Life on Wheels

Dated: Feb 20th 2006

If you can call an eight by ten metal box as a living room, then I was in my living room. It was a nice room with full of windows and lots of air and sunlight. The train pulling along my room, chugged slowly amidst the wonderful lush greenery of the picturesque Western Ghats and darted in and out of the bushes and played hide and seek with the river flowing beside the tracks. The train was almost empty, but the ambience needed conversation to make it complete.

“How old are you?” I asked my nearest neighbour. Others in the cubicle around were already occupied. My neighbour was a new entrant, and I had to do the ice-breaking stuff.

“Enough to know the world”, my neighbour replied defiantly. He looked like a kiddo. “How about you?”

A return question means a lot of things. Firstly, it shows the other person doesn’t mind talking. Secondly, it shows a genuine interest in you, which kind of puts you in the spotlight!

“Aw, never mind. Suffice it to say I have seen it all.”

“Seen it all?”

I looked outside the window, and I could see all my years whooshing past me. I was an old man. I guess everyone goes through the phase.

“You know, when I was first fitted into this world of mine, I was like a High School kiddo just out of school and into employment. All gaga and enthused. I liked being what I was. It was like I was in a servicing industry and helping people.”

“I know the feeling.”

“In this industry of ours, over the period of years, you get to know so many people, you get to know so many of their lives, and their wide culture, but at the end of the day, you have to bid them farewell. And you have so much of experience and maturity after all you have been through.”

“Well, what are the different kind of people you have met and experiences you have undergone?”

“Lets see now, when I was a year old in this business, there was this lady who always chose to get serviced by me. I mean always. It was like a miracle. I never could fathom a reason why she chose me all the time! It was the time of my life. Day in and day out, I used to look forward to it. I guess God does give every one a chance and makes us happy and gives us something to look forward to, you know, just to pep us all up. This went on for quite a while before she had to move out of town. I sure do miss her.” My neighbour just smiled.

“And then, a year later, I was hired by the film industry.”

“No kidding!”

“Sure enough! I have acted along with the likes of Kamal Hassan and Sridevi.”

“What?!!”

“Yep! Ever seen Sadma? I was in that movie.”

“Shoot! That’s unbelievable!”

“Aw, nothing about it. I mean everyone remembers Kamal Hassan’s acting in that last scene, but how many notices me, huh? That’s the strange part of life, you know. You are in the limelight, yet you are not. I mean, it’s like God giving you a chocolate, and all that is fine and great, but at the same time, he gives the guy beside you a chocolate and a milk shake. The whole fun of you having a chocolate pops off when you see the guy beside you has something better than you.”

“Sure enough, there will be another guy beside you who would not even have chocolates to start off with and he will be feeling low seeing you! I guess that’s why they call life is a great leveler.”

“You mean like cricket? Cricket is a great leveler. I love cricket.”

“Me too. Hey, did you have any interaction with any of the cricketers?”

“Naw. They are too highly paid to be with our company. However, 2 years after the Sadma, I did service some ex-cricketers though. People around hardly recognized them, but I did. Felt sort of sorry for them. Its like, one day, you are the hero and being cheered at by 60,000 people and a year later, you are nobody. As I said, God gives everyone an equal chance. Every dog has its day. But a point later, He moves on. When there is nothing much expected from an individual, He moves onto the younger generation. But to be fair on His part, it’s understandable. There are thousands of us coming out every day, and we cannot expect him to be nice and good to us and keep giving us miracles all the time.”

“Well, what other experiences?”

“Two years later, I met with an accident, which almost tore me into two. But I escaped by a whisker. I lost my consciousness for a long time, and before I knew, I was in a different department and there were kids playing all over me! I love kids! They are so full of innocence and wild and imaginative and pure.”

My neighbour remained silent. I guess now he realized I was indeed old. It explained me digressing away from responses to his question. So I continued,
“And then three years later, there was this great robbery in the night for which I was a witness.”

This brought the attention back to my neighbour. “Is it?! Tell me all about it!”
“Nothing to say about it except that, however much the thief or the bandit is much the same as any other human being, with the same set of eyes and ears and what-not, there is something about the professional thieves of this world who somehow have this power of reducing the contents of your brain to a cauliflower and sending the vocal chords to a much deserved holidays to the Himalayas. It paralyses you and you just become a vegetable, numb to any reaction, but witness with trepidation and hope fervently in all selfishness that nothing happens to you.”

“Human nature, I would say” replied my mate. He seemed more than a kiddo.

I suddenly felt exhausted. All this chit-chat and memories had made me tiring and I needed to take a nap. I told him so, “Well, if you want to hear my entire story, you need more than 1000 words! We can continue this chat sometime later. Anyhow we are going to be cooped up here for a long time to come.”

“One last question, sir. If you were to be born again, what would you be?”

I looked at him in the same way Sachin Tendulkar would have looked at anyone asking him what he would want to be if he were to born again. “Just the same, Kiddo. Berth No. 41 in a passenger train.”