March 24th 2008, evening.
It has been an evening of interesting and surprising experience.
I was sitting in a waiting room of Bangalore City Railway Station. I was going home for Saraswati Puja and Vijaya Dashmi. The Chennai Mail starts only at 22 : 45 and it was just 21 : 00 hours. So I had a couple of hours to kill. I had to come early as my uncle left for Delhi by Rajdhani which left at 20 : 30. I intended to spend an hour at the internet centre there but the centre guy told that he would shut at 21 : 00 but take the full fare for an hour’s browsing from me even though only half an hour was left. So I decided to try out the waiting room. I had seen the waiting room from outside whenever I came to catch my train to Chennai which invariably starts from platform 1. It looked OK so I decided to give it a try.
The waiting room was large with sufficient number of chairs all in good condition. The room was reasonably clean and well ventilated. It did not stink as I had expected. I looked out for a chair under a fan and luckily found one. I settled down, took out my recently bought ipod shuffle and started listening to my assortment of music from Ravi Shanker to Farida Khanum.
I looked around and realized how true it is that a railway station or train travel provides you a microcosm of India that very few other places can provide you with. I saw a Rajasthani lady feeding her child in her lap and smoking a beedi. A tamil mama and mami involved in discussion (I bet it was about some action of a neighbour or a relative. Some young adolescents (must be on a college trip) were busy cracking jokes at each other. Some guys were lying and sleeping on the floor oblivious to the noise and activity around them. At a distant I saw a well dressed man arguing with a porter for not able to handle his suitcase properly. As a result the suitcase was dropped down from his head breaking into two. At the same time a policeman came and settled their matter. The poor porter was apologizing again and again. Some workers who were taking break in a comer, too looked at them with keen interest.
Just then an announcement was made that the Chennai Mail was to arrive on platform No. 8 due to some reasons. I got impatient as I was waiting on platform 1. Hurriedly and worriedly I fixed a porter to carry my luggage as it was too much. After the regular haggling we reached the consensus and he efficiently did his job to take the luggage right till inside of the train. When I paid him the amount he said to me in English, “Thank you madam …. have a nice journey” and darted away to catch his next customer.
I was left behind surprised at my amazing experience …..
