SLEEPING LOCAL…

         

           Going back home in a local train is fun. You get to observe different kinds of people…good, bad and some ugly ones. The evening hours are what the railway authorities call, “the peak hours”  in other words what they mean is “its not our fault if you find the trains over crowded. Blame population growth”

            During these hours the train resembles a huge popcorn tub, which we get in multiplexes, with popcorns overflowing the tub. But the tub is still a peaceful place in comparison to trains. Atleast you don’t have to worry about the popcorns fighting with each other inside the tub. Contrary to this, the train compartments witness a lot of fist fights during these hours, the characters in the ring are the people who don’t get a seat to sit through the journey.

            The people who are fortunate enough to get a seat are indifferent towards this fight, mostly because they are busy sleeping. Their eyes flicker open for a moment when someone yells out loud but then they go back into their slumber.  They start leaning onto the person sitting next to them when they are in deep dreamy sleep and wake up for a while when that person’s body moves a little. It requires a lot of courage to wake these people up because then they would scream like a banshee until you actually go deaf.  Lot of sensible people avoid these “peak hours” if they want to survive their travel in the local trains.

            And yet here I am, in the first class ladies compartment of a local train, witnessing a fist fight, sitting in between two sleeping beauties and procuring a sadistic pleasure by moving my body away from them whenever they lean on me in their deep dreamy sleep….