Of Railgaadis, the lower berth and the Parsi aunties

I am fond of travelling by trains. I simply love it. Not for me the get up , get down and before you blink your eye, you are there, air travel so to speak. True of late, i have been travelling more often than not by air, but its more of a necessity than a fascination. But given a choice i would travel by train.

In fact i keep telling myself the reason why i have so far not gone to the US of A while so many of my freinds have been there and back is because Indian Railways has still not started its special Rajdhani Express from New Delhi all the way to New York. I am waiting to be the first passenger on that.

And when it comes to getting a seat, i simply love the lower berth. Oh to sit on the window seat and watch the entire world speed by, the forests, the fields, the cities, the typical ways the sounds of the gaadi change when you travel over a bridge on a river, the hundreds of smells in the air as the train stops at a station, its all bliss.

As a kid it was always me and my sister fighting on who would get to sit at the window seat. and being the elder one that i was, i generally had to give in to my sisters demands ( psst, hope shes not reading this)

When i grew up and started travelling alone, i heaved a sigh of relief. Atlast i could travel on the lower berth and sit at the window all to myself.

Alas!
It was not to be. It just so happens that when you are travelling alone and are a bachelor male like me, you will always end up getting Side upper berth. and if you have someone ten times your size ( and i already am fat), sitting on the side lower berth, you cant even get to sit for sometime before bedtime on his seat.

But this last time that i was travelling from Mumbai to Delhi and back i decided that i had enough . I bribed, threatened, cajoled my travel agent and finally managed a lower berth in the main compartment for both return and onward journeys to myself. And i felt like standing like Leonardo Di Caprio on the Titanic and shouting " I am the King in the World".


So you see there i was on the d-day all happy, at the railway station when i would rush to my bogie, my compartment. And i did walk in like a king to meet his subjects and his queens. And then........my heart sank.

Giving this young king company in the compartment would be two lovely parsi grandmas, one lady with a son who wanted to be an IITian, and a young chap from the navy. Now i dont have anything against my fellow passengers except for the fact that you already know you will have to give up your much desired lower berth to the aunties, who have been givenn the upper berth which they cannot climb due to their age.

And give my lower berth i did. so did the other young chap. I mean i am all for helping people and especially the elders but yaar ek gal dasso.............kissi ko meri lower berth se kya dushmani hai bhai. Bachpan mein behen ne nahin baithne diya ab autiyaan nahin baithne deti.

Anyways so there i did the good deed, much to my dislike and the journey went on. And it would all have ended on a solemn note but for the fact, that the two aunties / grandmas seem to have taken a liking to me. Now i know i am fat, but am not so uglily fat as to look sick and in need of urgent attention.

And so it was that i lay shocked and astounded and all the other eds, when one of the aunties called out to me a half hour before we were to reach Delhi station and gave me a loooong lecture on how i need to take care of myself. And the crux of that looong lecture was...."GET MARRIED SOON"...........your wifey dearest would take care of you...give you proper diet,....make sure you exercise and blah blah blah......wooosssssssssshhhh. all i could do was just listen and say hmm, aah and all that when the whole of me wanted to run away. Naah.....it was not that munna raaja sharm de naal laal pila hoya paya si, ki aunty ne us di shaadi di gal ched di. Par yaar take a chill man. Ek thi meri daadi, ab ek ho gayee aunty.........somebody tell me ki kya mere chehre pe likha paya hai " Single Desperately Ready to Mingle".

Anyways i know the aunty meant well. and i really liked the aunty. in fact both of them. they were not the typical naggin ladies who would keep telling people not to disturb and all. In fact they made good conversation and it was an interesting journey.

Just that there were two sore points..........My Lower Berth and of course "Shaddi kar le mere laal".

Mummy.....if you are reading this...i promise. Ab main roz gym jaaaonga. next time aunty wont say anything to me.

adios.