Ladies v/s Ladies
My train journey from Baroda-to-Ankleshwar and
Ankleshwar-to-Baroda was becoming a routine now. I could spot familiar and
unfamiliar faces at the station. I could guess who’s an experienced traveler
and who’s not. I knew exactly where my dabba would stop. Railway Station was no
more a place where I would go only with family for a holiday. I was there
almost every day, all alone managing my up-down journey. I don’t know why
people ask ‘up-down karva lagya cho’, what does up-down mean? No more people in
the first class now ask me whether I have got a ticket, they by now know me.
My mornings start with ‘Kripa karine dhyan aapo’ (May I have
your attention please), Vadodara se Bhilaad jaane wali train kuch hi samay mein
platform pramaan chaar par aa rahi hai. And my evenings ended with ‘Surat se
Vadodara jaane wali, memo, jiska nirdharit samay paach bajke attha-es minute
hai, wo das minute ki deri se chal rahi hai, jiska hume khaid hai’ (The
inconvenience caused is deeply regretted). Poor announcer, she feels regretted
everyday yet the train is never on time.
After the chilling Sunday, it was Monday again, and I don’t
know why but I decided to travel by the ladies compartment instead of the usual
1st class I used to travel. I think I was in full mood for an
adventure ride. Despite a strong warning from my best friend of not entering
that section of the train, I still dared to enter. Maybe because I had a
companion with me today. Being a typical Indian with a mentality of
collectivism influencing me, my confidence rose up to 50% more. I may have
thought whatever will happen I am not the only one to face it…we are two.
As we entered the endangered compartment, it seemed to be
more crowded than before (More ladies were awaiting to welcome us... I suppose
;)! ) Luckily we grabbed a seat but we were just a couple of seconds late to
grab a window seat. It was the most noisy and chaotic compartment of the train-the
ladies compartment. I know I may seem to be gender bias at this point but this
is the truth. They were all fighting for seats and abused each other with words
I cannot mention. I had seen people fight in the 1st class too but
those fights were far better than what I was witnessing today.
On a seat comfortable enough for four people, six of us
seated. We two didn’t complain but others were looking at us and were discussing
‘yeh dono kaha se aagaye’. But I pretended to be ignoring them. To add to the
number of ladies already present, at every stop, more ladies entered and very
few departed making the compartment suffocating, one, by their presence and two,
by their talks.
Three ladies very confidently entered into the section where
we were seated. One of them asked ‘whose baggage is this? Pointing towards the
upper berth. In a split of second, she threw the baggage down to make space for
herself to sit. But I wondered how would she sit there, there was no stair made
to climb. To my astonishment she placed one of her leg at the window and jumped
onto the upper berth. Two more ladies joined her. The Trio sat on a berth which
could anytime break due to their weight. Their six legs kept hanging onto our
heads but they seemed to be least concerned. To add to my worries one of them
started to comb her hair. Her hair strands danced in the air, matching the
music of chaos in the compartment and slowly kept falling here and there.
With every stop, the crowd grew more and more. Two-three
women despite the growing crowd were selling earnings. Their marketing strategy
was dependent on movies. They called out famous movie labels and attached them
to the earnings they intended to sell (Like Ramleela ki baaliya lelo). A girl
almost my age was sitting diagonally in front of me, the window seat that I
could have grabbed. She kept trying earnings almost thirty of them and looked
herself in the front camera of her phone adoring herself and finally to end the
show, she bought only one earning costing 30 bucks. Heights!
As the train took a halt at the Bharuch junction, two ladies
moved in and inquired where we were heading. Although they were not TC but
behaved like one. As we were to go only till Ankleshwar-the next stop, they
allowed us to sit (It was their seat, I don’t know if it was but they claimed
so). They adjusted themselves in the little space available. And to my surprise
in that hustle and bustle and chaos and fights and all sorts of disturbances
and the little space they had, didn’t bother them from cleaning cholai ki
bhaji.
As I saw the platform, my joy knew no bounce. We were about
to reach. I struggled walking out of the train, crossing so many ladies and
their talks. Just as the exit door arrived, a pool of ladies had already
started to enter the dabba before I could step out. I innocently said, ‘Please
niche utarne do’ but one of the lady rudely said, ‘kya niche utarne do, vaato
karva ubhi thayi gayi, up-down kare che toh utarvani samjh nahi padhti’. I
glanced back to see if my friend was there. As she came, we had no option but
to squeeze ourselves into the ladies and flush out ourselves and land onto the
station. We flew between the train and the platform squeezing and pushing
ourselves out and finally landed safely. I don’t believe it. But we did it!
Yes!
I will never forget this encounter with the Ladies
compartment.
