come diwali and the whole of india lights up with people returning to their hometowns and trains and planes overbooked..........the train i decided to take was overbooked and as luck shall have it i missed a reservation by a mere 10 people...............i decided to board anyways and found myself standing outside the A.C. coach with an old couple aged anywhere between 50 - 60 and two others........ there was no way we would get a seat and the only option we had was to sit next to the door or the loo...........i decided on the door and made myself comfortable on the ground as i saw more and more people board the train.....no one was fined or questioned as it was the holiday season and commuters had outnumbered the railway officials and so fearing the worst the officials backed off......(thats india for u).........i had 18 hours ahead of me and i didnt know how will i survive when i realised i had a "J" in my pocket which i assumed shall help me redeem myself.......i made my way to the loo but the ten second journey took me an amazing ten minutes as there was a sea of people all readyto take on hours of pain just to get home this diwali,,,,,,,,i finished my joint and floated back to my three square inches of place next to the door which i shared with 4 others........the aged couple had problems of their own as i heard from a co passenger that the old lady was suffering from cancer and had just been operated upon........i felt sorry for the couple but the most i could do was talk to the officials and get her a seat atleast to sit on let alone sleep.......... but alas indian govt officials are not the right people to go with a request and the most i managed from them was a so called mattress which they gave me and asked me to lay it on the ground and seat the old lady............ i was disgusted but took the mattress as i hadnt even expected that..................i had beads of sweat trickle down my muscular(lol) back and chest.........the irony of the situation was that we were standing right outside the air conditioned coach and being baked.........i looked at my watch and realised that i had another 12 hours to go........i hadnt seated my arse for the longest time now..........i bought lunch and the only place available to eat was near the loo(if u are wondering about the smell which indian loos emit then just think about a pile of dead bodies heated to about 50 degrees and filled with raw cheese).......i decided to eat till i can, and thats exactly what i did....i ate till i could and then i ate some more...........and then i made a run for my little place near the door as i having trouble holding my lunch in my stomach due to the odour from the loo.................. so much for diwali i thought just as i realised i had another "j" in my shirt pocket........i finished it in no time and the train halted at a station and the gods smiled at me........more than half of the people in the coach had gotten off and i at last had a place to sit in an automatically cooled coach for which i had paid dearly for........... i was so happy that i could cry as i had stood next to the loo and the door for the last 13 hours and sweated like a dog, ate near the loo(indian loo), shared the gangway with 30 people........ and now i was sitting in a cool and comfortable cushion thanking god for his kindness when i heard a co passenger say........HEY BROTHER ISNT THIS WHERE YOU GET DOWN?????????
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