Today I understood the meaning of “a window seat” in a Mumbai local train. I saw him (the person who made me understand) sit near the window and shouting continuously “I want the window seat.” I wondered what exactly he was talking about. “How can someone be so absent minded”, I thought, considering the fact that nobody was responding to him though he was abusing everyone.
I wanted to know whom the fellow was abusing. With further attempts, I found a middle aged person seating in front of the “abnormal” fellow. He was too calm and too composed.
I stopped looking at them, and went busy with my phone. Suddenly, I heard a noise similar to that we hear while shutting down a window. I looked back. The “autistic” fellow had closed the window so that the air would not blow into the train through the window. And now I understood everything. The fellow I considered “autistic” actually was a “fundamentalist” – condition changed, but he was still a patient for me. I understood that the seat on which the patient sat was not considered as a window seat as he was facing the opposite site of the direction the train was moving towards. He was upset because he wanted to get heavy blow of air to hit him, which could happen only when he could sit on the so-called “window seat”.
"Maac**d, B**c**d.."(I don’t remember the other words as I was introduced to them for the first time). “Get out of the train. I feel like murdering you people. God knows where you come from. Shit, I don’t find a single fellow from my community in this compartment. It’s all because of you people.”
During all these abuses, the victim opened the window. The patient went on abusing more and more. After a while he took a pause, and started again. “Will you just shut up,” said a gentleman. “Why the hell you are abusing since so long,Maac**d“ and all of a sudden the patient’s voice sounded like that of a adamant kid. “I want the window seat., that’s why I am shouting,” the patient said in a very low vice. “Shut up”, said the even more angry gentleman. Then prevailed a deadly silence in the compartment.
When I got down, I looked at the patient. He was sleeping peacefully while around 100 people were standing and some 8 people were hanging outside.
2 comments:
hey ganesh nice write up. I agree that local trains have become a hotspot for fights for pointless reasons. People r just so frustrated that they vent all their frustration in da locals. Even the ladies compartment is full hotchpotch. Guess our schools should introduce chapters on tolerance. Wat say??
Thanks Namita. Instead of tolerance, I think it's more a question of humanity and maturity. Some people never grow up.
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