So I'm having a really bad day. I'm all tired and exhausted after work, and am ready to collapse after I trudge along for 25 minutes to the station with two, mind you – two, very heavy bags. I reach platform 5 for my regular 7.04 Churchgate Fast. I wait for about 2 minutes and when it's 7.03 and the lady sitting on the roof decides that now is a good time to announce that "platform krmank paanch pe aani waali local churchgate ke liye tej local hai. Ye local aaj platform paanch ke badle platform teen pe ayegi. Yatriyon ko hone wali asuvidha ke liye khed hai."
Right.
So I start running again, with two, mind you- two, very heavy bags to get to platform three, along with half of the city's population jostling to get there before me. A sidestep here – if you've ever travelled by the local trains of Bombay you would have noticed that the regular travelers stand at pre-decided places, everyday, and jump onto the train as it pulls in and before it completely halts. That's the reason they were jostling to get there as the train in question was already pulling into the platform. Anyways. Back to my story. I didn't bother jostling. Well, I couldn't. I just ran as if my backside was on fire and got to the platform just as the train halted.
One tiny detail that the lady sitting on the roof forgot to mention was that the Ladies First Class does not come at the same place on Platform Three as it does on Platform Five. I realized this belatedly as the train halted. I had two options: I could either get into the Non-Ladies First Class (I don't know what else to call it – General First Class? Gent's Firs Class? Whatever) or I could trudge back to Platform Five and wait 10 minutes for another train and get into the Ladies First Class.
No points for guessing what I did – any pea-brain could make that decision.
So I got into the General/Non-Ladies/Gent's/Whatever First Class and was lucky enough to get a seat (non-window, which I would have got for sure in the Ladies First Class and which was the main reason I wanted to travel in that compartment. I mean it's not as if men bite or something – Well, not all). Exhausted I wished that the fast train which thought it was a slow train but was actually moving at the speed of a bullock-cart would soon get the epiphany that it was actually a fast train and move at speeds suitable to that of a fast train. Somehow the train's wavelength and my wavelength didn't really match, and it crawled across Bombay.
And then I saw a friend.
An old, very good, long lost, I'm too busy with my work to meet you friend.
Catching up with friends is always refreshing, and what made it even more refreshing for me was that one, I wanted to catch up with this particular person since a very long time, and two, the updates that he gave me about his life.
He made me forget my horrible day, made me smile for a long time after we parted, and even carried one of my heavy bags! (Like a true friend, I must say)
Shit happens. And sometimes good shit happens. And well, as rightly said, it ought to be good if it's after 25 years of constipation!
So touch wood. And may the shit keep happening. : )
Until next time…
