Sahasrasagun

Part 2

Sagun completed his engineering from Race College of engineering in Tamilnadu and every couple of months of he used to travel to Nellore. Train was his most convenient mode of transport as he need not take a break in his journey. It was a tiresome travel and normally, an unplanned one as well. So he wanted to get a sleeper berth and hence always boarded the Sleeper class compartments without an advance reservation ticket. Most of the times, it’s the buck toothed TT who caught and get some money out of him and gave him a berth.
Sagun was pursuing his final year engineering and the first semester that year started that month. A local political party announced state bandh on Friday and its going to be a 3 day weekend for him. He immediately decided to go home as he liked his mother’s food. Just the way he did from past 3 years, he caught the same train and it’s the same TT again who caught him without the ticket. Sagun paid the extra amount and there were lot of berths available on a weekday. Its evening, snacks time, and he took 2 Samosas from the vendor. He was about to have his first bite when he noticed a girl standing in front of him. It was the time he first saw Sahasra.
She was looking for her berth number and sat in the seat opposite to Sagun. She had put her luggage beneath the seats and made herself comfortable. All this time, Sagun was watching her with that Samosa still near his mouth. He didn’t bite it yet though the saliva was mouth full by that time. She appeared to be eternal beauty on the earth and he has gone mad about her. He could not understand if that’s Love or attraction, nor he wanted to think about it for now, but he did not stop looking at her. No one boarded in that 6 berth section of the compartment then and they were the only two. She sat comfortably and looked at him. First time, Sagun’s eyes met her eyes. He did not know the reason but he could not look into her eyes for more than a second and had his first crunch of Samosa as if someone was pushing him to eat.
He was watching her now and then, but she did not. Though he did not want to get himself into this, he involuntarily wanted to feel the beauty. Weird thoughts were running in his mind. He started to feel all the things that he listened till now. Statements like “This is how you feel when love strikes you”, “Many love stories start in trains and end in marriage” etc He was feeling happy, tensed and fear all at the same time. Finally he decided to start a chat with her. If it is written that two people should live together in future, everything around you starts helping you and if it’s not, nothing helps you.  It had been 3 hours since he saw her and both started their travel. He observed that she was feeling a little uncomfortable, nauseated and after few minutes vomited. No one was around and Sagun gave his water bottle to her as the train was also running without water.
She got settled and said “Thanks” to Sagun.
Sagun replied “You are welcome” and wanted to ask “Where are you going?” Instantaneously, Sahasra asked the same question.
“Nellore, and where are you going to?”
“Nellore”, she replied.
He was surprised and said “I had been travelling from past three years in the same train but never seen you before. Probably you don’t travel much in trains”.
She understood the intent behind those words but was calm. Sagun felt he was a little hasty in his words and thought he would speak carefully from next time.
“Yes, I travel by a different trains and do a break journey normally” she replied in a little hoarse voice.
There was a pause for couple of minutes. There were thoughts running in his mind, what to talk and what not to and finally made up his mind to start a chat. He broke the silence and asked “so your native is Nellore?”
“Yes, I am born and brought up in Nellore”.
“What made you come to Rameswaram? As a guest or have relatives here?”
“I am studying here” said Sahasra
Sagun was excited and asked her “I am also studying here at Race Engineering College”
“Ok, I heard that was a good college. I am studying at Pace Engineering College on the other side of the temple town and your college as well.” replied Sahasra.
No wonder that she did not see her till now but his heart compelled him not to let her go from his life. She said many things about her like her specialization, her likes and dislikes, why she had to take this train now etc. He listened to them very carefully. And he had a very decent talk with her, with very selective words and did not slip into a converse which conveyed poor meanings. He was never so much careful and constructive earlier while talking to others. He shared many of his interests with her also. Their interests did not match in most of the things but matched well in important things.
It was dinner time and as she caught the train in a hurry, she did not get anything to eat and neither did Sagun. So they thought they would buy something to eat. Their adjacent berths were empty still and the train stopped at a moderately big station. Sagun went to buy something to eat for both of them. He got a bad idea while purchasing food. Although it had not been much time since they met and also did not have much expectation from her, he wanted to test if she was going to care him. He boarded the train in the adjacent compartment and managed to come to an entrance corridor of his compartment and was watching her in the mirror at wash basin near the door. Their berths were next to the entrance. So she was visible, sitting quiet and the train started. She started to get tensed and watching at the food stall from the window. She was very much tensed as the train left the station. She was almost crying and Sagun was watching all this from the corner. He had no bounds of joy and suddenly came into light. She got surprised and was very angry with him. She started taking a big lecture about not boarding the train in time and how tense she felt about him. Sagun lied that he managed to board the train in the other compartment as it already started while he was purchasing. But he was happy about all this.
On the other side, Sahasra was feeling good about him. She liked his attitude and the way Sagun was speaking to her. They shared the food and were speaking all over the night about all the non-sense in the world. Both of them never thought there would be a night like this and that too in a train. Sagun was thoroughly enjoying the magic of love (at first sight).
Yet another love story started.
They reached Nellore in the early hours of Friday and when they were about to get down the train, Sagun asked her “We spoke about many things all over the night but we missed an important one.” She was curious to know and he asked “Well, may I know your sweet name?” She gave a beautiful smile and said “Sahasra”.
“What a beautiful name! My name is Sagun. It is nice to meet you and I am feeling difficult to miss you”
She lost the smile and the glow in her face and felt disappointed. Saying, “It’s OK. We will meet some other time”, she got off from the train. Her father received her. She was going away from him and he did not feel good. When the separation was about 25 ft, she turned back a little and had a look at him. That’s it, the wireless connection from heart to heart got established and he walked out of the railway station very excited and happy. Telepathy works!!

(to be continued….)

Sahasrasagun

Part 1

[All characters in this story and the story itself are absolutely out of my imagination and any resemblances to anyone, living or dead is purely coincidental. This is not even my experience. This is a common love story seen everywhere]

Sitting at the window seat, Sagun could see the world outside going fast behind him. He was about to get himself into the world of thoughts enjoying the nature outside. The train was going fast and it had been an hour since the journey started. Its Dusk and Sagun could see bright reddish orange colored sun reaching his destination on the west, while black clouds were quickly conquering the sky from the South. There are resemblances between Time and Train. Both move fast and both add good experiences to life. Both life and train have people entering and leaving. He thought of telling this point to his wife Pavithra, who was sitting opposite to him in the side lower berth of the Sleeper class reservation compartment. Accidentally, she told him the same point at the same time!

“Ticket please”, requested the TT. Sagun turned to his right and noticed a man wearing a black blazer and his white shirt tucked in so tight that it showed his paunch he then saw his buck teeth and the eyes which looked magnified because of the thick glasses he put on. “Ticket please”, asked the TT again in rather a harsh tone. Something struck Sagun’s mind after seeing the TT and he sat staring at him. “Hello, can you show me your ticket? I am not going to dine with you”, the TT was impatient this time. “Sagun, show him the ticket. What happened?” told Pavithra in a low voice. As far as Sagun could recollect, apart from his responsibility, it was also TT’s mannerism to ask tickets while he was speaking to others and checking the tickets. He wanted to prove himself about his recollection and he asked the TT “Sir, do you remember me?” The TT answered in a flash “It’s not my job to remember everyone I travel with nor do I do it with passion. Tickets please! I am just doing my job.”, he immediately turned towards the other passengers and said “Tickets please”!! Again he turned towards Sagun “Mister, are you going to show your ticket or get down? Tickets please!!”

Without making further discussion, Sagun displayed his ticket to the TT with an extra energy level than required and while the TT was checking the ticket, he again asked him “ Sir, are you sure you did not see me earlier? I think we met earlier”. TT replied “Hey, I agree I saw you somewhere, but I do not remember, here is your ticket. There is absolutely no difference between the details printed on your ticket and details on my sheet. (Looking at other passengers) Tickets Please!! No difference and waste of time.” Sighing with a little smile on his face he said in a low voice “I would have earned some money if there was any difference”. With this he stepped forward and checked the other’s tickets.

After few minutes, Sagun could hear those two words from the other end of the compartment “Tickets Please!!” Pavithra was somewhat curious on seeing all this and she asked Sagun “Do you know the TT earlier?” Sagun was lost somewhere in his thoughts and Pavithra repeated her question. “Hmmm, yes. He gave me berth in this train earlier many times. We used to quarrel sometimes but I thought he would recognize me.” There was a minute pause and he continued “Let it be, give that walkman. I want to listen to music for some time.” He started playing songs in the player. While outside the window, although the sun was no more visible but there was still some sunlight and it had started drizzling. Against his will, his thoughts went into the past because of the environment currently he was in. He stood up suddenly and told Pavithra “I will be standing near the entrance door of the compartment" and did not listen to what Pavithra was saying, probably because he had earphones plugged into his ears. The door was not far, just couple of berths away. He sat at the entrance, resting his feet on the footsteps of the compartment. The drizzle was touching his feet and he could see couple of hills at a distance. The black clouds were so dense and low that they covered the roof of those hills and it was looking as if the hills were cut and a bridge was laid on their tops. Coincidentally, he was listening to ‘Kuch na kaho’ from ‘1942, A Love story’. He did not expect that this wonderful moment reminds him of his own love story, year 2000.

Kitne Gehre Halke Shaam Ke Rang Hai Chhalke
Parvat Se Yoon Utre Baadal Jaise Aanchal Dhalke
Aur Is Pal Mein Koi Nahin Hai
Bas Ek Main Hoon Bas Ek Tum Ho
Kuchh Na Kaho Kuchh Bhi Na Kaho

(to be continued..)