It was hot! Devi lay back against the wooden planks of the general compartment, plucking her cotton top off her sticky body. She stared blankly outside the window, too tired to swat away the flies buzzing around her head. The train was still stuck at Trichur, and she would have to bake in this compartment for at least another four hours before they reached Calicut. She was sick with the heat and the exhaustion.
“Would you like to play a video game?”
Startled, she whipped her head around to see this man who was regarding her with mild friendliness and understanding. An uncle, must be in his mid twenties, she decided. She stretched out her hand for the grey Brick Game and tried to focus on it, but soon chucked it to strike up a conversation with the uncle. Amma cracked her eyes open to see who her daughter was annoying now, and then decided to leave the man to fend for himself.
Pretty soon they were rattling away. The young Navy recruit and the grubby 11 year old. Deepak was on his first vacation from the Academy and was full of all the things he was planning to do. She in turn rambled on and on about school, her dance classes, and her firebrand mom (but shut up abruptly when Amma glared from her corner).
The hours sped by and soon it was dark outside. Somewhere on the way the train slowed down to a crawl and finally stopped. A quarter of an hour stretched into an hour, then two. Devi was whining with boredom and hunger. The other passengers were complaining loudly about the way things were done in the country. Under her breath, Amma was tracing the engine driver’s genealogy on both sides with great thoroughness.
Deepak jumped up and went to the door of the compartment. He leaned against the door and grinned at Devi, trying to get her to stand there with him. Finally the train started forward, much to the relief of everybody inside. But it was still dark outside and nobody had a clue where they were.
“Uncle! Can you see lights outside?” piped up Devi from her window seat.
“Hold on, let me check”, he called back, leaning out of the door.
And the next instant he was gone.
With a loud metallic thunk, as if the door had banged in the wind.
She froze in her seat. Not breathing. Not blinking. A minute passed, then two.
Only one other man had seen what just happened. He leapt up, shouting at Amma.
“Madam! The man traveling with you has gone out!”
Amma jolted out of a slumber, completely confused. “What man? I’m traveling with my girl. There are no men with me”
“The man who was sitting with your daughter” he cried, pointing to where the child sat trembling, still staring at the door.
Devi snapped out of her stupor. She scrambled up the rusty metal grilles. ‘To stop train pull chain’ advised the patchy print in red so she did just that. And stood swinging on the metal window sill as the chain came off in her hand.
The train sped up in earnest now, making up for lost time. It screamed and raced through the night, as if it couldn’t wait to get away from what it had done to Deepak. Complete chaos reigned in the compartment. Amma was hysterical. Somebody plucked Devi off the window and she was barraged by questions. Devi just sat there with the chain clutched tightly in her sticky hand.
At Calicut somebody alerted the station master, who ambled over to where the girl and her family were huddled. He had all the time in the world, Deepak was not going home that night anyway. He tried asking about Deepak- what did he look like, how tall was he, where was he going, where was he from.. Devi could answer none of this. He was just this very nice uncle who had been kind to her. She knew nothing more about him. Except that he was wearing a brown and white striped tee- shirt.
In his own sweet time the station master and his cronies ambled along the tracks, swinging a lantern of some sort. Amma read in the papers the next day that they had come across his decapitated body not too far away from Calicut. He had leaned out of the door and crashed into a metal pillar. He was identified by his driver’s license. They never found his head.
Thirteen years have gone by. But Devi still can’t travel by train without seeing Deepak grinning from the door.
“Would you like to play a video game?”
Startled, she whipped her head around to see this man who was regarding her with mild friendliness and understanding. An uncle, must be in his mid twenties, she decided. She stretched out her hand for the grey Brick Game and tried to focus on it, but soon chucked it to strike up a conversation with the uncle. Amma cracked her eyes open to see who her daughter was annoying now, and then decided to leave the man to fend for himself.
Pretty soon they were rattling away. The young Navy recruit and the grubby 11 year old. Deepak was on his first vacation from the Academy and was full of all the things he was planning to do. She in turn rambled on and on about school, her dance classes, and her firebrand mom (but shut up abruptly when Amma glared from her corner).
The hours sped by and soon it was dark outside. Somewhere on the way the train slowed down to a crawl and finally stopped. A quarter of an hour stretched into an hour, then two. Devi was whining with boredom and hunger. The other passengers were complaining loudly about the way things were done in the country. Under her breath, Amma was tracing the engine driver’s genealogy on both sides with great thoroughness.
Deepak jumped up and went to the door of the compartment. He leaned against the door and grinned at Devi, trying to get her to stand there with him. Finally the train started forward, much to the relief of everybody inside. But it was still dark outside and nobody had a clue where they were.
“Uncle! Can you see lights outside?” piped up Devi from her window seat.
“Hold on, let me check”, he called back, leaning out of the door.
And the next instant he was gone.
With a loud metallic thunk, as if the door had banged in the wind.
She froze in her seat. Not breathing. Not blinking. A minute passed, then two.
Only one other man had seen what just happened. He leapt up, shouting at Amma.
“Madam! The man traveling with you has gone out!”
Amma jolted out of a slumber, completely confused. “What man? I’m traveling with my girl. There are no men with me”
“The man who was sitting with your daughter” he cried, pointing to where the child sat trembling, still staring at the door.
Devi snapped out of her stupor. She scrambled up the rusty metal grilles. ‘To stop train pull chain’ advised the patchy print in red so she did just that. And stood swinging on the metal window sill as the chain came off in her hand.
The train sped up in earnest now, making up for lost time. It screamed and raced through the night, as if it couldn’t wait to get away from what it had done to Deepak. Complete chaos reigned in the compartment. Amma was hysterical. Somebody plucked Devi off the window and she was barraged by questions. Devi just sat there with the chain clutched tightly in her sticky hand.
At Calicut somebody alerted the station master, who ambled over to where the girl and her family were huddled. He had all the time in the world, Deepak was not going home that night anyway. He tried asking about Deepak- what did he look like, how tall was he, where was he going, where was he from.. Devi could answer none of this. He was just this very nice uncle who had been kind to her. She knew nothing more about him. Except that he was wearing a brown and white striped tee- shirt.
In his own sweet time the station master and his cronies ambled along the tracks, swinging a lantern of some sort. Amma read in the papers the next day that they had come across his decapitated body not too far away from Calicut. He had leaned out of the door and crashed into a metal pillar. He was identified by his driver’s license. They never found his head.
Thirteen years have gone by. But Devi still can’t travel by train without seeing Deepak grinning from the door.
1 comment:
chilling!
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