Infinite Improbability - A Life Less Ordinary

Just dug into my memoirs and found out this mail that I had sent after my train journey from Hyderabad to Pune and then a subsequent flight journey from Delhi to Hyderabad
So here it is ... in a not so distant land sometime in 2002


It's not like the first time that I have tried catching a moving train.I have done that often but this was the first time when I jumped on to the door step and found the door closed. Never mind, back on the platform and on to the next door. Quick learner as I am, this time before jumping on to the step I checked the door. Closed! ... Closed! ... Closed! ... Three others trying to jump into the train by that door - I end up the fourth one.

I had seen him moving within the train from one bogey to another throughout the journey. Bald, white hair and fat glasses. Uncle was just as unconfirmed as any of us. He was on the lookout for any empty seat and I believe the departure of one of the travellers at this station had vacated a seat, the top berth. He was climbing it when I screamed at him to open the door. I am so glad that he survived the shock without getting a heart attack. Because if you would have seen the way he jumped (and subsequently fell) on my screaming, even you would have given up hope.
He kept looking at me for like 5 minutes after I had thanked him profusely. Didnt seem to like me too much or maybe it was the fat glasses which made his facade resemble that of a really distorted "Uruk Hai". He didnt say anything and quickly returned to his seat. I was back on my crumpled sheet reflecting on the events that shall enrich my memoirs when I saw his face 15 cms from mine. This time I guess I was lucky to survive without a heart attack.

"Chalo, aap meree berth per so jao". Excuse me!! Did I hear that correctly?? Ladies and gentlemen forgive me for those fat glasses on that pakoda nose belied the benign heart within. Here was this old, white haired, bald, bespecled Bengali ( I saw it from his packets later) who was offering me his seat. I ofcourse declined but he insisted that we can both share the berth.
I had my head on the interior side and the feet towards the aisle while he was reverse. The fellow was corpulent and so I was more or less contorted, lying on my side thinking of the good culture that runs across the population of my motherland, when the guy suddenly grabbed my hand.

In retrospective when I think of it, it could have been a plain grabbing of hand because he thought he was about to fall. Or it could have been for support because he thought my changing my position might result in his being thrown off the berth. However none of them seem convincing because I never really saw any position where our kind gentleman was in any peril of being dislodged off his coveted recline. The thought that seems to hold a subtle amount of conviction is still the one that had entered my mind at that moment when he grabbed my hand; that for 2 minutes of my life, I had shared a berth with a 58 year old, Bengali, homosexual!!!

And the thought at that point itself had the most stunning, life changing repercussion on me. If Superman is faster than light (I have my doubts but we shall discuss those some other time ) then he has a competition when it comes to getting off the top berth of an Indian Railway compartment. I was out of the damnplace inless than a second. Its a different thing all together that while coming down, I had almost pushed my toe into our Bengali uncles nostrils, hit his jaw with my heel, sat on top of his solar plexus, pierced his eye socket with my elbow and just for the last balancing act pulled his already scarce tresses almost out of his scalp.

An hour later, when some station saw an exodus of substantial number of passengers I had a berth to myself, a good three compartments away from our Bengali uncles. The rest of the journey passed in a reverie and at 1:30pm when I finally did enter the office, I entered with my American client who was apologising for not having made it in the morning because she was kept busy with other meetings.

So there ended the journey and so should this travelogue. But just before I let you off, I might as well add a bit about my recent flight to Delhi.

I had not told anybody at the office (except two friends) and it was decided that my friend would justtell the Proj manager that Vikram is suffering from a excruciating pain owing to the friendly neighbourhood wisdom tooth and so he shall not be coming. I had sneaked out of the office making it as inconspicous as any on a Thursday evening and landed in Delhi
without any such thing as what comprised the earlier part of this mail. The fact that I shared the airplane seat with another Wilco Team Leader is another thing, infact not even quite mentioning.

What most definitely is worth mentioning is that while on the morning 5:50 flight from Delhi to Hyderabad, where I sat between some well dressed gentleman and the same Wilco TL, I was privy to the most alluring, magnificent sight I have ever seen. It was the morning sun rays which glistened on the white clouds. Till horizon and beyond it was just a white snowy, mountaneous land which sparkled and glimmered. And to think of it, both my neighbours were fast asleep. For them it might have been a very ordinary, prosaic sight, for me it was the kingdom of the fairies. For me it was just another beautiful day in a life less ordinary!

And ahh, the fact that I almost missed my flight, that my luggage weighed twice the stipulated amount, that it was the only one which did not get checked in and reached me 12 hours later, that my computer (part of the luggage) reached me with the processor hanging out of the motherboard, that the incabin overhead compartment over my seat didnt open and when it did it a huge bag missed the grey haired aunty just infront of our seat by a whisker were some of those banal, trite occurances that generally happen with me.

So long then people,and just before I end, I may as well add that every word which featured in this 'travailogue' is true, every one of them happened, infact more than just these happened :).

ciao,
Vikram