There was only one train at that moment, so I decided to ask for its destination. I went to the compartment and saw ticket collector standing next to it. I asked him, “Does that train goes to Mumbai?” He looked at me and kept looking for several seconds. The way he was looking at me gave me the creeps. Suddenly, he said, “Wherever you want.” Strange! I wasn’t expecting that kind of answer from a TC. I tried to convince myself that the TC must have been exhausted; that’s why he gave such a crappy excuse.
I moved forward to check the other compartments, and surprised to see that the train was not filled with the passengers as I was expecting. Usually, you can’t get that much free space into a train which is heading towards the cities like Mumbai, so that might be my lucky day. But one thing I observed that the passengers –who were still sitting inside the compartments—were sitting straight. They weren’t moving at all and they were looking straight in the oblivion. I felt like I was looking at the mannequins.
One after the other, I checked almost each and every compartments, and I witnessed the same scene. I was totally confused and thinking about whether should I board on that train or not. Since, I had a huge hurry to reach Mumbai; I had to board on that train anyway. So I decided to get in a compartment, which I found completely empty from outside. As soon as I had lifted my leg to get in, I felt a grab on my shoulder. Someone pulled me back in a force that I lost my balance an fell on the platform. It was the station master, who was looking at me with anger in his eyes. Just then, I saw that the old train was no longer there, and another train came running on the same track and moved passed in a speed of a bullet.
“Are you stupid boy?” He said, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
I was totally shocked by the scene I had just witnessed. I said, “I was just boarding up on that train…”
He looked at me like I was some kind of maniac. He said, “Boarding up on a running train? Is that what you were going to do?”
I said, “No! Not that one. I was trying to board up on that old train, which was right there a moment ago.”
He again looked at me with a confused look on his face, but then he came close to me and helped me to get on my feet. Then he started to speak softly, “Listen boy, the next train will arrive at 2:00AM. You should wait till then by sitting on a bench; till then, stay away from the tracks.”
I said, “Please tell me you saw that train just like I did.”
“Well… I didn’t!” He said, “But would not refuse your claim. I had never saw that train that you described, but I had witnessed a lot of people committing suicide right on that spot at the very same time. No one ever found the reasons behind their act, for most of them were having great lives. Now I have totally understood the real reason behind their deaths.”
I was trembling by thinking about; what would have happened if the station master had not intervened, I might have been dead on those tracks too. I thanked to the station master, gave up the idea of catching the train on that time and went straight to my home. From that day on, I had never tried to catch the train at night.
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