Love in Sampark Kranti

I boarded the Sampark kranti express from Kannur at correct 6.15pm. The train was un usually on time. I had almost 50 hours to kill in the train. My journey ended with the train at Chandigarh. Just as always, I had managed to obtain a middle berth in the train.

As I sat on my seat, no.34, I realised that 33,35,36,37,38,39,40 were all unoccupied. I tried to guess the whereabouts of its occupants. Surely one of them would be a student and at least two would be getting down at Delhi. About half of the total stops of the train were in Kerala, so it was quite unusual for 33-40 to have remained vacant until my entry. But any ways, the seats being vacant only meant that I had managed to obtain sometime of solitude. I gazed out through the trains window grills.

"I don't want to ever see you in my life again. I hate you. Go away". However hard I tried, I couldn't get her out of my head. I had clearly seen her face as she said these words. How had she managed to become such a monster? She had destroyed me completely. She had asked me to go away, but it was she who was following me everywhere. Couldn't she leave me alone, at least in the train?

The train had reached Kasaragod. Two youngsters came and sat on the seat opposite me. The girl seemed not more than 24 years old and the boy not more than 30. The girl was in a churidar and the boy had worn blue jeans with a red T-shirt. After completing the arrangement of their luggage which consisted of three huge bags, they asked me where I was headed to which I replied that I was headed to Chandigarh to take charge as Assistant Professor in a college there. They told me that they were husband and wife headed for Delhi where the husband worked. I wanted to know nothing more and also didn't want to share anything more with them. I ignored them and once again started looking out through the window. Fortunately they also decided to ignore me completely and started talking among themselves.

Physically I was at at peace once again, there was nothing present to disturb my body, but she had arrived once again to disturb my mind.

She was seated in the chair. She hadn't noticed me approaching. As always she was immersed in one of her stupid shows on TV. I had clutched the hammer firmly in my hands. Just one swing of the hammer, I had used a while earlier to knock down a nail on the wall to hang her painting was more than sufficient for her. Just one swing.

I had to think about something else. Once again I turned my attention to the vacant seats around me. So 37 and 38 had belonged to a young couple. They had proved one of my guesses to be correct. Now who were the owners of 36, 39 and 40? Would one of them be a student?

Even though it seemed really absurd, I somehow felt at that instant that the occupants of the seats around me had some connection with my life. It was a foolish thought. But that night I was just about to sleep very near to some people whose identity remains completely unknown to me before their arrival. It was all totally absurd.

When the train stopped at Mangalore station, it was total chaos around me. I was surrounded by five people and many baggages. There was an old guy of 50-55 years, an old woman of 50-55 years, a young woman of 28-30 with a baby sleeping comfortably on her shoulders and two boys of 20-25 who along with the old man was making the most noise. What did they want? To add to my frustration, they were shouting in a language which I couldn't even identify let alone understand the meaning of the words that they were shouting at each other. For some moments I feared whether I would have to suffer this chaos all the way till Punjab, but my fears were led to rest when I saw the three men standing outside waving bye bye at the two women seated opposite me, beside the young couple. So these two women along with the baby were going to be my fellow passengers. From the soft voices of the two women, I managed to identify their language as Kannada, the native language of the state of Karnataka. Of course even though it's hard to keep in mind, Mangalore was a part of the state of Karnataka and not Kerala.