Dare To Dream

The train is full. I have a lower berth. The train is clean. But i am not going to the toilet. I have heard horrible stories about the train toilets. Considering its a 18 hours journey, i think i can manage. There is a couple sitting in frint of me. I dont think there was a single conversation where they didnt argue. But for a guy who is has not been in a relationship, it was music to my ears. They were quite comfortable unlike me. I didnt know anyone and didnt know what to do. What was taking the stewardess so much time.

I had heard of beggers in train. This guy with a shabby shirt and couple of suitcases. Nah beggers dont carry suitcases. So the guy came and sat next to me after placing his luggage below the seat.

I didnt want to talk to him. If i could just get my dinner, i would go sleep. I didnt find a button to call for assistance. The couple removed a big cylindrical steel box. It was made of smaller boxes which had rotis, subji, salad etc. I was looking at the food when the guy next to me spoke up.
” did you get food to eat from home?”. I didnt know what to say. So he poked me and repeated the same question.
“no i thought i would get something in the train”
“hmmm.. I think this is your first time in this train. The food in the train is really bad. But dont worry we can pick something up from the next station.”
I didnt say anything. Why is he being so friendly. What does he want from me.

The train stopped and a few people came in trying to sell some dishes. By the time i realized  i was dragged out of the train onto the platform. He ordered a few items on the menu of a food stall. I was scared i would miss the train so I kept looking at the train. Guess what the train started moving and my friend was not bothered. Should i make a run for it. What will he think. But what if i miss the train. May be he knows what he is doing. And he surely did. Within the next 30 seconds he picked up the food, held my hand and dragged me into the train. This guy is crazy. What if i got injured, even died. But a part of me was saying this is the only excited thing that has happened to you since god knows when. Time to eat.

The food looked delicious. I was very hungry so i started eating and didnt talk much till i finished eating. I didn’t know how to thank him.

” The food was good. Which station did we buy the food from?” Okay that was dumb.

“The food in the train is never good. The platform stalls have fresh food. I didn’t see the name of the station.”

“I never got to say thank you. I would have never done that alone. Let me pay for the food. How much did u pay?”

“That’s okay. The food wasn’t that expensive.”

“But i insists..”

“Okay lets make a deal. If you can guess my profession by the time i get off at blah, you pay for the food”

What a weird guy. Not everyone is jobless like him. Anyways the food was not expensive. Let me just go to sleep. By the time i get up, we would have reached blah. So i tried sleeping for the next one hour. But the curiosity to know what this guy does kept me awake. I tried to listen to his conversations with other passengers.

“The Indian cricket team is doing well now. I think its the best team since the world cup winning team in 83′. I have followed Indian cricket closely. I know a few cricketers personally.” So he is definitely  doing something in the field of cricket. Commentator, journalist etc.

“But there is no money in cricket unless you are a player. I was more interested in politics from the college days. I know very few people of my age think about going into politics, but you cannot clean the dirt in your house without getting dirty.” Oh a politician, god bless him. He thinks looking at his age i would never expect him to be a politician.

“I am definitely joining politics after 3 years. In fact all my college friends belong to the ‘youth of india’ party. 3 years because i need to finish all my current assignments before i resign from my job.” So close yet so far.

Now I knew I couldn’t sleep till i find out what he does. So i joined his conversation with the other passengers. I waited till the other had gone to sleep to introduce myself.

” Hi my name is Shivu. I am a .., sorry forgot our deal. So you must be really rich. Have you ever thought of donating money to the needy.?”

“Ya i sponsor the education of a few kids.” I said. And i started to think if he was a social worker.

“Don’t worry i am not a social worker. The question just comes to my mind when i see a rich guy. But I think you are doing a very good thing. My kids might need a sponsorship too. ha ha ha…”

I didn’t laugh. As i had guessed from his clothes that he was not from a wealthy background. But he was happy. What makes a person happy. When he has everything in life. But no one can have everything. But why is he happy, he doesn’t have anything.

The rest of the night he told me what he likes doing. He is into adventure sports, loves watching movies, likes playing guitar and traveling around the world. But what do you do for a living.

” How can you waste your life doing all this. What will happen after you are too old to do all these things. Thats why I work so hard now so that when i am old i have enough money to live comfortably.”

“What will you do with so much money when you get old. You can’t do anything. You won’t know how to spend the money. When I am old i can at least say i lived my life to the fullest. I fulfilled all my ambitions and now i can die poor but happy. peacefully!!!”

I didn’t know what to say. It was around 7 in the morning and we were about to reach. And then something happened, I got up and went to the toilet. My feet weren’t in my control anymore. By the time i came back, Shivu was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t look for him, I knew his work was done.

After a year i got into the same train. My shirt got stuck somewhere while boarding the train. When I tried to pull my shirt, it tore. I placed my luggage below the seat and sat next to this guy who looked really tensed. I looked at him and said.

” did you get food to eat from home?”. I knew he wouldn’t answer. So I poked him and repeated the same question.