Silliness Makes Life Fun

Station In The Air

"Chaaayee! Chaaayee! Palleee Bataaani! 

The hawkers shout Chai as in tea, Palli as in peanuts and Batani as in peas. The porters shout out their services to carry luggage to and fro from the vehicle to the train coach.

People talking loudly, children screaming as they run around playing, loud train schedule announcements, the intermittent chugging sounds of moving trains and the intermittent horns of the train engine are the usual sounds and chaos you encounter in a typical busy Indian railway station.

Pushing our way through the crowd of people, trying our best to catch up with the porters carrying our luggage, we board the trains to go on our journey. We sit on hot, sticky leather seats waiting for the adults to open bags of goodies that we, children can eat while running the length of the train coach.

We travel for days from south to north stopping every few hours at various railway stations. We travel over fields, through forests and through tunnels watching the beautiful scenery pass by through the big, wide, barred windows. All the while, breathing in the polluted air from the big cities and fresh air from the countryside. Sweating through the hot and humid weather from the southern and coastal regions, we make our way to the cold, frigid weather in the north only to end up shivering.

My cousin brother, Joe is a curious cat and always wants to know the name of every station we stop at. 

Every time the train stops, he shouts, "Auntie, which station is this?"

My mother peeks through the window and reads out the station name. This usually continues throughout the night with Joe waking up whenever he feels the train stop. Such is our usual experience when we set out for holidays. 

However, this time it is very different. 

While there is still a huge crowd, there's no chaos. Instead of pushing and shoving, people are standing in queues. There are no porters. Instead, travelers struggle to push their trolleys. Instead of steps, there are escalators and lifts. Instead of announcements, there are huge billboards with updating flight schedules.

Daughters crying on their mother's shoulders bidding goodbye, embarrassed sons trying to avoid their mothers' farewell hugs, smart officials walking fast with minimal luggage,  families with luggage spilling over multiple trolleys and prominent businessmen with a single briefcase - all hustled and bustled in the busy airport.

Unlike the railway station which is subject to the open air, the air-conditioned airport was refreshingly cool.

For the very first time, we were all traveling by flight. It was quite different and we were all excited and eager to experience something new. We scanned our luggage and passed through the security checks watching the entire process in fascination. We made our way into the flight and took our seats trying our best to watch the luggage and food get loaded into the aircraft through the teeny little windows. 

Though we were excited, we, kids were also quite disappointed that we couldn't run about the flight like we usually did on the train. It was quite constricting.

After playing quietly for a while, we grew tired and fell asleep only to have Joe keep waking up and asking, "Auntie, which station is it?" 

My mom patiently replied, "Honey, there are no railway stations. The plane is in the air." 

Promptly, after 15 minutes, Joe would wake and repeat the question with my mom responding the same. Finally, my mom started making up names which seemed to be a lesser effort.

Poor Joe! We all had a good laugh the next day. 

On the return trip, I couldn't help but, mischievously wake Joe up intermittently and ask him, "Joe, which station is it?"