Happy Independence Day

It was 14th Aug 2003; I was at Hyderabad station near old city and was heading towards Indore. Friday 15th Aug, being a holiday on occasion of 56 Independence Day for India it was a long weekend for us.

Train takes about 27 Hrs to reach Indore from Hyderabad. It starts at 5:30PM and reaches Indore by 9:00PM next day. I reached station at 5:00PM making way out of the crowd at station. Vendors were selling their products; with their voice getting mixed up it was difficult to make out what were they shouting. On my way I saw Ticket Checker who as usual looked to be very strict and was continuously shaking his head saying no for tickets to anyone who approached him.

Soon I reached my compartment which was S5, my seat (No. 6) was very close to the gate. Actually it was upper birth and I was relaxed I won’t be disturbed by anyone. The train started moving as the passengers got in, the door of this reserved compartment was almost blocked by the passengers who didn’t have reservations and were waiting for TC to come and allot them some seat. But it seemed to be very difficult as the train was packed and there was hardly any spare seat/birth available.
And then the angry young man comes in, it’s the TC who comes in scolding everyone who is standing on the door and blocking the route. A few military persons grabbed my attention when they were requesting TC for some tickets. I remembered an incident while I was going to Mumbai from Indore and few military guys occupied some seats, which were not reserved by them and no one had enough courage to stop them doing this, neither the railway authorities nor the police. I was wondering if a similar case repeats we will be in trouble and I will be the first one to be kicked off.
But these military persons were very polite and they kept on requesting TC for a seat, reaction of TC here was unexpected he was shouting at them and asking them to leave the gate. Although he could have told the same thing very politely but his way of speaking was very rude, anyone could have got angry and trashed him on the way he was speaking. These guys still kept low and requested him, I was feeling bad and I pity on there condition because they didn’t have any place to sit.

One of them who looked like senior among them started telling others in the train the reason why they were not able to get the tickets. He said they were traveling since last 2 months for training at different places, and today afternoon 2:00PM they were told about leaving Hyderabad they had very little time to pack their luggage and it was almost impossible to get tickets in this short duration. They were in training at Hyderabad and none of them have slept properly since last 4-5 days by properly he meant at a stretch of 4Hrs. While these discussions were going on TC returned and again started scolding them for putting their luggage on the way. But for the spectators specially for me this time it was a bit different. Initially when the TC came for the first time and was scolding them and everyone else who was on the gate thought he is doing his job, because if you don’t have reservation you are not suppose to sit in this compartment and I was happy to see all this. At that time I had no idea about people who were on the gate, under what circumstances they were not able to get the ticket, in fact I never thought about this at all. But this time the case was different when I heard about there military persons and found that there was no fault from their side and they were willing to get the reservations but under some circumstances they were not able to then I realized there might be others who are sitting on the gate, each one might have a different story to tell, each one might have their own problems because of which they were not able to get reservations.

After an hour or so I saw two of the military persons sitting near the bathroom door and were trying to sleep and every 5-10 mins there was someone who disturbed them. I remember the senior officers words “We haven’t slept well since last 4-5 days”. I felt bad about it but thought as there are no seats available so even the TC can’t help in this case. Soon I went to my birth to take a nap so that I can later on get up and have my dinner, but even while resting I was keeping an eye on them and was checking if they are comfortable or not.

I got up after an hour and found the train was at a station so its time for dinner now. After dinner I went near the gate and was standing there for a while and one of the 4 military persons approached me and we started discussing about political issues. We were very comfortable and it was a good time pass for me as I was not feeling sleepy so I kept on standing at the door and speaking to him. While all this was going on a thought came to my mind why shouldn’t I ask one of them to occupy my birth for the time I am awake, at least one of them will get rest and its always better to be on a birth than to sleep near the toilet. I was expecting the same from other passengers who haven’t occupied their birth but I found even it was difficult for me to decide on this. I don’t know why, what was stopping me to tell them to go and sleep on my birth. I felt I was a bit selfish in saying this I really was not able to find the reason. I was awake till 2AM sometime standing on the door and sometimes reading a magazine but I always kept thinking what stopped me from giving my seat for few hours.

I knew they were tired, they were in need of my help, and they required something which I was not using then why did I behave this way. There were a lot of things that were coming to my mind, but probably that’s how we are we want to keep all the resources with us even if we are not using them instead of giving them to others who need them badly. That’s the reason we keep our money in bank instead of giving it people who need them the most, sometimes this money is never used by us and is kept in bank throughout our life.