"Sometimes small incidents happens which leaves a big mark in your life and teaches you things you never understood before."
The scorching summer heat along with the crowd in the general compartment is taking toll on me The train was scheduled to reach Rupnarayanpur at 12 noon but I am still seating on the wooden bench wondering what my mom would be doing .May be she is still cooking my favorite dish or she must have finished cooking and expecting me to be there any moment now. I know my father, he must be waiting for me at the station at least from 11:30 .He does it every time I come back from my Hostel in Kolkata. He still thinks me as the little girl who got lost from school while coming back first time he left her alone.( Though I still insist that I didn't got lost but was just waiting for someone to drop me home. But alas no one believes me.)
I boarded the train from Sealdah at 5:30 am. Its 1:15 now. I looked around the compartment. Its too crowded. Seven persons seating on the seat meant for 4. The bunks are full with people sitting over there. Even the floors are not spared. There is not an inch of floor visible. This is the only train in this route which stops in most of the stations. The train starts at Sealdah and goes to Darbhanga in Bihar crossing Jharkhand in between. My Station is the last station in Bengal before it enters Jharkhand. So you get a very mixed type of crowd in this train. .Though I enjoy traveling , as it gives me the chance to meet peoples from different background , but at the moment the only thing I wanted to do is to get some sleep in my room,in my bed and with my favorite pillow(i love my pillow).The Last month have been very hectic for me. During the last two semesters I promised myself that I ll study from the day 1 still when the exam time came I found myself in the first chapter and making the same promise for the next one. But finally my 3rd semester got over. My eyes are burning from the lack of sleep and the heat .
The hot air was brushing against my face but I was thanking God that at least I got a window seat otherwise I would have been a rotten sandwich by this time. Looking through the window I could see the bare paddy fields and the clear sky. Still two more stations to go. As a station approached , the noise of the crowd increased . I could hear people talking in Hindi ,Bengali. and Hingali(mix of Hindi and Bengali) . The jhalmuriwala was fighting his way out of the crowd to get down from the train and board the other compartment .I was watching how skillfully the jhalmuriwala was making his way in the crowd. After one station I also have to do the same. Finally the train stopped at a very small station . The platform was at the ground level. That means the door was too high from the ground. No shade was available except the newly planted trees under which a black dog was peacefully sleeping.It was only a minute stop so by the time the jhalmuriwala got down the train whistled to start .
Just then I spotted the lady. One sari clad old lady with a tokri of raw mangoes. She was asking the guys at door to help her to get into the train . One young man took her tokri and other one gave her a hand. but the door was too high for her to reach . By this time the train started moving slowly. I got scared that the lady might come under the wheel as she was hanging. I could see her skinny hands,her wrinkled face,her terrified eyes, by that time the man let her loose and with a cry she touched the ground but away from the line. The train was still moving slowly. I could see her holding the arm and trying to sit but unable to do. I could feel she got hurt pretty hard. I wanted to get down immediately and help her but it was too crowded. I could see the pain in her eye.. The eye which was following the train . some one from crowd threw the tokri out . She was lying beside the track with the raw mangoes scattered around her. No one was there in the station except the stray dog sleeping under the shade. I desperately wanted to help her so I somehow reached the door but it was too late the train started moving fast. And I kept wondering what happened to her?
Finally at 1:45 I reached my station where my father was waiting for me. By the time I reached home my mom was very worried as it was too late. But I was still thinking what happened to that old lady. Did she get someone to help her? Could I have helped her ? But what haunted me more was why was she left alone at this age with that big tokri?
The Old Lady with skinny hands, wrinkled face still haunts me as I can see many such white haired angels lying in the foot path on the mercy of the mother nature. These Angels gave their everything to their children but when the time came for role reversal they were disowned. They gave up their youth for the sake of their children to see this betrayal.The children used their parents as ladder to reach their goals but forgot to appreciate the sacrifice their parents made to take them their.
(This particular incident happened when I was returning from Kolkata after my 3rd semester exam. Though it was a very old incident(2006 May ) but I can still feel the pain in the eyes of that old lady.The Eyes really haunts me even now.)
