One happy day!

The alarm clock is drowsy! I snoozed it a zillion times before finally grudgingly waking up for the day!
Am a confessed night person! Getting up early is not my thing! Ever! But then work and a career path the hard way up means waking up in the sensible hours and travelling to work every single day!!!
I predictably am late most times, thanks to this snoozing the alarm clock routines! L
Another such day when rest all things are just as any other day when am late, rushing and running out to first meet that divine creature – Rickshaw with a rickshaw driver who is willing to take you to the place you want to go! Today for once am lucky! There is indeed one such being who is ready to take met o the railway station! Blessed, I sit back counting my blessings and humming my favorite tune as the music player dutifully plays it for me…
Enter the platform, encounter beggars, give alms, move on and then wade through the swarms of crowd and reach one dream of a platform! Every platform which has slightly less crowd is actually a dream platform if that also happens to bring in a train to a place you wish to go! J
My whim got better of me and I decided to enter a second class compartment today! The people around were similar faced creatures, all late comers and banking on those last few trains which I think are designated to carry late comers to work! With practice and some gumption I have learned not to panic when I am late…but I think not all are on that same page! J
In came the train, the women jump in literally pushing, nudging and barging in the compartment. I find it scary still but yes still very adventurous! I too get in! Precariously perched on one foot and then landing on two feet I find some space to fit myself in, my joy is crushed within nanoseconds! When this foul moody lady just picks on me, to push and yell at! She wants to enter the seating area, which is already crowded! No amount of protest convinces her that she should stay in her existing place! Finally hurling abuses at me she enters that area! I on the other hand, instead of getting upset decide to smile, my mind fully circumambulating around the song on my music player and good times had the prior evening, so I smile at her! This riles her to no end! It distorts her face in every possible angle!
I continue the journey being pushed and jostled around! Every station means more people pushing, jostling and abusing, all women! Am surprised at their specialized vocabulary! Just that they use abuses as some heavy blunt weapon they can mindlessly swing in any direction! I still smile!
The riled lady and a few more around are really worked up! How can she smile! How dare she smile! Their faces seem to reflect this very clearly! I smile that knowing smile, smile that these women all are tensed about that hanging sword of late mark, of the salary cut that might happen if they have one more late mark on their muster! Frustrated at the delay, the work which was unavoidable, maybe a school going kid, an ailing family member, or husband who laid claim a little longer on their night…whatever but they are late! And angry! At themselves, at circumstances at their sheer helplessness! At the fact that these reasons are such limp creatures that they won’t even be a reason to give to the boss…and then the resultant stress… with such a complex bag of emotions, heavier than their purses, every single day these ladies enter the overcrowded train compartments and move on to work!
And definitely it must be irritating to see someone smile at them in return to abuses… they have lost that sensitive side, that beauty of the smile from a stranger…they are all happy with their dose of stress, an opium all are addicted to! Contrasting their regular bawls and abuses, I just observe all this and smile. Smile that they don’t see much beyond what their grid is, smile full of empathy, smile with the understanding that if I don’t act fast, I too stand the danger of entering this same abyss called routines, smile that am happy to currently observe and note it all! Someone suddenly roughly pulls my braid, I wince but stand my ground, calmly take my long braid on to the other side, and smile at the owner of those hands who pulled my hair! Now women around me are mad with rage, I can feel the heat in the overcrowded compartment!
I move towards the exit as my station approaches, still smiling…immersed in music and pleasant thoughts…I realize what all these women are carrying in their souls, how burdened this city life has made them and somewhere deep seek answers for this question…
Life is indeed not easy, am not wanting to get more preachy but then what matters is retaining and fiercely guarding the right to emote those emotions which are your own, and not mere responses to what others act like…am happy that am still guarding my own right and standing my own ground and yes, still smiling…

Billing in seconds

The hoardings cry out loud! Billing in seconds! Walk while you talk! What not! To entice every single mortal in its wavy techno grip! The mobile phone is indeed a blessing! The call waiting is also indeed! But what do you do when you have an important person on call and another important person calls? Whose call do you attend? Normal dilemmas all we mortals face! Right?
Now check out this one…a normal crowded second class train compartment, sparsely filled with an assortment of ladies of all ages, sizes and shapes, some reading, some eating, some doing a makeup touch up, some gossiping and bitching, some listening to music and some on the mobile phone…a very normal scene in every suburban local train in Mumbai … Its evening and the breeze is unnaturally heavy, I wonder what scent it is laden with… how many are noticing the change in weather and changing sky colors… I too continue listening to music, smiling to myself for being quirky that particular evening… having a first class pass I have disembarked from my privy compartment only to push myself into the second class compartment just for fun! Some jostling around… The compartment is relatively less crowded, am happy to have found enough place to rest my spine upright!
Then I notice her. Standing at the door, on the footboard, just above her is the pasted sign which warns of punishment and penalty for travelling on footboard…I still ignore… just like she is, ignoring the whole world and talking away endlessly to someone on the mobile phone… as my station approaches closer, I smile thinking of meeting my beau, and concentrate on the next romantic song playing on the music player…lost in my own world…another girl comes and stands behind this lady engrossed in telephone conversation…till suddenly the girl at the footboard suddenly disappears!!!!
The girl behind is numb, and frozen at the door! Women shriek!!! And someone pulls the chain, the train grumblingly halts a few yards ahead…what happened! Now the murmur regular womanish banter is replaced by alarms, shrieks and hysterical crying! What happened!!!
What I saw with my own eyes just is beyond belief! The girl so engrossed in the call, decided to replace her hold, let go of her hand at the main door bar wanting to hold the handles in the train…but the train jolted forth, the movement, one reckless moment and she was thrown out! Out of a moving train, phone in hand and all! Fell out! Maybe terribly injured, hurt, maimed or maybe even crushed and dead under the wheels of the train!!! Life suddenly stopped! In tracks!
On call, with an important person, but death on call waiting… Death can be an impatient suitor! Snatches you off! A second and you are gone! Gone and dead!
A normal work day, tired and heading home, chatting to someone special or bitching about her work, she must have done so many times but today was different. The claims were high, on her life that is!
All I say is, life is precious! Do not walk while you talk in the train! No! it kills! I have witnessed it!!!
Enticing it might seem to be billed in seconds but what price does one end up paying!
I froze at this thought!