Sunday, October 19, 2008

1.35 ki Last Local...

I was at Vashi station this Monday. It was 1.15 in the Morning. I was very late for the Office. I looked around to see that the platform was practically deserted.

“Khaali train milegii.!” I said to myself. I’ll board an empty train.

Out of nowhere, A Kid walked upto me and asked “Bhaiyya, Kurla ko train kahaan aayegi?” Where do I board a train to Kurla?

Atif Aslam was blaring into my ears. The kid spoke the same moment as Atif peaked... “Tum hi ho.. Beshubaa ..tum hi ho..!” He went unheard.

“Kyaa chahiye?” I asked, as I paused Atif Aslam.What do you want?

Maybe I said that too loudly. I don’t know, the song was playing at full volume.

 The kid repeated the question. I merely pointed towards Platform 3.

A little while later, I glanced at the indicator. My train was scheduled to arrive at 1.35 AM. While the kid had missed his last train.

I looked around and I spotted the Kid who was looking suspiciously at a train stalled on Platform # 3 . The train had completed it’s last run of the day. One could say that the kid was surreptitiously contemplating boarding the train, but what was stopping him was the fact that the train was devoid of passengers.

I suddenly felt sorry for him as he would have to wait till 4.00 AM for the first train. I was not sure if he even understood that his train was at 4.00 AM. He was a poor kid, but  not an urchin. A decently dressed poor kid, I would say.

He looked at the indicator, perhaps understood that the train was at 4.00 AM. His face was inscrutable, but I could say that he was scared. He walked across the platform to a bench and sat there. Two men were already seated there.

On the other end of the platform, I saw two policemen patrolling the station. I knew what would happen next. The policemen checked the kid’s tickets and simply asked the kid to leave railway station. The other two were mere spectators.

My heart reached out to the kid, who would have to spend a night on the roads. I was not happy with myself.

My train arrived.

I realized I forgot to turn Atif Aslam back on.

5 Grumblings:

ketki said...

nice one as usual.
sometimes it so happens that we either fail to help people and sometimes,which is even worse, we want to help but we cannot!

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Moment of truth. Very nice.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Ayyappan said...

@Ketki
Yes, it is a grim reminder of how helpless / selfish we are even when it's a 6 yr old kid.
To tell you the truth, I really felt like socking the cop!


@Raji
Thanks. It was my pleasure. Entirely.

Meera's World said...

i feel you could have asked him a couple more questions and find out why he was there alone? thanks for making me worry about him!!!u know,i always felt,the biggest worry a parent will have is the fear of losing a child.its worse than death,i feel.every single second,you would die a hundred times, thinking of the lost child.its sad.i hope the kid ended up in safe hands ..

Ayyappan said...

@Meera
I so wish I would have asked more. You know sometimes it happens that the realisation hits you a bit late. I had pointed towards platform 3, but did not notice that the next train was in the morning.
The cop, the callous men seated next to him and me, as the silent observer did him in..!
I hope was safe. Really. :(