I see myself in a train with my family. I am planning the trip with my father, to Pune, then Mumbai, then few other places that we planned to visit within next 10 days. We reach Pune and visit my uncle's house. From there my father, I and my uncle leave for Mumbai in a local train. My uncle insisted on coming along to meet our relatives.
The local train had interesting arrangement of seats. There was two columns of two seater benches one behind the other and on the periphery were single chairs rows with the back towards the glass upper half of the wall. I was looking outside at the skyscrapers of Mumbai through the droplets covered glass interface of the wall. Just then my uncle got a call and we learned we couldn't meet the relatives so there was nothing else to do and we had to head back. On reaching Mumbai, I got down to see if we could get earliest ticket back to Pune. Since I had come to Mumbai after many years, I had lost touch and it took me some time to run around and figure out what was where. What perturbed me was that my uncle and father were comfortably relaxed, sitting in the same bogie. I was shocked to see this when I returned to bogie to ask them for help! My uncle, in a surprised tone asked me, 'Where did you go all of a sudden? You got something to eat for us?'
'I went to get the tickets for our return journey. Shouldn't we get the tickets asap so that we could reach home before night?' I saw that my uncle looked amused.
That moment I felt the train move and I saw outside, the train was moving in the opposite direction, retracing its path.
Rest of the journey, I sat on the periphery seat and looked outside through the glass interface. Once we had left the platform, it started drizzling again. Through the droplets covered glass, I looked at the skyscrapers and the city bathed in water and grey. I heard some college kids arguing about something and I responded, 'Koi bhi kaam badaa ya chota nahi hota, bas chutiyapa ya dilchasp hota hai' (no work is big or small, just boring or interesting). The guys readily seemed to agree to me but the girls kept arguing so they went back to argument.
I turned and looked at the grey city again. While watching a drop slide across the glass, I got an epiphany that tried to explain my life and other's life who complain that 'life isn't fair'. It just occurred to me that maybe life isn't fair, or maybe life is just playing a game or writing a story, placing its players or characters in various situations and when the buildup is done, when the right time comes, the final move is made and the end game commences. We all have a role to play in the game of life.
The local train had interesting arrangement of seats. There was two columns of two seater benches one behind the other and on the periphery were single chairs rows with the back towards the glass upper half of the wall. I was looking outside at the skyscrapers of Mumbai through the droplets covered glass interface of the wall. Just then my uncle got a call and we learned we couldn't meet the relatives so there was nothing else to do and we had to head back. On reaching Mumbai, I got down to see if we could get earliest ticket back to Pune. Since I had come to Mumbai after many years, I had lost touch and it took me some time to run around and figure out what was where. What perturbed me was that my uncle and father were comfortably relaxed, sitting in the same bogie. I was shocked to see this when I returned to bogie to ask them for help! My uncle, in a surprised tone asked me, 'Where did you go all of a sudden? You got something to eat for us?'
'I went to get the tickets for our return journey. Shouldn't we get the tickets asap so that we could reach home before night?' I saw that my uncle looked amused.
That moment I felt the train move and I saw outside, the train was moving in the opposite direction, retracing its path.
Rest of the journey, I sat on the periphery seat and looked outside through the glass interface. Once we had left the platform, it started drizzling again. Through the droplets covered glass, I looked at the skyscrapers and the city bathed in water and grey. I heard some college kids arguing about something and I responded, 'Koi bhi kaam badaa ya chota nahi hota, bas chutiyapa ya dilchasp hota hai' (no work is big or small, just boring or interesting). The guys readily seemed to agree to me but the girls kept arguing so they went back to argument.
I turned and looked at the grey city again. While watching a drop slide across the glass, I got an epiphany that tried to explain my life and other's life who complain that 'life isn't fair'. It just occurred to me that maybe life isn't fair, or maybe life is just playing a game or writing a story, placing its players or characters in various situations and when the buildup is done, when the right time comes, the final move is made and the end game commences. We all have a role to play in the game of life.
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