It was quite late, and I was exhausted and very hungry too; so, I wondered about looking for a place to sit and eat the tiffin I carried, something I should have done at noon itself... anyhow, I finally found myself a corner in a small shack and sat on its bench beginning to munch on my food, mindful to buy something from the shack owner as I was using her space...in the end, I paid some extra tip too for the bananas she sold, but, she didn't give any extra piece except the ones I purchased, phew, I thought as I then started to walk towards the nearby railway station in a hurry - I had a train to catch.
It was so late, that my train would come any minute; but to go to the platform meant I had to take the foot-over-bridge - I just didn't have the time for it, so, I decided to cross the tracks on foot ~ a risky feat but often done by some daredevils in order to save time; I sprinted through the tracks hoping no guard caught sight of me during my err-illegal stunt and praying no train ran me down; I did manage to hop on the platform just in the nick of time before the train came, I didn't try to see its name or number ~ simply jumped right in.
The train was packed as it was the last train, and boy was I glad I could catch it after all; but, when it bypassed my station only then did I reaize that I had caught the wrong train ( not the one to Vijaypath, my town ) oh - no, I thought, how would I get back now, it'd take me till morning to get any train back home or even office, my whole day will be wasted traveling; I cursed myself for not looking out for the train's name before getting in and so so regretted taking the short-cut method which had only landed me in a newer mess.
I sat helpless, as the train passed through various stations without stopping barring a few, and curved up the twisted mountains in a zig-zag manner to its final destination; oh well...I thought, might as well resign to what fate had in store for me that night, and try board the first train back, if there was any, from my new destination now; and finally, after enduring a long journey for hours, the train slowly crawled to a halt at its final stop - and I rushed to the booking counter...which to my dismay was unusually crowded even at this late hour.
My turn came after a long wait as the lady in the counter with a pen stuck behind her ear, seemed quite disinterested in dealing with so many customers and kept doing her own personal work ignoring everyone, only to be called again and again with a 'ma'am ma'am' which seemed to infuriate her further as she would turn her head insisting with a "call me Sonam"; she barely listened to anyone and only announched to catch train in the morning when it'd arrive, giving a time...but no guarantee ~ that it'd leave exactly then!
To my relief, the train did start leaving the station in the early hours of dawn when it was still dark and I was the first to hop in followed by the huge crowd of waiting passengers; but, as fate would have it, that train would take an even longer route and would leave me in some other station altogether and I'd have to catch yet another train again ( as there was no direct train and it was the only one that operated in those mountains ) to reach my office or even home if I was lucky...shrugging to myself, I just decided to surrender to fate.
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