S.O.S.

So I m inside the train, again, trying hard not to pass back into slumber. It gets so goddamn boring, vibrating to and fro, knowing that you may never reach your destination on time, courtesy the railways. It’s a 32-hour journey to Goa and I have already munched on all my crisps, drank most of my water and peed at least half a dozen times. There is only one person worth talking to, a kindly fellow going to Panvel, a person who has finished his masters in engineering as well as MBA. And not more than 6-7 years older than me. What a brave fellow! And I am just so tired of my bachelor’s degree that I feel more at home in the garage than the classroom.

On top of that, there’s no water in our bogie for the past 18 hours. Luckily, nobody needed it at night. So my shouting match with the attendant didn’t really generate as much support as I had hoped.
Red-faced and fuming, I crashed on my berth, started burping and snoring (my loudest yet!!) in order to punish those self-centered rogues. Twice or thrice, I heard an annoyed “tch”. Smiling with grim satisfaction, I returned to the dreams of my pretty lady ;-)
In the morning, however, I was rudely awakened by the irritating screams of an infant who had crapped (yoo-hoo’ed) in her pants and now the whole bogie was stinking like shit, literally and figuratively. I smiled at them all, diabolically, gloatingly… Why! Only last night, these people were looking at me as if I was disturbing their peace when I was demanding a solution to the water problem. They deserve this shit. :-x

An elderly person rose from his seat and asked 4 other men to accompany him to the attendant. Reaching there, he grabbed the attendant by his collar and ordered him to either get water or get thrashed by a retired “fauji”. Seeing 4 hefty and 1 senior citizens, ready to pulp him, he relented immediately and sent a message to the next station.
On the next station, maids climbed aboard with big pipes and started refilling the tanks in our bogie and a few others. When the train started before the tanks were full, another person pulled the emergency brake and ordered the maids to continue filling. Once our bogie was full, the train started again. However, this time a person from another class pulled the chain so that their bogie could get enough water too. But alas! He was unsupported by any of his fellow travelers when the railway police took him away for causing unnecessary delay in the trip.
Typical, I would say. When a whole crowd was facing a problem, they were ready to support each other. But when the problem shifted to their neighbor, no one came forward to support. Whatever little respect that had arose in me on seeing the unity in our bogie died a sudden and violent death. Just in a matter of 10 minutes, all unity and anger went down the drain just because one had their needs fulfilled. And I m not even talking about how rudely people were looking at me when I was trying to reason for all of us the previous night (the shouting match, remember?).

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for our unity drops to zero and we are back to square one, frustrated in need.
As for the person that was taken away by the police, he was released in 5 minutes flat when he introduced himself as the district attorney for the Bhopal High Court. Then, the policemen nearly ran for their lives when the attorney glanced at their badges for their names. Touche’