The woman on the train

1) The train to Ramnagar

It was very cold and frosty as a rainy day of November in the hills ought to be. I started late in the afternoon as I had no hurry to reach Ramnagar. Ramnagar is a hilly village about eighty kilometers away from Dehra Dun. I was to take the last train up hill which was to leave at eight in the evening. The train arrived, it was raining as heavily as I had never seen before. Though the train was well lit but all its carriages were eerily empty. I boarded the train and comforted myself beside a glass window which was all frosty from outside as it had already started snowing by then. I was really amazed by how quickly the rain had changed into snow, but any how I managed to warm myself by dumping a leather jacket on my woollen sweater which I was already wearing. But still the cold proved very brutal to my hands and feet as the train started to assend up the mountain. My hand and feet was cramping like anything! But somehow my tired mind managed to exploit the bitter cold. I was almost asleep but a sudden ring of a station clock woke me up. It was the clock of Narkot which read midnight. I supposed no one will board the train from there in this snowy weather as nobody is insane enough like me to set out from home in the nights of November just to meet my childhood friend. And I was quite sure of it. She had a red umbrella with her. She was clad in her red silk saree, she also had a purple coat on her. She quite resembled a typical woman from the 1940's. But to me she was a fashonable woman. She had short boy's cut hair and no jewellery on her body could be seen, exept a Blue Sapphire ring on her right ring finger. It was time already for the train to leave and as it slowly pulled out of the station a sudden darkness of the coniferious forest surrounded us. It was pitch dark outside, nothing could be seen except the srill notes of some night bird and some flying foxes made eerie sounds. On the other side of the hill some light of a few settelments could  be seen but it was not clear due to the fog and the heavy snowfall. Suddenly with a jerk the train stopped in the middle of the forest and the lights went off !

To be continued.