An earnest 20 something year old stands at the platform and glances about nervously while a family corners her in with a teething baby, a burping grandma, a talkative aunt and a grandson who insists on launching himself horizontally on to the platform at the slightest opportunity.
An arthritic septuagenarian has asked the grandma, aunty and possibly the baby when the train is expected for the fifth time. She then sneaks a glance sideways and curses up to the seventh generation of the four teenage girls, who are giggling away into a cell-phone, that’s definitely more than my monthly pay. Their giggles are punctuated with frequent screams of ‘Oh My Gawwwwwddd’, ‘doooooooood’ and ‘faaaaaaaaaaaack’ in a high pitched voice that has scared the septuagenarian more than when she first heard about her arthritis.
A young lady in a light blue salwar-kameez, red and white bangles and hennaed hands is reassuring her ‘Jaan’ that she can travel by a train; no, she doesn’t need his help and yes, he is being very naughty.
Two obese aunties, eating newsprint-stained vadas, seared in rancid oil, are deep in discussion about their manager’s wife, who attended the office party in an outfit that could put former diva, Rakhi Sawant, to shame. Just as I’m about to discover how many drinks the wife had shamelessly consumed, I’m rudely interrupted by an electronic voice that says the train is expected at any moment.
Abruptly a war like discipline descends on the otherwise unruly station. Women have lined the edge of the platform with such fierce, determined looks, that a millennial might misunderstand it as the sudden appearance of a rather rare Pokémon.
The train chugs into the platform. Fearless lads suspend their scrawny bodies out of the overcrowded doorway, their hearts throbbing, their hair flying and their pants hanging on to them with the same shaky conviction as they are from the train. To my complete shock, the arthritic septuagenarian has leaped into the train before it has come to a complete halt. There is much confusion as the large family screams their way in, the obese aunties squeeze their way in, the college girls slide their way in and the newly married lady, whilst still talking to her ‘jaan’ stumbles in.
The 20 something year old stares in horror, as she watches the train disappear out of view. She blinks and prepares for her next journey.
