When you are just 14 years old, even small ugly incidents can be termed as horror stories.
To tell you this short "horror"story, I will need to educate you a little bit about the school I went to. I am a proud (please read very very proud) alumni of Sainik School Kazhakootam, Trivandrum. And if you do not know much about the school, lets us just scratch the surface and say... it is basically built around the preparation of kids to join the NDA (National Defence Academy). Well i believe that school basically trains kids to be MEN .... (not that other schools don't, but this is my blog...so I can claim anything)
So in Sainik School you don't have day scholars and you don't have girls. Oops, yes there were a few day scholars who were the kids of the staff...and yes some of the kids were indeed girls. (So basically 550 boys and 10 girls .... you can imagine what a "wonderful" life it would have been for them)
But this story is not about that type of horror, so let me stick to the track.
Again going back to my school, we had three breaks to go home and two of them were mid term holidays for 12 days and one was the summer holidays that lasted 60 days. so basically 84 days out of the 365 days you are with your parents and siblings and the other 281 days (yes, my math is good...coz I learnt that too in school) we are in our hostel.
So after each break we return to the school and the journey pretty much depends on your social status and the distance you need to travel. I came from an average middle class family that lived far away from school. I lived in Kannur, so the mighty Indian railways used to be my travel partner. (There is only one thing like Indian Railways, it is the Indian Railways). Some kids used to travel with their whole family and then there were some kids like me who would travel alone back to school.
It so happened that during one such return journey, I could not have a reserved ticket so I had to travel in the general compartment......
(All that you read until now was just the intro...a typical build up that directors use to set up the plot....a lot of reel is wasted on it in the movies....So I am no different)
I jumped into the general compartment with a small suitcase and found a place to sit as the train was starting from the Kannur railway station and ended at trivandrum, which was my destination too. It was a 12 hour overnight journey from Kannur to Trivandrum and my mom had packed poori and sabji for the evening. My mom always gives it to me as dinner, but I normally have that before I reach Calicut and then again get down at Shornur station to have another bite as the south Indian food called Vellai appam is a specialty of that station. (again digressing from the actual plot)
So I get into the train and slowly station after station, the crowd builds up and I end up smiling to a lot of people, young -old-thin-fat all kinds. In a berth that is originally designed for 3 average built people you find 6. (I always wonder the factor of safety our engineers would be putting into such designs that end up handling double the load of the originally planned load. And yet, you would have never ever seen a collapsed berth on our trains - The Mighty Indian Railways, remember?)
Ina general compartment, you need to worry about your luggage all the time, coz you never know if some thief dressed up in decent clothing (as if thieves were always dressed shabbily) is around you who has set his eyes on that rectangular shaped box of yours. I was always very careful. Wherever I would sit, one of my eyes would always be on the vigil (until it would feel your eyes would start squinting very soon) and then you give the job to the next eye.
On this journey I jumped to the upper berth as it gave us youngsters a special feel plus, lesser number of people could jump on to the top berth. So the probability of people encroaching into your land was limited. But hey that does not mean you wouldn't have encroachment. By the time I reached Calicut which was the next major station, my upper berth already had two more "guests". Since one of them was travelling until Kollam and was a young adult, he happily opened up some topics which we discussed during our travel. He even offered me his dinner which I diplomatically declined (The only reason being it was fish, which was a complete No No for me)
He even kept a vigil on my suitcase when I got down at Shornur station to have my appam. (You should try it too...they are tasty). As the train kept moving into the midnight zone I was slowly falling asleep or let us say dozing off in fits and starts. One hand would always make sure that I get that "feel" of my suitcase. You might wonder what is it about this suitcase, that I am guarding it like some treasure. Well it had a few shirts, pants and undergarments...that's it. No money, No gold and no other weapons of mass destruction. But yet, it was my little treasure as I was dependent on them until the next break.
So as the train moved swiftly across the districts of Kerala, my sleep too was getting deeper. The new friend of mine suggested that I could use the small soft bag he had as pillow. I was really liking this guy who even made sure that even if it was short intervals of sleep, I would be comfortable. You don't meet a lot of good homely people on train. He knew that my worry was about my suitcase and he said, he would keep his legs on them so that I feel relaxed that it is around. He too might have felt there is some treasure in it.
People came in and people left the train. Except for the two of us, I guess the whole crowd around us had changed as the train stopped at different stations. Until the train reached Ernakulam, which is the Bombay or Bangalore of Kerala, we kept our chat on about various topics. He was really in awe of a 14 year old travelling all by himself to Trivandrum and even commented that he wouldn't be let alone even to the nearest town until he was close to 16. Surely that made me feel a few inches taller.
As we crossed Ernakulam, I had crossed 60% of the journey and was really feeling sleepy. The train was getting a bit lighter too and we ended up with only two people on the berth. Me and my newly found friend, admirer, whatever you call it.
Probably I dozed off a little bit deeply and by the time I woke up from my sleep next, we had already passed Kollam. I opened my eyes and realized that my admirer had got down at Kollam without disturbing my sleep. He was such a nice gentleman. I really wished I could have said good bye to him.
In any case, my station was just an hour away so I decided to freshen up. There were just a few people left on my side of the bogie and most of them bound for Trivandrum. I stretched my hand to take my suitcase. It felt different. I turned and looked around this way and that way. My suitcase was missing. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No, it wasn't there. I just looked here and there, under the seats, even in the next cubicle in the compartment. No. My brown suitcase was missing.
By then the people seated next to me understood that something was wrong. So an elderly person asked me, "What happened son, you look worried". I said, "My suitcase is missing".
That probably helped draw an attention from the others as well and a few of them looked around trying to help me in spotting it. But it was all worthless.
But then a person asked me to describe the suitcase, I said it was a brown suitcase that had a zip. And the guy said "But isn't that the suitcase your friend carried out?"
"Friend, who friend?"
"The guy who was with you all the time. Was he not your friend?" he asked me.
I said "NO. I just met him during the journey".
"Well then, that guy walked out with that suitcase and never thought it was yours as you were chatting with him all the time. So we thought you were friends or knew each other well. There was absolutely No way we would check with him".
I sat down and listened to this guy telling me all this as the classic Bollywood flash back of the entire journey replayed in my mind. He walked into my life with a soft shoulder bag and walked out of my life with a brown suitcase.
Remember I told you that a well dressed thief could be around me, Well let me correct it. Thief that was not only decently dressed but who was also pretty good at talking and winning your confidence.
26 years later.........I still miss my suitcase. 😆
To tell you this short "horror"story, I will need to educate you a little bit about the school I went to. I am a proud (please read very very proud) alumni of Sainik School Kazhakootam, Trivandrum. And if you do not know much about the school, lets us just scratch the surface and say... it is basically built around the preparation of kids to join the NDA (National Defence Academy). Well i believe that school basically trains kids to be MEN .... (not that other schools don't, but this is my blog...so I can claim anything)
So in Sainik School you don't have day scholars and you don't have girls. Oops, yes there were a few day scholars who were the kids of the staff...and yes some of the kids were indeed girls. (So basically 550 boys and 10 girls .... you can imagine what a "wonderful" life it would have been for them)
But this story is not about that type of horror, so let me stick to the track.
Again going back to my school, we had three breaks to go home and two of them were mid term holidays for 12 days and one was the summer holidays that lasted 60 days. so basically 84 days out of the 365 days you are with your parents and siblings and the other 281 days (yes, my math is good...coz I learnt that too in school) we are in our hostel.
So after each break we return to the school and the journey pretty much depends on your social status and the distance you need to travel. I came from an average middle class family that lived far away from school. I lived in Kannur, so the mighty Indian railways used to be my travel partner. (There is only one thing like Indian Railways, it is the Indian Railways). Some kids used to travel with their whole family and then there were some kids like me who would travel alone back to school.It so happened that during one such return journey, I could not have a reserved ticket so I had to travel in the general compartment......
(All that you read until now was just the intro...a typical build up that directors use to set up the plot....a lot of reel is wasted on it in the movies....So I am no different)
I jumped into the general compartment with a small suitcase and found a place to sit as the train was starting from the Kannur railway station and ended at trivandrum, which was my destination too. It was a 12 hour overnight journey from Kannur to Trivandrum and my mom had packed poori and sabji for the evening. My mom always gives it to me as dinner, but I normally have that before I reach Calicut and then again get down at Shornur station to have another bite as the south Indian food called Vellai appam is a specialty of that station. (again digressing from the actual plot)
So I get into the train and slowly station after station, the crowd builds up and I end up smiling to a lot of people, young -old-thin-fat all kinds. In a berth that is originally designed for 3 average built people you find 6. (I always wonder the factor of safety our engineers would be putting into such designs that end up handling double the load of the originally planned load. And yet, you would have never ever seen a collapsed berth on our trains - The Mighty Indian Railways, remember?)
Ina general compartment, you need to worry about your luggage all the time, coz you never know if some thief dressed up in decent clothing (as if thieves were always dressed shabbily) is around you who has set his eyes on that rectangular shaped box of yours. I was always very careful. Wherever I would sit, one of my eyes would always be on the vigil (until it would feel your eyes would start squinting very soon) and then you give the job to the next eye.
On this journey I jumped to the upper berth as it gave us youngsters a special feel plus, lesser number of people could jump on to the top berth. So the probability of people encroaching into your land was limited. But hey that does not mean you wouldn't have encroachment. By the time I reached Calicut which was the next major station, my upper berth already had two more "guests". Since one of them was travelling until Kollam and was a young adult, he happily opened up some topics which we discussed during our travel. He even offered me his dinner which I diplomatically declined (The only reason being it was fish, which was a complete No No for me)
He even kept a vigil on my suitcase when I got down at Shornur station to have my appam. (You should try it too...they are tasty). As the train kept moving into the midnight zone I was slowly falling asleep or let us say dozing off in fits and starts. One hand would always make sure that I get that "feel" of my suitcase. You might wonder what is it about this suitcase, that I am guarding it like some treasure. Well it had a few shirts, pants and undergarments...that's it. No money, No gold and no other weapons of mass destruction. But yet, it was my little treasure as I was dependent on them until the next break.
So as the train moved swiftly across the districts of Kerala, my sleep too was getting deeper. The new friend of mine suggested that I could use the small soft bag he had as pillow. I was really liking this guy who even made sure that even if it was short intervals of sleep, I would be comfortable. You don't meet a lot of good homely people on train. He knew that my worry was about my suitcase and he said, he would keep his legs on them so that I feel relaxed that it is around. He too might have felt there is some treasure in it.
People came in and people left the train. Except for the two of us, I guess the whole crowd around us had changed as the train stopped at different stations. Until the train reached Ernakulam, which is the Bombay or Bangalore of Kerala, we kept our chat on about various topics. He was really in awe of a 14 year old travelling all by himself to Trivandrum and even commented that he wouldn't be let alone even to the nearest town until he was close to 16. Surely that made me feel a few inches taller.
As we crossed Ernakulam, I had crossed 60% of the journey and was really feeling sleepy. The train was getting a bit lighter too and we ended up with only two people on the berth. Me and my newly found friend, admirer, whatever you call it.
Probably I dozed off a little bit deeply and by the time I woke up from my sleep next, we had already passed Kollam. I opened my eyes and realized that my admirer had got down at Kollam without disturbing my sleep. He was such a nice gentleman. I really wished I could have said good bye to him.
In any case, my station was just an hour away so I decided to freshen up. There were just a few people left on my side of the bogie and most of them bound for Trivandrum. I stretched my hand to take my suitcase. It felt different. I turned and looked around this way and that way. My suitcase was missing. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No, it wasn't there. I just looked here and there, under the seats, even in the next cubicle in the compartment. No. My brown suitcase was missing.
By then the people seated next to me understood that something was wrong. So an elderly person asked me, "What happened son, you look worried". I said, "My suitcase is missing".
That probably helped draw an attention from the others as well and a few of them looked around trying to help me in spotting it. But it was all worthless.
But then a person asked me to describe the suitcase, I said it was a brown suitcase that had a zip. And the guy said "But isn't that the suitcase your friend carried out?"
"Friend, who friend?"
"The guy who was with you all the time. Was he not your friend?" he asked me.
I said "NO. I just met him during the journey".
"Well then, that guy walked out with that suitcase and never thought it was yours as you were chatting with him all the time. So we thought you were friends or knew each other well. There was absolutely No way we would check with him".
I sat down and listened to this guy telling me all this as the classic Bollywood flash back of the entire journey replayed in my mind. He walked into my life with a soft shoulder bag and walked out of my life with a brown suitcase.
Remember I told you that a well dressed thief could be around me, Well let me correct it. Thief that was not only decently dressed but who was also pretty good at talking and winning your confidence.
26 years later.........I still miss my suitcase. 😆
Suitcase stories...you have two options now.either let your suitcase go or buy a new one.:)
ReplyDeleteBefore my marriage,I used to get a recurring dream of a missing suitcase, I go searching n searching for it in the station, my train is about to come and I cant find it. After marriage, I never had that dream probably it meant I got my suitcase! Or it meant I dont need it anymore...:))