JOYRIDE

A Sudden twist of fate had me travel all the way to Kerala. I had hoped for a peaceful ride in the AC compartment of the train , but fate had something sinister in store for me.

The moment I entered the compartment, I found out that my fellow travellers included a loud voiced businessman and a very irritated baby accompanied by its equally harried mother. The kid was bawling away to kingdom come and I had to bid adieu to my afternoon siesta. I also realised that kids can scream beyond the maximum volume of your Ipod.

The train food lived upto its reputation and was bland and dry beyond the usual range of tastebud sensations. I had to contend with a bunch of bananas.
The Konkan railway route is usually very scenic and one can spend hours gazing through the windows. But this is not usually possible when your co-passenger includes an old ( very old) man with a flatulence problem. I had to run out of the compartment towards the main door every two hours gasping for breath.

The pot-bellied businessman was chattering away on his mobile phone so much that I am sure that there was a distinct imprint of the keys on his cheek (almost looking like a tattoo). He sounded like one of those TV Evangelists preaching the word of God. Who was the dimwit who thought of the idea of providing mobile charging points in train compartments?

The baby was relentlessly pursuing his vocal training and had finally quietened down by dinner time. My dinner done, I lay down my sheets and hoped for a good nap before the kid could start again. Kids have a unique bodyclock, as they tend to be more active during the nights. This I found out later when the kid had started research on the "affects of constantly switching lights on and off" which of course leads to the syndrome of sleep disturbance. Finally 'genius' slept and let other (me included) sleep too.

I did have my moment of revenge when my stop was due at around 5 am in the morning. My mobile phone has a popular bhajan as the alarm. And at precisely 5 am, the alarm rang and I let it ring for quite sometime. The bawling kid did the rest of the job as he let out a morning yelp and woke the the rest of the train right upto the engine driver.

I got down at my station a happy man.

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............needless to say, i took a flight back.