This is another story of a friend I met in train. Again it
is about a journey which led me to find a wonderful friend. As I have already
established that travelling in trains is my favorite thing in the world and the
most practical means of transport, and I can’t thank the Indian Railways enough
for introducing me to some most wonderful people, I have ever met.
This incident happened sometime around October- November. I
was on self-discovery mode at this time. Having gone through certain
circumstances, I had made up my mind to keep all my senses open, discover
myself, to let go of my inhibitions and meet different people and absorb as
much as new experiences as I can. This time I was travelling with a group of
people, my age and younger, as we were going to this beautiful beach on Konkan
coastline. I had my neighbor-friend with me who actually was the one to suggest
that we go on this trip. We had got our booking done past the closing dates and
thus our tickets were in a different coach than the rest of the people. We boarded
the train and arranged our luggage. Then we were asked to sit in our seats
until the tickets got checked. We did so, and after the TT went away, because
we didn’t know anybody on the group, we continued to sit on our seats. Opposite
our seats was a couple who weren’t Asian. They were the ‘Foreigner Couple’. I
thought to myself, in this uninteresting and dull journey, let me talk to these
people and who knows I may get to strike an interesting conversation and learn
something new about some different country. I was looking at them trying to
figure out how do I start a conversation (it must have been weird for them, to
see me stare at them, but they must have been used to the stares, having a
different colored skin.) The train stopped at a station and the boy went out.
The girl was actually lying down on the middle berth. She briefly opened her
eyes and looked outside. Then she glanced at us. I just gave her a tiny smile.
She was indifferent and she probably thought its best in her safety not to talk
to strangers. She went off to sleep again. The boy came in and the train
started moving. Gathering some composure again, I started the conversation. I
just casually asked him, “Where are you guys travelling to?” He gave a very
tight-lipped reply saying to “Goa”. I was like, okay. Probably they don’t want
to talk. I left him alone and started looking out of the window and absorbing
the lush green fields of the beautiful Konkan line. If you have ever travelled
to Goa in a train, you would realize that the journey is as beautiful and
refreshing as is the place itself, if not more. Then he probably loosened his
guards and asked, “Where are you guys going?” I told him, about our trip, group
and stuff. He, was a very sweet guy, and introduced his girl to us. They said,
they were from London and were on a 3 week vacation to see entire India. We
started talking, the boy sitting on his seat a bit bent over as there wasn’t
enough height for him and the girl still half asleep and probably not as
interested in the conversation. It took a little while for her to get over her
sniffles (well, the Indian weather didn’t go well with her nasal mucosa, I
guess) and come down to sit with us. But when she got down, and finally the ice
was broken, she got involved in the conversation and very animatedly was
engrossed in talking about her friends and her rabbit and her life in London.
The memorable bit of our conversation was when she was surprised that in spite
of being her age; I was still living with my parents and largely had no life of
my own. I thought to myself although that was a bit harsh but it was the truth.
We also spoke about our likes and dislikes and our lifestyles and our work
patterns. She also treated us to some Turkish delights and MnM’s. Thus we
passed our 10 hour journey exchanging our cultural differences, and talking
about various interesting places for them to visit, etc. Finally when it was
time for us to leave, we exchanged our contact details and I invited her to come
to my home. I don’t know, why I did that, I usually don’t invite people I meet
on train to my home, but there was something about them especially her, that
wanted me to stay in touch and show them a part of my India.
After reaching home a week later, I emailed her
and then we started conversing on emails and messenger. She would tell me about
the new places that they kept visiting. Finally towards the end of her trip she
messaged me that she would be coming to my home for about 3-4 days. I was
ecstatic and started planning how I would take her to different places and show
her some of my favorite and to go places from my bucket list. I was so excited
that I couldn’t help telling everyone about her visit. My mom and dad being
very sweet people, said, “Of course dear, if she is your friend, this is your
home and you can invite whoever you want to.” Although it wasn’t everywhere
that I received the same kind of response, some people also tried to warn me
and reprimanded me to be careful of inviting a stranger to my home. I don’t
blame anyone for their response because it may seem quite strange to hear. But
sometimes you have to trust your instincts and go with what your heart tells
you is right. Hence after a few warnings from my parents like, “I won’t allow
drinking or drugs at my home.” I went to the airport to receive her. With so
many mixed reactions by my friends and family, while I was waiting I had mixed
thoughts about her arrival. I was still pinching myself, “Is this really
happening?” After the common delay of about half an hour, her flight finally
arrived. I was in dismay. I wasn’t sure if I’d recognize her, if she would
recognize me and so on. But when she actually arrived, my face lit up. I
recognized her instantly and so did she. We hugged each other and sat in the
car and drove home. We had a nice warm hearty home-cooked meal that mom had
prepared, that too a candle light dinner (that was thanks to the electricity
failure that day). Since the climate was warm, we decided to go for a drive and
went and sat in a café. From the moment that I saw her all my anxiety about her
being a stranger vanished away. It felt as if we have known each other for
ages. We talked about everything on earth. We would stay awake up to late
nights talking and talking.
As luck would have it, I couldn’t get leave from
work for the entire four days that she stayed and all my plans kind of failed.
But we did plan shorter trips. Firstly we went to the Little Rann of Kutch,
which is an hour and half drive from my home. It was a beautiful place. There, we
met another elderly English gentleman and two French ladies. Never in my life
had I seen so many people who were so much travelled and it was so enriching
hearing different stories. The next morning we went for a safari. We interacted
with the locals there, which was a family who harvested in the salt pans there.
She was so friendly with them and in spite of the language barrier she managed
to effortlessly converse with them. I was spell bound. She, being an animal
lover also, was playing with the huge dogs at the place, the kind of dogs one
would be afraid of, were actually wagging their tails and waiting for their
turn to be pampered by her. I called her a ‘Dog whisperer’. Later we had lunch
there and made up a plan for the next day sitting with the elderly English man
for the next day. We left for home, then.
After we reached home, we went out
for dinner with my parents and she bonded with them too, so effortlessly that
it would never occur to anyone that they have met for the first time and she
was a total stranger to them. We roamed about the city the next day and the day
after that she went out with the English man we met at Little Rann of Kutch. We
would everyday have late night talks and I had told her each and every detail
of my life and so had she. For some strange reason your heart just knows whom
to trust and whom to tell all weird stuff about yourself. Due to paucity of
time I had owing to my job, my mother accompanied her for some
shopping and again she never let the language barrier come in between her interacting with my mum. Finally, it was the day that she had to leave. I was very sad that I
couldn't drop her to the station, but my father promised to get her safely
boarded in the train. She did, after I said my good byes to her on the phone. I
came back home to a surprise gift that she had left me on my pillow. Those four
days that I spent with her were one of the most unexpected and the most fun
days in a very long time. Until after a long time after she left all my
conversations, be it with anyone wouldn't be without a mention of her. I was
literally star-struck by her, coz for me she was a ‘Star-Traveller’.
I learnt a lot of things from her. She was my age but in
spite of that she had seen more than half of the world. She was fearless,
street smart, compassionate and would mingle with anyone so well. She made me
realize that if you treat the world with kindness and compassion the world will
mirror it back to you. She taught me how to observe wild life and how to do
bird watching and on a lighter note, she also taught me how to take secret
photographs.
She knew how naïve
and inexperienced I was and how little of the world I had seen and she felt
that I should be having more than this. My mom tells me how she folded her
hands in Namaste and told her to please send her to London to see a new city,
visit her and make newer friends. We still talk and I can say I have found a
friend, who is like my soul-sister and my best friend, whom I can rely on
telling anything and everything and in spite of living so far from each other,
we are so close by heart. She would teach me how to keep myself safe and go
wherever I'd go as if I owned the place and am completely well versed with the surroundings. There was a time that I was travelling alone to a city in southern India for a conference and the only person that I could think of asking how to travel safe as an alone
girl traveler was her. It was ironic that, me who is born and brought up in
India, is asking for travelling tips to travel in a city in India, to an
English girl who has visited India for just 3 weeks, but such was her magic.
She is everything that I hoped and dreamt I could be. She continues to inspire
me at each and every step of my life.
PS- This is especially for you, Miss Star-Traveller, I
really miss talking to you and I miss you so much. Please get in touch. I love
you lots. Can’t wait for my London trip!!!
