TRAIN - Part 3

As the evening progressed, people around me started having their dinners, some dudes from the train dept, came to hand out blankets and pillows *they forgot to giv me blankets, and gave me 4 pillows instead… the idiots!! * & the AC was making me feel shit cold. And I was still writing in that diary of mine, this time writing about the strange mix of fellow passengers.

In the very last cubicle of the train coach was this group of ladies, who got on at Lonavala, and were sleeping ever since. I wondered if they were drunk or something. How can anyone sleep for THAT long. On the seat next to my cubicle was this loud, obnoxious man, who kept talking n talking n talking… to people who he didn’t even know. Crazy!!! And the seat diagonally left, was the gorgeous guy who kept alternating between reading a book *some book called Dragonfly* and looking across to where I was sitting, curled up, with my diary.

Soon the lights in the hallway started going out… till at around 11, there remained only one light on in the entire coach. Me and the gorgeous guy, were perched up on our respective top berths, reading our respective books. At the same time, there were a lot of sneaking eye glances in each others direction. I was writing *again* and I had the distinct feeling that he was trying to make out what I was writing. The Mr. Obnoxious in the next cubicle, was loudly discussing his ancestral medical history, boring his companion to death. His berth mate had this glazed look in his eyes, that gave an impression of him wanting to jump out of the train the next second, which was making me laugh. I was trying to stifle my laughter, when I threw Mr. Hunk, a laughing glance.. he smiled back at me. We both looked in the direction of Mr. Obnoxious and crashed into a fit of giggles.

Now that the ice seemed broken, he said a soft , gentle “Hi”.
*again remember it was 2003, I was 17, and I was shy* I looked down, fighting to keep the color from rising in my cheeks, and said “Hello”.
“You headed for Hyderabad?” he asked, very politely.
“Yeah… you?”
“well, I m getting off at Begum Peth. I stay at Secunderabad.” He took in my “Ohh ok” expression , understanding that Secunderabad didn’t sound a lot different than Hyderabad, he added “Its one station before Hyd.”
This time my brows cleared and I said “ohh.. Ok.”
“Are you going for the first time?” he smiled *perfect teeth…wow*
“Yes. My Brother and his wife stay there. I m visiting them.” I could almost hear my Mom inside my head yelling - I TOLD YOU NOT TO TALK TO STRANGERS....

... To be Continued...