Use your Illusions 2

An overdose of anything can be harmful.

I was on my way from Bombay (as I like to refer to it) to Bangalore (ditto) by train. I had just spent two whole weeks in Bombay making fun of my friends who thought traveling in second class non ac train coaches was almost inhuman to ask for. Some girl was even startled at the thought of going to sleep in the train! How can someone spend twenty fuckin three years of their life in the sub-urbs of Bombay city and not know what a sleeper class train bogie looks like from the inside? Turn on the all American Discovery Channel please, for God’s sakes. Ian Wright can probably sketch an Indian train coach with pencil.

It’s another story why I wished that I had not chosen to travel this way, this time. But they say, if an experience doesn’t kill you, it only leaves you stronger.

In the end, all I remember is reaching out to this water bottle which had more water condensing on its outside than it had inside. I gulped down all the ‘mineral’ water there was. Completely. When I looked up the sun was still there, beating down with I don’t know what vengeance. I knew I had seen it before.

3:45 PM.
I was somewhere in the bordering areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka. When I turned around and looked for that filthy monster, he was gone. I stopped to breathe. Somehow I do not remember too much about this part.

3:35 PM.
I tumbled and fell over. My legs were outcast; they were not allowed to get my own blood. All I could feel was fear. I wanted to just run faster. Was he chasing me still?

3:30 PM.
‘Are Maneaters real? Am I going to die here? Where am I? Will mom miss me?’

3:15 PM.
I looked down. I gauged it to be about 7 feet. I looked back and my reflexes froze. Petrifying! I could not even scream for a second. But my senses came back in a sudden rush and I jumped. I jumped off the upside down train. I did.

3:14 PM.
THE most disgusting sight for MANKIND. I saw it. I was there. It was in front of me... charging at me, like it had a mind and eyes. ‘A Monster’ my head said… it was a cloak of hay and algae, if I remember correct, that walked and ran… and was going to gobble me up and I would be lost in all that muck. My head rushed. My head spun. My eyes lost control.

3:00 PM.
‘Are these people dead?’

2:55 PM.
My neck had a catch. I strained myself into a standing position although I wasn’t convinced I was upright because I had my legs caught under the rusty old fan. I saw people just lying everywhere. The ceiling was below me. The sky was still above me. I lost track of reality.

2:30 PM.
Terible Jolt. Shook the whole train. Rearranged my anatomy I thought.
Can’t remember more.

2:00 PM. I was trying my best not to fall asleep. When I looked up the sun was still there, beating down with I don’t know what vengeance. The pessimist in me said drowsiness is unpardonable. I could feel my head slip down the seat every five minutes, as I dozed off. It was hard to stay awake in that heat and monotonous drone of steel wheel sounds and far away chatter and pure boredom.

4:00 PM.
The first thing I saw was this dirty fan grunting its way to a stop because of some power supply problem. This was probably the reason I awoke so suddenly. After that, all I remember is reaching out to this water bottle which had more water condensing on its outside than it had inside. I gulped down all the ‘mineral’ water there was. Completely.

4:15 PM.
Dumbfounded. Paralysed. I just sat there, looking at everyone around me. I stared at each one there. They stared back in variations of emotions – quizzical, surprise, mockery and disgust.

They were wondering why. I was wondering how.

How would they ever understand – how happy I was to see the train upright and running. I was two hours closer home, and had survived a monster.

I glared straight into the sun until it went down, shying away with guilt for playing such a prank on me.