I believe there are no losers or winners in life, rather there are those who will survive the hardships when life's gonna test them and those who will not? This question became the real motive behind this blog.
This journey is about a short travel in the the General Compartment of the Express train which I had to take up in a hurry. So there I was where I could not believe myself to be, the General compartment. But the things changed, on entering that compartment and coming out of it, there was a totally different person, a different me.
On entering that compartment, I had a thought that this is gonna be excruciating and that too for 3 and half hours. That summer night with the hot breeze blowing through, makes my move tougher still. Entering that compartment was like the toughest job as people are hanging on doors and you have a feeling that even you are gonna be one of them. I thought of backing off and going to the Sleepers compartment but simply the thought that you don't even have the ticket, leave alone the reservation to show it to the TC as time didn't permit me to buy one. So no choice, you have to live with it for now and enter this compartment quick, come what may!!!
As I push my way through the door to enter what then seems to me like worse then hell, but the Hell that I am ready to embrace as for now. I enter that compartment and I see about 7 people sitting in front of the toilets and 2 of them are even sleeping with one's head under the sink stacked with the Sink-pipe. By this time I also could sense the strange odor that was coming from the toilet side or from all the sides and I can sense it so cleanly that it hardly matters from which side it was coming. But that is not the worst part but rather just the beginning, as I have entered but am still only at the door and have no way to go deeper as their is no way to pass for everyone is sitting on the pathway as well. Standing there for all this time, I think I am able to think in their terms too, so somewhat inside I could see some place for me. Settling there in that place where 2 people were sleeping and I was sitting in the little place that was there besides the guys legs who was messy and was one of the kinds from which I would keep a distance from any situation that I may ever face. And not just this, there was an amazing shoe rack there and it was nothing else than the fun overhead and on it, there were a lot of shoes belonging to people throwing some dirt on all or at least seems so.
Getting Frustrated sitting there in that smell and amongst so many people, I felt an urge to fag but I could not even think so, as smoking in such a crowded place would not really be a good thing to do. But then from somewhere a cigarette came and the people sitting in front of me started smoking. I thought, if he can, y can't I? So I pulled out a stick and started to fag. In some time a guy was pointing towards my packet and I had difficulty to understand what he was trying to say at first but then I understood that he was asking for a cigarette. But when he came to know that it was the costlier one, he declined to take it but when I gave it to him he forced me to take the money for it. I succeeded in making him understand that it didn't matter but understood for myself that they really had a self. This guy tried to give me the little money and there was this guy in college who borrowed money for a gift for his gf but declined to give it back even when I aksed for it and started abusing me. And then we say these people didn't have shame. Is it really that these people have no shame or in spite, the blamers are the real culprits.
We tend to say they are the losers in life. But on entering the train when I saw people mainly in their vests and shorts and with me completely dressed, I was looking like a looser for not understanding the simple fact that its summers. And so afraid of my own body that i am scared of so many things, against which I believe that these people love their bodies and even we should, in spite of looking at little immaterial deformities. At times we are completely dressed and still we have a question that we are properly dressed and look at these people they are hardly wearing anything and are still so confident that there is no one better then them.
We think we are the confident lot, but are we really so? Even in those conditions when i am cursing the crazy lot I could see smiles on their faces here and there and that made me feel like a looser still. About 27 people were sitting in the place for 8 and still sitting there like a king. They dont need their space, rather just the space they need. At times we say in feud with them "inke muh lagne ka kya fayda.!!" With that are we really showing our strength or rather weakness? What are we scared of, loosing something? What really? They are simply living the same life as we do and still we have more to loose? Or is it actually we are the weaker lot? Truth is yet and is hard to find.
On the gloomy side I believe that these people have greater living spirit than what we people do and we are the cursing lot who curse others for all the mishaps that came to our lives. We are those who are sitting in our a/c cars and cursing the traffic. They are not the ones who curse rather get cursed. We blame traffic and these guys are also in the same traffic travelling with the sun straight over their head or worse walking and we are the ones cursing traffic. So who do you think is sturdy and who is gonna stay?
The base I believe of all this i believe is the very fact that the people who had not faced any hardships know nothing and have the power to face nothing. They depend on things & people around for support and their care and not gonna survive when are left alone. The people who can't stand up for themselves can stand up for nothing. And they are the real losers in the end.
During that travel, I had a question who is the winner and who is not. I could not find the answer to this question and I believe i never can but what I can only say is, these are the people with the zeal to live and power to survive, and thats what i believe really matters.
This journey began from this very fact "without ticket" but I never knew this has really the power to be "A journey of a lifetime".
