I have to wake up. It’s already 8 in the morning. But I want to sleep more. I can hear my mobile shouting at me, like my mom used to do during my school days. I kept the alarm to snooze for 10 minutes and started sleeping again. I have been doing that for more than an hour. I started sleeping at 10 pm yesterday. Still, sleeping for those 10 minutes after switching off the alarm gives me immense pleasure and the best sleep. But I can’t keep doing that. My practical exam starts at 8:30 am today. It takes 5 minutes from my hostel room to the lab. It will take 10 minutes to brush up and have coffee, 10 minutes for me to take a shower and another 10 minutes to get ready. Oh my god only 30 minutes left. I have to skip something. I can’t go late for the exam. I can’t skip coffee, that’s my only breakfast. Ok, I can take shower in the evening. But it’s been more than 3 days since the last time I took bath. "Wake up brag. Wake up", I said to myself. I took the brush and opened the door. The Sun was happily shining. Some people were leaving in a hurry either for their exam or to meet their girl friends, while those who don’t have exams came leisurely from the breakfast. I was peeking through all the windows on my way to the bathroom searching for it. Yes. I found it. Colgate toothpaste. It was 5 rooms away from mine. Most of the doors will be open all the time, even when there is no one in the room. We share almost everything, except our underpants.
It was 8:10 am. Coffee was too hot. I left it on the table and went to wash my face. I took the deodorant and emptied almost one quarter of it. I don’t mind in using that much deodorant as long as it’s not mine. Vasanth was my victim this time. I can’t find my shirt. Oh shit it’s already 8:20. Just drank the coffee at one go, took my Nandy's shirt and left the room at 8:25. "Yes, I will be on time", I thought. Oh no, not again. I was half way through and realized that I forgot my pen. I am going to an exam without a pen. Great. "Shit happens man. Come on, you have to manage dear."
"Choose one paper from here, then sign in the attendance list and go to the seat marked on the paper", she didn’t even look at me. "Mmm… Mam, ahh, can I get a pen to sign here please?" She looked at me for the first time. A big bindi in her forehead, made her look like an avatar of Goddess Kali. I have seen the goddess in pictures. She has her mouth wide open with tongue protruding out and a dead body of a devil at her foot, with its head in one of her hand. I saw my head in her hand. I closed my eyes and opened it again. She stood up from the chair, "Where is your pen? Are you coming for an exam without a pen? Irresponsible Idiots. The entire class is like this", Idiots? Thank God. I am not alone. "Sorry mam. I was talking to the Vice chancellor in the hostel mess. He was asking about the food. So I was waiting for him to leave. Then it was so late, I was in a hurry. Extremely sorry mam. You know about me mam". My mind gave a small pat. She stared at me, but that’s not important. I got a pen atlast. I was smiling around the people as they knew it was a lie. We exchanged glances about the difficulty level of the exam. It was an easy experiment for me. I gave the oral examination well and left the room within 2 hours.
I went straight to the canteen, ordered a dosa and was waiting for it. It’s been more than 6 months since I had breakfast in the hostel mess, for which I pay the money. It’s compulsory to pay for the food in mess if you stay in hostel. There was no choice. I still remember the first time I went to mess for the breakfast. It was Idli with sambar and coconut chutney. I was very hungry. When I touched it, the soft, solid Idli shattered into pieces. I found something. What the hell is a piece of newspaper doing here? After that, I never go by that side except for some special occasions or during my financial crisis when I can’t eat outside. "Hi man. How are you?" I realized I was in canteen. It was Peter. I don’t even remember his original name. Peter is the common nick name for show‐off people. I don’t know what he showed, but the name was a hit among the hostel mates. My dosa came. "What’s that dude?" as if he never saw a dosa in his life before. "That’s roti", I replied without reacting much. He sliced almost half of the dosa using his hand, without asking my permission and drove it into his mouth. Without a second thought, I picked up the remaining and engulfed it. "Where is the dosa dude? So hungry?" He smiled, but I could hear his mind voice I should have picked some more in the other hand. "Yeah. I was hungry". After he left, I had a tea along with the view of some beautiful junior girls present at that moment. I made a new hypothesis that time. Girls are equal to boys when they are hungry. I was looking at priyanka, her fingers rolling into her mouth. Each finger got a separate chance to stick on her tongue and filtered by the lips when the finger is taken out. She tried the same formula of peter with her neighbor, but didn’t work. So far, I thought only boys do all these stuffs in public. After sometime, they left the place and she walked like a show stopper in the fashion show. I liked that in fact enjoyed that. It was only 11. What to do next?
I could hardly see 10 people in the room with 50 computers for browsing. It’s free, a point worth mentioning. There was a log notebook near the entrance where you need to enter the timings and your details. I went near the notebook. The person in charge was sitting nearby it. I took a pen and acted as though I was entering the details "what’s the time now?", I asked. "It’s 11:05 am and you have to log out by 11:35". I could feel my mind uttering a Maniacal laugh like the villains in the old movies. I switched on the computer. It took almost 5 minutes to open a web page. I was waiting patiently. Then, I opened the orkut. As usual, no one left me a scrap. I just checked few new pictures uploaded by my school friends and logged out. I was then searching for some universities in United States to continue my studies after graduation. Every week, I try to browse for some universities to get more information. I saw my watch. It was 11 30. Still half an hour left for lunch. You have a text message, my mobile beeped. "Hi. Shall we go out for lunch? Kathik is also coming. Ask mukundan if he wants to join us. I am in canteen with giri". It was ashwin. I was relieved. I got plans to kill the remaining time for the day now. We are going to a restaurant which is approximately 20km from our university. Anyways we would like to skip our mess food as much as we can. But unfortunately it’s expensive to eat everyday outside and pay the bills for the mess also. The only reason we were staying there was the hostel life. It was too good. I enjoyed it. I refreshed my mailbox. I received a new mail. It’s from Indian Institute of Technology‐Delhi, one of the most renowned institutes in India. "Congratulations. Your work has been selected for the poster presentation. Please confirm your participation by sending us a mail before 30 Jan 2006. Once you confirm your participation, all the other details will be mailed to you". I replied and came out at 12. We regrouped our gang in canteen and went to the restaurant.
"Your attention please, Train number 2611/2612, Tamil Nadu Express, from Chennai Central Railway station to New Delhi Railway station will leave in few minutes from platform number 4". The announcement was also made in Tamil and Hindi. "Bye mom. Bye. I will call you once I reach there." The train left. This was my first trip to the national capital. For the next 33 hours we will cover about 2200 km’s, starting from the southern part of India, travelling through most of the central part of India to the northern part of India. Each has its own distinction, its own heritage, language, culture. Truly amazing. "Apart from that we should go to the mughal gardens. It will be open only during February every year. It is just behind the Rashtrapathi bhavan, the president house." "Hey, we are staying there only for 3 days and all 3 days we have conference. Then how can we go? It won’t be nice to skip the conference as we came here for that only". I understood. Ramasamy was at his best. It might take sometime to convince him but I was sure to convince him. We then decided to think about it later and started to talk about the conference, our class, and of course girls, all roads lead to Rome.
I don’t even dream about it. I got up at 7. Not often it has happened in my life. I felt something was wrong. There was a strange noise. I got up immediately and saw the fan right above me in the upper birth. I was wondering where the noise comes from. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I looked down to see a big guy in pyjama around 45 to 50 years of age, having coffee. In a moment, I felt as if I was entering into his mouth. I bent down to check what Ramasamy was doing. He was already awake and was sitting near the window. I came down. "Got up so early?" "I couldn’t sleep. I got up at 6. They were making lot of noise". We were speaking in Tamil. We believed the rest don’t understand it. "Hello boys. Good morning" he said to us in English. Buuurrrrbbuurrr. It was the same sound you hear when Bullet bike pass through you. It was associated with rotten egg smell. "What the hell did he have for dinner yesterday?" "Welcome to the Club dear. He has been doing this for the past 20 minutes now." "Then why the hell are you sitting in this place and smelling it. Shit man, I can’t tolerate it anymore." I was controlling my breath and took the paste and brush which was luckily not deep inside my bag and left to the wash room. "Hey wait for me". Ramasamy followed. We both opened the entrance door of the train and were trying to inhale the fresh air. "Thank god, we escaped, I feel sorry for his wife. That was a powerful bio‐weapon". Perfect timing. Just as rams completed the sentence, he passed by us. Drrrrrrrrrr. Oh no, not again. He blushed at us and entered the toilet.
We both had coffee. The coffee was not that good so just had half of it and threw away the remaining through the window. The train was 30 minutes late. We were in Warangal station at 7:30 am. We had sometime to get down. "You need something to eat?" ramasamy asked me. "What are going to eat?" I counter attacked him. "I will get some biscuits and banana". "Ok. I will also eat that. Also get me 2 masala vada". The masala vada was not hot, so I didn’t feel like eating it, so as Ramasamy. I again threw it from the train. We shared the remaining stuffs and were back to bed after a sweet and light breakfast.
Where am I?. I looked at my watch, it was around 3:30 in the afternoon. Is the train on time? If so then, we would have crossed Nagpur by now. Ramasamy was snoring. Slowly I said, "Rams, rams". He could hear my words. His eyes slowly and partially widened up. He swallowed the saliva running from his mouth using his tongue and responded "hmmmmm". "Are you in deep sleep?" Wow. Excellent question to ask a person who is sleeping. I was also sleepy, at the same time hungry. He again responded promptly even when half asleep "hmmm". "Let’s go and have lunch. Don’t sleep in empty stomach". "I had lunch in Balharshah Junction. I tried to wake you up, but you didn’t. The train was 1.5 hrs late. I will sleep now" he continued his sleep. "Hello sir", I was afraid to ask him as he was the only person awake in our compartment, the same guy in the pyjama. I maintained some distance though to avoid sudden bio‐weapon attack and make a great escape if needed. "Do you have any idea, where are we now. Is it running on time?". "We crossed Nagpur 30 minutes before. The train is 1.5 hours late". "Oh. when is the next stop?" "Next stop will be at around 19:30 or something. Are you going to Delhi?" "Sorry, can I just go to pantry and come back. I am hungry". "ok ok continue". I had my lunch and was having coffee. The train was not moving for the past 5 minutes. I came to know it might take 15 to 20 minutes.
I stepped out of the train. It stopped in no man’s land. I could see a garbage dumping ground. The track was laid with sharp stones. It was very difficult to walk even with sandals. Even though I stepped out of the train, I was very close to the door, so that I can enter anytime if train starts again. I saw children playing on the track. Wait a minute, no they are not playing. They are eating something. Then, I saw him running towards them in this hot sunny afternoon with bare legs. He was crying. He was wearing his birthday suit gifted by god, with a small thread tied to his waist. His hands were swinging fast in the air, so as his cute bell. I believe he must be a 3 to 5 year old gentleman. She noticed him coming; she was the eldest in the group I suppose. Hardly, half of my lifetime so far. She took him to her waist. She wiped his mucous secretion from the nose using her hands and cleaned it in her gown. By the time she stopped his cry, the rest have packed all the foods and were waiting for instructions. They went near the dumping ground and sat in a circle under the shades of the wall. I was the lonely person now to take the shower of heat from the sun. They started to share the food. The girl sat along with him and filled both his hands with some food. Apart from that she also fed him. He is enjoying the meal. He shows the hand to the girl sitting nearby and is asking her to take some from it. He is so sweet. When she was about to take it, he puts that in his mouth. Cheat, Sweet cheat He is enjoying and so as me. There were some hiccups in the group, I guess. I wish I could quench their thirst with water. But, the water from my eyes is not enough. It needs a much more powerful source. Maybe from the eyes of entire nation. I don’t know when the eyes will be open to see them. The train started to move. I want to stay here. I can’t even puncture the train tyres. I jumped into the train and was looking at them as much as I can. He was gone. They were gone. I came back to my seat. I saw the pyjama guy, he was sleeping. Ramasamy was snoring. I climbed to my birth and lied down. Happiness lies everywhere, I realized. We just need eyes to open and see what’s happening around us and enjoy each and every moment in life. How beautiful these children are. What was their mistake? Do they have to eat everyday like this, the food wastes which we throw from the train? Pick it up from the railway track and eat in the dumping grounds? Still how many years these children have to suffer? I was thinking all the stuffs which I can. After all, I am just a common man, who thinks a lot but never does anything and waiting for the government to do something. I am just a common man, who has a heart, shielded by the layer of selfishness which sometimes leak but quickly recovered. I was thinking and at one point slept.
"Hello. Wake up dear". It was my wife. "What are you dreaming about?" "Nothing", I smiled at her. I realized, I was in my dream all these time. Your brain brings back your previous memories when you are repeating something. This was my second trip to the capital after 10 years. "coffee?" "Yeah". The coffee was not good. But I didn’t threw it this time. I learnt the significance of food during that trip. I never wasted any food after that. If I don’t like it, I don’t take it. I cannot change the world, but I can change myself. An improvised version of a common man. The train was in Warangal, we were coming from New Delhi to Chennai after a short trip. I went out to buy some food. I saw the crowd was gathered near the window of my compartment. I pushed myself fast to check whether everything was fine with her. She was fine. Our fellow mate was angry. "These children are like this only" in a typical Indian English. He continued "They are not children, they are devils. We have to hand over them to police. Our country is spoiled because of these children. Who knows he might slowly turn into a terrorist in the future". What the hell has happened? Why the hell is he barking? "What happened?" I enquired politely. "I was eating masala dosa near the window. I was searching for the water bottle and suddenly one boy; you won’t believe he was hardly 10 years of age and stealing it sir. How will India develop with these kinds of children being the future pillars. It has increased nowadays. We should not allow it. I gave him nicely. He will dare to repeat the mistake next time". A proud citizen trying to change the fortunes of India. Wow. I put him in my heart and poured all the foul words I can, amplified using the most powerful Speaker System. I am not supporting theft. I would have joined him if it would have been anything but for food. I wouldn’t have felt that much hatred feeling for him, if he had stopped him and got his masala dosa back but unless and until for beating the child hardly 10 years of age. Poverty is our first enemy. I could just think of one thing now. Those children I saw didn’t have food, didn’t have home, didn’t’ have anything except love and care for each other. This highly educated Mr. Peter has all the things except love for all. They could manage some laughter even in those circumstances, while our super dooper citizen can’t even manage a smile. I don’t know whether those children will become a terrorist or is he a terrorist showing no mercy?
I felt her fingers on my hand. Raising her eyebrows with a smile on her face, she asked me. I could understand her question. "Nothing", I replied through asmile. She slowly placed her head on my shoulder and her hand gently around my neck literally hugging me. I was holding her other hand. "Why don’t you like kids?" she asked me "Who said I don’t like? I love them" I was dazzled by that question. "Then when are we going to have one?" She didn’t look at me. But I know she was smiling and blushing. I can feel that. Men are not that expresive. I couldn't find the answer immediatly but somehow I managed. "I am ready. Shall we begin the arrangements from now?". She pinched my arm. I didn’t feel anything, but "ouch, it’s paining". We will reach home tomorrow morning and I know what to do next. A promotion in life. Well, life has to proceed whether you like the way it is or not, after all I am just a common man. I have the rights only to feel, not to do.
