Co-passengers in a train

I have never managed to use the berth assigned to me in a train compartment. If I am supposed to be on the upper berth, a bean pole of an individual has a polite request whether I can take his side berth because he just wouldn't fit in it where as I might just. If I have the lower berth, an elderly lady would prefer to use it and banishes me to the top berth. If it is the middle berth, a family is travelling together and wonders whether I could use one of their berths in the next coupe or sometimes in the next compartment. If the window seat is mine, a child stares at me relentlessly and forces me to vacate it. At times, I feel, they need not assign a seat for me at all and should just leave it as a wild card. That way, I wouldn't wallow in self pity that I am simply being kicked around!

However, it is these co-passengers who make train journeys truly fascinating. Take this case of the gentleman who was particularly irate and rightfully so. He had slept on the top berth but his feet stuck out. He was rudely woken up in the middle of the night when his foot suddenly felt heavy. To his horror, he found that in the darkness of the compartment, someone had mistaken his toes for a hook and had hung a water bottle off it!

There is a particular co-passenger who always gives me the shivers. He's typically found on the top berth and just does not stir for the entire duration of forty hours! He appears drugged and needs no break either for food or even for the rest room! He covers himself from top to toe with a blanket which gives our fertile imagination even more material to worry about. Sometimes, he changes his position and we relax a little. At times, the blanket is motionless and registers not a ripple and we are positively worried and wonder whether we should try giving him a little pinch!
The moment we reach the destination though, he suddenly rises like a phoenix, fresh as a daisy, picks up his luggage and makes a dash for the exit with greater agility than anyone else!

The glutton (glorified in today's language as a foodie) treats the entire journey as one big meal with several courses. At 2:00 am, he beckons to the only vendor patrolling the platform premises at Lonavla station and digs into a full packet of Maganlal chikky and washes it down with a cup of tea. He can eat anything and everything at any time. Groundnuts (referred to as time-pass in rail parlance), idlis, vadas, guavas, oranges, jack-fruit and bananas are swallowed in full and several cups of tea, coffee and cool-drinks are guzzled with consummate ease between the main meals. He eagerly looks forward to breakfast at Solapur, a sumptuous lunch at Raichur and a full dinner at Guntakal junction. He submits a detailed review of each item to the other passengers and gets them interested as well. His unruly son is perched on the top berth with a never ending stick ice-cream. Its steady drip catches a passenger on the lower seat unawares. The dress is now stained and the hair is sticky as well. The glutton tenders a simple apology on behalf of his son who continues to slurp his stick ice cream much to the irritation of the affected party.
Sometimes, he proffers a biscuit to one of us. When we hesitate, he announces loudly, adding to our embarassment, "Don't worry! I am not going to drug you and steal your valuables!" We have no choice but to throw caution to the winds and take the biscuit. He ensures that you eat it too!

We like the co-passenger who risks his personal well being and fetches water for the less nimble, offers a helping hand for someone else's luggage and cajoles a baby to sleep. We hate the group of ill-mannered students who don't have reserved tickets but still take it as their birthright to impose themselves on you and encroach upon your seat. We are indifferent to the co-passenger who buries himself under his novel and looks up only when the ticket collector comes around.

By the end of the journey, the initial suspicion with which we viewed some members is completely set aside. We've exchanged family trees spanning several generations and geographical locations. Personal details which would have ruffled quite a few feathers in the immediate family circle have been openly exposed!
It is natural to feel a little lump in the throat when we alight at the destination. But, we know that a similar family will be around when we travel the next time. Till then, au revoir!