waiting time!!

i was sitting on the railway platform, waiting for the train to arrive which, as i should have expected, was 2hrs late! and now i had all this time and not much to do, so i sat on this weary, iron bench and read, even though my mind was distracted...distracted by the indelible but regular announcements made by a strange, succinct voice over the telecom. this was the time i realised that here, on this platform, came together people from different stratas of life. there were people waiting, sitting on the benches, lying on the ground, in the insufferable delhi heat, and some were just walking up and down, wishing that some rail-god (read as, minister) would come and change the godforsaken condition of the dilapidated house of trains!!

as i pause to listen to the latest announcement, i feel the first pangs of hunger but hold myself for the fear of catching some dysentry disease.......belatedly i realise that the broadcasted information was of no consequence to me, and i get back to imagining what lives the people around me led.

by this time a cool breeze, unnatural for this time of the month, had started wisping, and a young boy hummed some folk tune which, somehow, managed to make the drumming of the train wheels sound as the rhythm to his slow song.

as i fail to keep my "train" of thought on its "track", i wonder how in BLUE BLAZES can anybody manage to sleep admist the blaring sounds of the trains' sirens and the intermitent noise of the vocal information booming from the loudspeaker, marked by the avoidable and absolutely unnecessary 'ding-dongs'!!! :) and yet there were families lying on the ground sleeping as if there were no tomorrow.

as the hunger threatens to reach its peak, i find myself cursing the delayed train, and more so, the woman making the announcements, who very easily found it in her capacity to apologise for every individual delay and cancellation that occured on this fateful day , as if it were her own fault and by her regretting for it would really make a difference for the person who has already been waiting for the goddam train for over an hour now!! i mean, LADY, get real or GO FISH!!

a train arrived, no not the one that i was waiting for, but a train none the less.
a little girl, standing with her father, waiting expectedly, rushed towards the coach which was apparantly carrying her mother. the glow of happiness that etched her face, when her mommy appeared, was what dreams are made up of. paving her way through the mushrooming crowd of coolis and passengers, the girl rushed into the waiting arms of her mother.
the affectionate intensity of that embrace was like a breath of fresh air for me, who had all but lost it, waiting!!

continuing to sit on the increasingly uncomfortable bench, being pushed into submitting to my hunger, i am still on tenterhooks, steadily reaching the end of my tether and silently mumbling profanities to anybody who was even remotely connected with the railway administration!!!

"may i have your attention please, the friggin train that you are waiting for is running late. i know you are sitting on the platform, hungry and uncomfortable, loosing it by the second, while i am in an airconditioned room making these nonsensical announcements, and being paid for it! the inconvinience is deeply regretted!" DING-DONG!