Month: October 2020

A  Bizarre Trip

 It was in the first part of October,on a Monday. The year was probably 2007. There was a heavy downpour the night before. As I lay in the bed listening to the sound of rainfall, I was caught up in two minds whether to undertake the journey the following morning that I had arranged earlier. As I got up in the wee hours the next morning, I found the weather bright and clean and cool. I hurriedly got ready to catch the 5.30 AM passenger train and occupied a comfortable seat by the window. Though it was early morning, the platform was abuzz with passengers, many of whom seemed to be office goers. I was told that the train generally ran on time, a favored means of communication for small traders, vendors, wage earners and office goers alike. The train started more or less in time, it was 5.40 AM. Once it started moving, I closed my eyes hoping to catch the leftover quota of sleep. I had dozed off for quite some time, when suddenly I woke up, possibly due to the absence of rhythmic movement and honk and howl of engine. The train was standing stationary in the middle of nowhere. Vendors and traders with bundles of all types of items on their heads were jumping in and out of the train. After about quarter of an hour, which seemed to be a very long interval, the behemoth slowly chugged along. The ritual continued off and on and by the time the train left Naharkatiya station, it was already 10 AM which was actually past the right time for the train to arrive at Tinsukia. I was to catch the 10:45AM scheduled ASTC bus from Tinsukia onwards further east. Now that was not possible. Why should the train which prides itself of running on time be an exception today? I asked myself. I remained blissfully ignorant of the further pitfalls that awaited me!

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I was young, very young. How much? May be 9 or 10 years old. It was the month of April. though the biting cold of December, January was more than two months past, its shivering ripples spilled beyond winter. Drizzle and rain accompanied by very cold wind whistling through tall pine trees made it very gloomy with nightfall.The houses were located far apart, spacious compounds with extensive areas, separated each household. As dusk fell, the entire locality looked deserted, winding roads between far apart street lights semi dark, an aberration of long shadowy pine trees lining both sides at random accentuating the gloom. Very few souls walking, mostly people returning from office, bloated or half filled bags in one hand, umbrella in the other. Majority of the residents were government officials, with a few exceptions here and there. Vehicles a very rare site. Faint glimmer of light emanating from distant houses indicated households were still awake. But for us boys, it was an evening to get ready for another adrenaline pumping pastime, after a hard days labor! a labor of playing cricket, playing hide and seek. We played cricket often in the frontal courtyards of neighbor’s house, including ours, breaking a window pane or two now and then, the volley of invective immediately following! The next shot hit straight, avoiding the windows, expert fielders unable to catch it, the rubber ball bouncing, jumping, rolling down the slopes, far below into the adjoining drain separating the other neighbor’s vast compound. We would run down the slopes en masse, trampling on well manicured growths of brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower etc, searching in the filth and squalor of the running drain. Someone would hold out the ball shouting, palu palu( got it got it). A perfunctory rub on the grassy outgrowth, the game would resume.

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