55 hours train ride

I finally went home after 8 months, project and placements kept me busy throughout. I actually took a Detour to Hazaribagh via Patna. My initial train ride from Chennai to Patna was of 44 hours. The train actually reached 1 hour early, it was supposed to reach by 9 AM but it reached by 8 PM! The reason for this phenomenal punctuality; well the train driver insisted on attending his father’s marriage so we were stuck at Jabalpur for the entire night. It was cold outside but we had a nice sleep in the compartment which was kept warm even though the train was not moving. I didn’t have anything to read so most of the time I was lying on my berth and just observing people around me.

The ones who got the berth below me were 2 married women going to Patna. One was obsessed with her recent marriage, understandably, and other was a typical Indian naari, busy with her cute girl child and ignoring the men who were discussing politics. When someone offered the child a piece of guava the child looked at her mother for approval and she turned her face away, typical of an ideal bhartiya naari. ( Her dilemma was she would have displayed rudeness by asking her child not to accept and on the other hand her approval would have been considered non-conformal with the Indian culture. This often confuses me, even though I love when someone gives me a gift but I have been taught to first refuse and accept only on insistence! what if the other person decided to withdraw the offer? I would lose the gift!). The other obsessed-with-marriage lady was busy browsing her marriage album, talking about her husband, discussing pregnancy and child care and above all entertaining the child with her USB MP3 player. She wore a variety of bangles, in fact her hands were fully covered with them.

And then there was a talkative woman- my favourite . She was talking about every damn thing on earth, from her cell phone secret code to how her husband nearly got rejected by her father (the poor husband was sitting with a straight face on top berth refusing to come down ).

I had a hectic schedule at home. As a matter of fact not even a single day passed without me travelling. But the these long journeys have conjured up many ideas in my mind which I intend to pen down here. While returning back I has the Reader’s Digest collection of novels,

1. The Broker by John Grisham- It’s about the internal politics of USA and how CIA manhandles situations there. Basically its about a lawyer who wants be make billions by selling a software, developed by 3 Pakistani youth educated in US, to the highest bidder. The CIA comes to know of the deal and the lawyer is imprisoned. He is then given a Presidential pardon and left in Italy so that he may be killed by the people he betrayed, a CIA plan! A slight element of tech enthused me But I think the novel should have had a better end. The whole scene is set up brilliantly but then the lawyer escapes and manages to reach US in just a few pages (2 or 3)! C’mon the climax should have been thrilling. Anyway a good read particularly about the Italian culture and its intricacies and delicacies.

2. Sam’s letter to Jennifer by James Patterson- A writer’s story. First person account. The emotions involved are well articulated. Life is all about compromise. Its also about seeing someone happy and wondering why is it that I am made to suffer….well That’s how life is!

The other 2 are Blood memory by Greg Iles and Mosaic by Soheir Khashoggi (She is the niece of Dodi al Fayed who was killed in a car crash with Princes Diana).