The train leaves the station!

Announcements at the railway station have a unique problem. The audio system starts off crystal clear- “Train number 40612, going to Chennai Central will leave shortly from platform number” and just when you are all alert for that critical information, the audio turns incoherent.  You are not sure whether it said platform 7 or 11. Or at the nick of time, your 4-year-old asks something irrelevant and you lose the plot. “Can’t you stay silent at least till the announcement is over?” you admonish her. She blinks back, clueless about why you are suddenly so angry!

As time runs out, you engage the services of a porter. The conversation begins with a strict warning, “Look! I do not want to haggle over the price once we reach the compartment! You tell me the amount now!” He scans the assorted pieces of luggage- two suitcases, a steel-trunk, cloth bags, a water-can and a crate of mangoes! He quotes a price that leaves you dumbfounded! “I will carry it on my own!” you protest and pretend to carry the smallest bag.

The porter makes a marginal adjustment to the price. Before you know, he has hoisted the steel-trunk and suitcases on his head, hung the bags over his shoulders and has started walking! Keeping pace with a porter is not easy. While you struggle, he jostles his way easily through the milling crowd. In a trice, he reaches the compartment, and compactly stacks the luggage.

You smile at the co-passengers- your companions for the next 2 days. Another passenger on the top berth, has already slept off.  Busyness fills the air wherever you look. People crowd around the Ticket Collector with multiple requests. Trays upon trays of meals are loaded into the pantry-car. Peddlers tempt you with a cup of coffee or a juicy magazine thrust through the window bars. Late comers run helter-skelter in a mad rush to reach their bogie. The relative who has come to send off the traveler repeats for the umpteenth time- “Be careful! Give me a call once you reach home!” The traveler coaxes him to leave, but he continues to hang around. The carriage gives a little jerk as the engine is coupled to the train. The guard blows the whistle. There is a momentary lull followed by the booming horn of the engine.  

Unobtrusively, the train starts moving, so smooth that you hardly feel it. There is a flurry of hand-waves and good-byes. Some try to keep pace with their loved ones with a final promise- “I am going to run with the train all the way to Chennai!”  Soon, their voices trail away. The train leaves the station.