travel memories

2 August, 1998 Delhi. I’m waiting to collect my salary. Elsewhere Arshad was doing the same and we were to meet on the Brahmaputra Express. I just made it and soon spotted an outsized grin coming towards me. "Arshad Miya" I yelled and we got settled in. Two young girls, their mother and three tough guys made up our cabin.

At night a hand slithered down over the girl sleeping in the lower bunk. She shriveled into a corner. The train clanged over the moonlit swollen Son River and I saw the scene being repeated with her sister. I walked down and found a railway constable, offered him a cigarette. We had to come back to my cubicle for matches ;)

In the morning they (not the guys) shared breakfast with us and we got off at Alipurduar with a mother’s blessing warm on our foreheads. The trip was on.