A 'not so good' experience.

A quick note, this is. After quite sometime.

Whenever I get an opportunity to travel, literally, I pounce at it. Traveling, books, movies - all make me go crazy. Equally. Around a couple of weeks back, I had a chance to be at the city where I spent four important years of my life. One of my friends was with me, the experience that I was referring to, happened on our way back.

Trivandrum central railway station. Me and my friend, call him A, were waiting to get into Maveli express in which, we had booked two sleeper class tickets. Around ten minutes were left for the departure, and we located our compartment, and looked for our names in the chart outside it. A was looking at the chart very keenly, and I said, "What are you looking at man? Let's get in".

A gestured me to wait. "There is one right next to our seat, dude."

"what?" I didn't get it.

"F 18" A replied, with a smile.

"Whoa man, Let's hope she is beautiful. She might already be there at her seat. Come, let's get in" I pulled A and we both got in. But her seat was unoccupied.

"You shameless idiot. Why do you look for girls in the reservation chart?" I started an arguement with A, just to kill time.

"Oh I know the kind of a saint you are. You also do the same, don't ya?" A hit back in the same tone.

"Well, I have done it, sometimes, while traveling alone" I had to confess. "Ok, leave all that. Just five minutes left for the departure. She might come in, any moment. Don't look at her too much ok? I hold the rights for that"

"Aha. Keep holding the rights. She probably might look at me, and never at you." A replied.

"But I do have an edge, pal. My station arrives at 2 o clock in the night. I'll get up, and watch the sleeping beauty, before I get down from the train. By the time you get up, she might not be there" Just when I finished saying that, she came in.

She was fair, and beautiful. Wearing a peacock blue dress. Accompanied by two people, her grand parents, probably.

A lightning passed across my stomach. My heart sank, instantly. She couldn't walk, or stand properly. Her hands and legs were dangling, as if she had no control over it. Her grand father was carrying her, and she was trying to walk, without much success. He made her sit on the side lower birth. She was talking to them, but, it wasn't clear at all. I saw her grand mother holding a white cover on which it was written 'Department of radiology, Trivandrum medical college'

I could sense the drop of tear that was there at the corner of my eye. I looked at A. He is a religious person, and he was already aplogizing to Jesus. Both of us, silently, walked to the door. Train had already started moving.

When I woke up at 2 o clock in the night, I did look and smile at her.

Here I am, a fellow human being with countless number of imperfections and weaknesses. I live, each and every day, fighting with each of those, trying to be a better person. She does the same. The challenges that she has to overcome, is much tougher, though. But who decides that a few people have to fight a tougher battle than most of us? Why can't they be like the rest of us? I don't know. And I will never know.