In the journey called LIFE

Since I changed my job almost three years ago I stopped travelling by Public Transport on a daily basis. And after buying a car I literally stopped using Public Transport on the weekends as well.

And recently I hadn't stepped into a Train or a Bus for a long time. So the other day when I stepped into a train to go to VT, it was a nice experience. When I am travelling all by myself I am filled with all thoughts relating to me, me and only me. So there is no scope of something new or unsual crossing my mind. The Train journey just allows me to experience life.

In the train I observe the various kinds of people travelling with me. There would be a guy who would be sleeping, no matter how much noise we all are making. There would definetely be kids around, the older the better, the younger ones have a great ability of showcasing their vocal skills. And its fun how everybody would try there hand at bringing some peace to the already commotion filled compartment by asking the kiddo to relax. on one such ocassion when everything tried and tested didn't give us the desired result I took out the greatest invention of Mankind "My Mobile", played some ringtones and the little darling stopped crying. And everybody took a sigh of relief.

The Mobile which can work such wonders can also be a Nightmare on the Train journey. Now as far as I remember the Mobile was invented so that people could keep in touch. Wives can Track there Husbands. But now the Mobile should have everyting. The lastest being a 8 Mega pixel camera. But according to me the worst feature ever included in the Mobile is the Loudspeaker. So when travelling by train now a days I often find a guy who would have a China make Mobile with Loud speaker facility. He would try to show off by playing some stupid Remix Song and it would sound worst than a toddler crying at the top of his voice.

Whenever I encounter such a guy. I get angry and start thinking "Why doesn't he think of others ? Why should I listen to his nonsensical song ?" But surprisingly there wouldn't be anyone who would even think about it. They wouldn't get bothered by this. But Why so ? Am I the only one who thinks this way. The answer was ME. I was the one who was new to this set tup. The others are used to it and have to live with it daily. But if gets really annoying for me (which normally does after a couple of minutes) I ask the Train DJ to just lower the volume. The Train journey also gives me an opportunity to read and this music deprives me of that. Readers know how I feel.

The Train journey also allows me to relax as I see I am not the only one living in this world. There are others and that is sometimes a bit comforting.

Sometimes I just think about myself all the time and think that Life is a Battle which I am only fighting. But the Train journey reminds me that I am not alone. There are others who are fighting more fiercely and badly......................

10 minutes

My youngest maternal uncle lives at USA of India. He was struck with a big misfortune when his office was shifted from Churchgate to Andheri. Poor guy had to travel to Dadar then change trains and reach his office. Around 3 weeks back when he was on his way to office he was alighting the bridge to catch the train for Andheri (two steps at a time) and finally when just three steps were left he slipped and fell down. Now let me tell you something about him before I proceed further. He is around 41, 5'7, nice built (used to hit the gym regularly when he was young) and weighs around 75 kgs. He landed on his right foot, somehow got up and went to office. Macho man applied some ointment and started working in office.

By evening the leg had swollen like a small football, he got onto his friends bike who left him at Thane station. As it would have been impossible to get in a train at Dadar. Reached home in great pain. Wife and daughter were not at home. As soon as my aunt saw his leg she said its a fracture but Macho-man wouldn't agree, he was of the opinion that all would be well tomorrow morning. But my aunt had nothing of it and took him to the doctor. The X-Ray report confirmed the fracture. 5th bone behind the last finger of the right leg.

So my dear Uncle who never had broken any of his bones finally got his leg plastered and had to stay home for 3 weeks.

When I asked him as to why you were in such a hurry to catch that particluar train. His response was that is the connecting train, the train after that doesn't stop at Andheri so I lose 10 minutes if I miss this train.

So the act of saving ten minutes cost him 30,240 mins.

Strange isn't it. How in today's world we are always running from one place to another and we all take risks. Sometimes we cross the road running in front of a speeding vehicle. We run behind trains, buses.

Its normal now to do these things but every time we take a risk we must also think what is at STAKE and if whats at Stake is bigger than what you would achieve by taking the risk. Then I don't need to tell what is the wise thing to do.....