I am on a train right now, heading back from Dehradun Station to New Delhi after a weekend outing with my family to the “Queen of Hills” Mussourie. To my great surprise when I boarded the train, I found my compartment teeming with noisy school children. They are all about 10 or 12 years old at most. There are 25 of them and they are being accompanied by 5 teachers. 4 of them are garrulous ladies who have set up their own “kitty party”. One is a slightly aged man who is sitting beside me. He has the window seat and is enjoying the view outside. He seems a queer man. Dressed in a simple and somehow fading shirt, uncool jeans and mountain shoes, he was making quite a fuss about the railway authorities not providing the dairy creamer inside the sachet containing the sugar and tea bag. He uses a NOKIA E71 and is spending most of the time Googling stuff. Sometimes he is logging on to Facebook as well. The train is steaming through the green valleys of Dehradun. Suddenly he asks the three little girls in the seat just in front of him…” Can you tell me the name of the river we just passed?” He didn’t get any replies…the three little girls who were giggling all this while just looked at him with blank stares. In the seats just in front of them, the garrulous Lady Teachers were enquiring of the students whether any of them had a pain relief spray with them! “Didn’t I tell you about the river that we cross after Haridwar and before we reach Dehradun?”, Sir asked in a questioning manner. “ We have forgotten Sir”, the girls replied as sweetly as they could! “No matter, ask your teachers then…”
“What Sir? Why are you making them take our exams Sir?”, one of the fat ladies said combing her hair, evidently quite irritated with Sir’s suggestion. “ Son river, Sir”, another of the ladies said…” We also know our bit, Sir”, she said in a “Take that old man” tone! “Right! Very good Madam! That’s one ice cream for you when we get off!”, said our Sir.
“How do you know so much, Sir?” asked one of the little girls, “Well I like to read many books and travel my angel”, replied the old man with an air of knowledge. “Then you must have got lots of marks in your exams, Sir?” his little angel continued. “Huh! Marks? Who said anything about marks?”, exclaimed Sir. “ I just like to find out stuff…problem is that I never found them out at the right time…it was always after the exams and out of my own interest that I came to know all of this!” The little girl didn’t seem to understand and went back to playing with her hair.
A loud voice boomed the air right now! “STUDENTS!!! WHY ARE YOU MAKING SO MUCH NOISE. IT IS 6 PM. YOU WILL ALL HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP NOW!”. It’s the Headmistress. There is a hush in the air now. Haridwar is approaching. I am logging off for the while. We will all HAVE to go to sleep now!
