IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

The train had already started moving when we entered platform number one at Gorakhpur railway station. We had to run after the moving train to enter a compartment at the tail end of the moving  Allahabad express. It was a near miss !! Lucky that it was a steam engine that picks up speed slowly.

We took possession of two vacant lower berths, and pushed our big last minute bags under the berth.Thank God, there were vacant berths to sleep.We were tired and and needed sleep.

We were going back to  Allahabad university hostel after the winter vacations at Gorakhpur. Our big last-minute-bags were bulging with lot of things packed into them. Much of it was, as always, home made eatables – crisp fried spicy and salty ‘mathari’, yummy sweet ‘laddoo’, spicy fried peanuts & rice-flakes, pickles and other mouthwatering stuff- it would last us more than a month through the peak of winters. There were two big cans of high quality Ghee (clarified butter) too !

The train left behind  the well-lit railway station platform and buildings big and small as it cut across the sleeping city. It picked up speed and was now racing through wilderness.It was  pitch dark outside at ten o’clock on that cold winter night of early january. We  shut down all the glass as well as wooden window shutters to keep the compartment warm and private and cut out noise.

There were three other persons of one family in our compartment. They were going right upto Allahabad – a balding  daddy, a mummy and a fat short boy in early teens. They were now huddled together around a tall big tiffin carrier, munching packed dinner of puree (fried soft flat bread), fried spicy vegetables and lots of other things. They were constantly talking with their mouths full !

We had brought too many magazines with us to read in case we did not get berths to sleep. Now that we could sleep, we would read them in the hostel. we pushed these magazines also into our last minute bags.

The train moved on, to the gentle rocking of the compartment, the dull roar of the wind outside and the steam engine’s distant sounds  ahead of us. It made me sleepy.

It was well after midnight when the train stopped for a few minutes at a non-descript station. A tall man with a weather beaten face wearing a heavy olive brown long overcoat and dirty black boots pushed the door open and shuffled into the compartment. He wore a deadpan expression and carried no luggage. He looked like a police constable minus his cap and baton. When I asked him about the destination he said that he was going right upto Allahabad, the last station. He immediately climbed up to sleep on an upper berth, boots and all ! In a couple of minutes he was heavily snoring.

I bolted the doors from inside so that we could now sleep undisturbed through the rest of the journey as none of us would be getting down before Allahabad. After a while the only sound in the compartment was of
the TATAK TAKK TATAK TAKK of the train moving along the track. I then fell asleep.

At atleast at two stations through our journey there were heavy knocks on the door but none of us got up to  open the bolts. All of us kept sleeping through the night.

It was a couple of stations before Allahabad that I woke up with a start when the train stopped with heavy jolt and metallic clangs . I threw up the window shutter and peeped out.

It was already early morning. Outside, on the platform the Chai-wallas ( tea vendors ) were moving over the platform, chanting GARAM CHAI GARAM CHAI (hot tea  hot tea) !

We bought big steaming hot kullhars (baked-earthen- cups) of ginger tea. The ‘constable’ was not in the compartment – obviously he was in the toilet.

We continued sipping our tea – nothing like having a steaming hot cup of sweet ginger tea on a chilly winter morning!

After a while the fat boy  picked up a towel and entered the toilet. So where was the
man-in-overcoat ! The bloke was supposed to go right up to Allahabad !! Something very strange !!

I asked the daddy of the family, just for curiosity sake, about the ‘constable’. It was none of my business, though, to monitor the movement of that chap.

“why, he hurriedly got down, when the train, after a moment’s halt, was already moving again two stations back . He had to quickly drag out his two very heavy bags !! You must have been sleeping!!” he exclaimed.

Two heavy bags ! But this guy had entered the compartment without any
luggage !! Something clicked in my mind and I peeped under the berth.

I was in for a big shock!

Our bags, with all that delectable eating stuff that
would have lasted a whole month were missing – stolen by the man in long overcoat !!

The thought that the ‘constable’ was right at that moment enjoying our
delicacies over several cups of hot tea two stations away was very very upsetting but that is what life is – full of shocks and surprises !!!