Changed Strategy...

It’s always like this. He had never reached the railway station without all those last minutes hurry ups. When he reached the station the announcements were echoing all over the platform. He checked the list and hurried to the second platform. The train was there ready to leave. It looked like a big python.

Before entering his coach he checked the reservation list which was hanging outside the door. He was delighted to see his name, Anup Tiwari. He looked all around as if his name was there in some national newspaper only to realise that no body was bothered. Laughing at himself, he took his baggage and jumped inside the coach. Suddenly, something pulled him back. He checked the list once again, who all are going to come in his cabin.

Seat Name Age Gender From To
S8-37 Ram Prakash 54 M LTT KKDI
S8-38 Jagadamba Kadam 48 F LTT KKDI
S8-39 Archana Sahoo 34 F LTT RHA
S8-40 Meera Shah 22 F PNVL TCR
S8-41 Rajesh P 37 M RTGI ERS
S8-42 Jagdeesh Pujari 39 M RTGI ERS
S8-43 Anup Tiwari 24 M LTT MDGN
S8-44 Mangal Sahoo 37 M LTT RHA

His eyes then got stuck on one name, Meera, his eyes glinted happiness. But the boarding was after two stations.

He reached his birth, a side lower birth. He kept his baggage beneath the seat and settled. His eyes scanned all the passengers in that cabin. Next to him there was a man with a thick moustache, maybe in his mid thirties. ‘How boring it will be to travel 1500 kilometres with this guy’, he thought. An old man was reading a magazine, oblivion to the world outside the train in the platform. The lady who was sitting beside him was looking much younger though, enough to be his daughter or daughter in law. Anup stared at her; she was stacking their baggage here and there. Twelve baggages, he counted. There was a not-so-bad-looking female sitting by the window seat. Wearing a big round bindi on her forehead, she seemed to have befriended solitude for this trip, if not for life long.

He sighed! This trip is going to be boring unless berth number 40 hosts a smart girl. ‘Meera Shah, sounds Gujarati!’ He thought. More than her name it was her age that excited him. Only two year younger to him, he imagined her like a mirage. Various prospective faces of Meera flashed through his mind, together with thoughts involving how to impress her to gain her friendship and flirt with her till destination.

The train started its journey with all its passengers. The sleeper class he was in was almost full. Tea and coffee vendors went here and there shouting their product, serving and collecting money.

“Do you mind to exchange your seat with my wife’s ticket? It’s a window seat.” The husky voice from the moustached man interrupted his imaginations about his yet-to-be-befriended friend Meera. “Yeah, no issues”, the answer was quick since this time his brain worked faster than a supercomputer. The tough, rough moustached person was giving an offer to sit near berth number 40, Meera’s seat. He wanted to jump with joy. Recalling the award for the best actor in his school days, he made a so-so face in front of him. He exchanged the seat and watched the couple sitting together in the side berth. “Happy for you, I will somehow manage over here’ was the expression on his face. He only knows there was huge crackling joy bursting inside him.

When the train slowed down at panvel he took a position nearby the door. Each passenger entering and exiting were under his eagle eyes but no one cleared the criteria of a 22 year old beautiful lady with all those womanly features to the perfect as he had imagined. Suddenly a face caught his attention. Wheat colour face, black, straight and silky hair, she wore a beautiful smile. Her eyes were green which excited him and her lips were rose in colour, wide and full! The ear brows were perfectly shaped and the nose ring adorned her totally. Wearing jeans with a pearl white shirt, she was nothing less than a movie actress. She was far above from what he imagined. ‘The entire trip is going to rock!’ he thought. Flirting which is his forte is going to be the main weapon.

That is when he saw something odd; something he missed because of his excitement. A kid, maybe in his second year after birth, trying to tug at his mothers arm. Before the train started moving she raised the kid and placed him on her hips. Both waved to those who came to see off them. After few seconds she took her luggage and headed inside to settle in her berth.

Anup stood there standstill.
“Strategies should be changed” he thought with a grin.