Train Check

There are some incidents that take place in life that you can’t easily forget. Some are funny, some are tragic. But they make up your memories none the less. The following happened during the summer of 2006.

I was in India on vacation and had joined private classes for GRE preparation. The classes were far away from home, so I used to take the train. I met this girl at these classes and very soon we became good friends. We had a deal. She would help me out with the Verbal (English) section and I would help her with the Quantitative (Maths) section. We started liking each other. One fine day, she had to change trains at my station. She called me up and warned me that her friends were with her, so I couldn’t go up to her and talk to her because she didn’t want her friends to have any idea. I stood at the platform waiting for her (and the train). When she got off she looked at me and smiled. I so wanted to go up to her, but couldn’t. She was with two girls and a boy. Now, in Mumbai we have separate compartments for men and women. So, this guy (her friend) climbs into the men’s compartment with me. He stood bang opposite me. I even caught him staring at me a couple of times. I wondered, “Is he suspicious? Does he know?” He had no clue, but neither did I as to why he was giving me those looks. After few stops, the girls got off and she was alone in that compartment. She called me up. This got me really blushing. We spoke for around 15 mins till we reached our destination and the guy in front of me, “Mr. Stares-a-lot”, could hear everything I said to her including, “When is he going to get off?” but thankfully he still didn’t catch on. We three got off at the last stop and she warned me on the phone again not to approach her. We decided to meet at some particular junction a bit away from the station. When I got off, I saw both of them talking and while walking past them I brushed my hand past her outstretched hand in the smoothest of ways. When I turned around she glanced at me and smiled again. At this moment, the guy caught her looking at me but didn’t respond. We both met up at the designated place later and laughed about it.

About a week later, her sms woke me up. She had written something about losing her umbrella, her favourite, pink umbrella. Apparently, she had left it in the train and got off. I ignored it and went back to sleep. But about an hour later, she called me up and told me that the train was heading my side and requested me to run to the station and intercept. I did so. My mom was bedazzled to see me get ready so fast and leave the house at that speed. As I exited the door I told her, “I’ll explain later but it’s important.” I normally walk to the station but this time I took a taxi. By the time I reached the train has already passed by. Suddenly mom called up and I explained the “friend losing an umbrella” part to her. Then miss “pink umbrella” calls up to let me know that she is arriving in ten minutes. I went to the station master, asked him to look into the matter and find out when the train will return. The poor little nice guy contacted the CST (final stop) station master and informed me that the train is expected back in twenty minutes. As expected madam arrived and came straight to the station master’s office uttering her first words, “You look cute today”. Now, I knew she was messing around. I had not even showered that morning, my hair was all over the place and I was sweating profusely. Those words got the little guy in my head to laugh “ha-ha-ha-ha-ha” and I said to her, “Can we focus at the problem at hand?” So, the station master and I explained the situation to her. When we both exited the office, I was startled at what I saw.

It was “Mr. Stares-a-lot” looking right at me with a strange “have I seen you before” look and in my head I’m thinking, “You saw me a week back, you jackass, but thanks for not recognizing me even though we stood opposite each other for 30 minutes.” She introduced us, we shook hands. Silence. Nobody uttered a word after that. I knew I didn’t want to speak. So, both of us carried on to the designated platform and waited for the train to come while her friends stood on the opposite platform giving me the strangest of looks once again. Maybe that guy told them something about me, which still remains a mystery.

We didn’t find the umbrella. Someone probably took it. But it was worth a run, for me at least. I wonder if I’ll ever see “Mr. Stares-a-lot” again. I wonder if he’s reading this right now and still doesn’t have a clue that it was him.