It was a dusky night with moon at its full glow. Silence of wide spread fields were cut across by the roaring thunder of fast moving Purva Express connecting Delhi with Kolkata. It was passing through UP and was scheduled to reach Patna next morning and Kolkata in the evening. Mehir, suffering from bad throat, had a tough day in office and he somehow caught this train at the last moment in Delhi. He had to reach Kolkata on weekend to meet his family and the girl whom they had finalised to be his would be bride. Tired and exhausted, Mehir fell on his berth and went into deep sleep.
His sleep was cut short in midnight by the crying of a child on front berth. A lady was trying to console him but the little monster was in no mood to sleep. Mehir tried hard to go back to sleep, blocked his ear with pillow and has his quota of Gaalis exhausted for the child but the child continued.
‘Why don’t you give him something to eat? Maybe he is hungry’ Mehir said to the lady in an irritated tone.
Lady took the child closer to her heart and put her duppata over it. Mehir presumed that she had started breast feeding. It was dark in the compartment but the uneasiness of the lady could have easily been felt. She kept arranging her duppata…bringing it to left, right, up and down. The jingles of her bangles kept coming intermittently. Child enjoyed the drink and the compartment was back to silence with only deafening sounds of rails playing the background score.
‘I am sorry if I was rude to you. I had a bad day in office and was in deep sleep till your baby cried’ said he in a slow and smooth voice.
Lady replied, ’It’s ok. It was my mistake that I forgot his milk bottle. I am sorry if his cries disturbed you’
Mehir replied in negative and was about to turn on the light but left it off given the uneasiness of the lady while feeding her child.
He questioned, ‘Are you alone? Don’t you have someone along with you?’
Lady took a sharp turn towards him and said in a stern voice,’ why are you worried? I am sorry if my child disturbed you. Now please don’t try to show sympathy. Go back to sleep. I don’t need anyone’s mercy.’
Mehir was hurt and decided to go back to sleep but there was something in her voice that was unusual and attracted Mihir’s attention. He decided to continue the conversation.
‘Please don’t take it otherwise. I was just inquiring. It’s quite unusual to find a lady travelling on her own in a sleeper class that too in a train that passes through the patches of UP and Bihar’ tried to assuage Mehir.
‘It is ok. It’s just that I get irritated whenever someone tries to invade my privacy. No one is interested in giving a helping hand. All they want is a topic to discuss which will help them pass their time in train…akeli ladki….ek bache saath….bacha hai jo rota hi jaa raha hai…all these craps’ replied she and put the child on the berth who had slept and again arranged her dupatta to make her comfortable.
‘You are a genius….have understood human dynamics well’ said Mehir and had a healthy laugh.
‘No Sir…you are wrong. I am very bad in understanding people’ said she and took a long pause and added’ or else how could had I misunderstood the intentions of a man who was most important person in my life’ after taking a heavy breath.
He kept quite. He had a look on watch and its radium glowed arms showed it was 3:00AM. Train was nearing Mugalsarai station. He assumed.
She continued,’ Life is tough and tougher is having faith on someone else who is not your family or relative. But it is hurtful when the same person leaves you shattered, all because he could not stand on his own against his family wishes.’
He started understanding her story. His heart was pounding on his ribs. There she was…traumatized….all alone with a child and the most he could offer was an audience. He continued to suffer in silence of his agony.
‘Are we dead? Have we lost all our compassion? How can a man leave someone who he said was his life? He said he could not go against his family’s wishes. Today I stand against whole society…being a single Mother. I took it as a challenge to show him that it’s not family but you. We always hide our weaknesses under the layers of family and society’ said she and anger was evident. His heart was racing and had this conversation continued, he would have fainted.
Train reached Mugalsarai station. Mehir was numb, so was she, staring at the child who was fast asleep. He took the window up and light from railway station pierced into the compartment. Mehir took a quick glance at her face and quickly closed the window.
‘What happened? Why did you close the window so quickly’ she asked, looking up to him, maybe trying to imagine his face in the darkness.
Mehir replied,’ No. nothing…it would have disturbed the child.’
Train left Mugalsarai station and the lady lied down on her berth, moving the child closed to her body.
It was 3:30 AM. He thought,’ two more hours and it would be day.’ Mehir was sitting on his berth, staring at the darkness of room.
Train reached Varanasi. Lady was in her sleep.
‘Sir, ticket please’ said the TT manning the exit of Varanasi railway station.
Mehir handed over his ticket to him. He checked it and said,’ your ticket is up to Kolkata. Why are you terminating your journey in Varanasi?’
Mehir took his ticket back, moved slowly and replied,’ my past reappeared and blocked my destination’
.........can be continued!!!
