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 1^st 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 1^st 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.