will be jus t as interesting as the lead up to it was. You hop on, half realizing that this is the first time you are boarding a train to Bangalore.
Black coat walks past. A burly fellow. Five feet four many be five inches, with a waist line at an estimated 45 inches, a snout where most humans have a nose; walking about like he is the boss. But Oh!! Hang on!! For the next 12 hours or so, he is the BOSS!! You ignore him. You want to sit, so you find yourself a nice cozy place by the door. You dump your bag on the closest berth and squat on the floor by the door; doing what you do best when you are alone. You sing!! Musafir hoon yaaron, a song you have found so difficult to rid yourself off. But it seems to you like you have never really connected with the song before this. Something about the aimless, ticketless travel strikes a chord in your system and you feel a strange connect. Blah!! Blah!! Blah!! You are just enjoying the song and there aren't too many songs that you can sing without annoying strange old people.
TT comes TT goes..
TT drives you, out you go..
Just when you think that it is not going to rain on your party today you feel something of a gentle tap on your shoulder. You turn around expecting to see a fellow traveler wanting to share the same pleasures that you have been enjoying for over an hour now. The chill down your spine, the wind in your hair, the night sky and the fading lights of the city you are leaving behind. Oh!! But look what we have here!!
Black coats back..
Back Again..
To Drive you out..
Out of the train..
You try small talk. You try to convince him to let you stick around. You promise you will not bother fellow passengers with your singing. But fat boy would have none of that nonsense. He stares at you and says in his raspy voice, "Out you go you fellow!! Right train, wrong bogie. General Go!!". You shuttle, sometimes moving up the train, sometimes moving down the length of it. But wherever you go, black coat follows. This time he banishes you to the last bogie of the train and orders you to move to the General compartment when the train stops. You obviously have no intentions of doing that. But you play his game, just for the kicks.
You walk, sensing those curious eyes on you. You walk, watching pretty faces flashing by. You walk, dropping in on some interesting conversations here and there. You stop, almost suddenly. You see what seems to be acres of space and wonder what the hell were you doing whatever you were doing wherever you were doing it. Just one guy sitting with his legs stretched out. You drop your bags next to him and make yourself comfortable. You exchange a feeble smile and a few inaudible words that sound like "No reservation". Both of you try to make meaningful conversation while wondering what language will fit the probe best. Before you know it you are having a very animated conversation in Tamil. Yeah Yeah!! One Tamil meets and another Tamil and the rest as you know it, will be history. He shares his troubles of ticketless travel and you are beaming at the adventure yours has been. But this party doesn't last too long either.
New Black coat..
Nice and Fair..
Robs you off..
Four hundred Yeah!!
Four hundred is the price you pay for your cozy den inside the Bangalore Express and you are in love with it. New Black Coat promises you a berth for paying the fine and a full fare for the travel. You don't mind having one but you don't want it. You try telling the TT that you don't want a berth. All you need is this little den of yours. But the fellow seems to be an upright self righteous man. He tells you that he will be back soon.
You pat yourself on the back for a job well done. You decide to have a little sip of that good old scotch from your fancy hip flask. You open it up and just when you are about to indulge yourself , another party pooper comes knocking on your door. This time it is a cop. He snatches the hip flask from your hand and says liquor. You nod your head. He asks for your ID. You like that. People think you are not old enough to drink. He sees the cash in your wallet while you are trying to pull out your id. He starts fishing for money. He says Kurnool Police Station. You know he is just bullshitting you. You also know you are going to have to pay up. You give 30. He starts walking. He starts walking with your Hip Flask. You give him a hundred. He tells you, now you can drink. But drink after half an hour. Curious as he is, he enquires about the mysterious contents of the flask. Scotch you tell him. 100 Pipers. You can see his eyes glitter. So you offer him a sip of some fine whisky. He wants to but you can tell he is scared of doing that while still on duty. He says, mine is Antiquity Blue and he starts walking. You tell him this is better than his. He grins and goes away.
In precisely half an hour from your last encounter, New Black coat comes back with a berth for you. You don't want it, but there is little you can do when it is thrust on you. You reconsider thinking you could use an hour or two of sleep and some cushion for your ass that must hate you for the pain you put it through. You are walking once again, carrying your bags, following the TT. He points you to a berth. You dump your bags down again and make yourself comfortable.
You call it a night. You plug in your ear phones listen to some good music and drift off into a sound sleep. You relish the experience you've had while ruing the fact that it did not last longer. So much for a night!! You close your eyes a happy man!! Text book execution you think. You finally get a few sips out of that fancy hip flask after all.
