In life we meet many people, each with their own idiosyncrasy – habits, actions, thoughts that are different than what is “expected” in society. Manifestation of these can be negative but also it can be positive, does not hurt anyone but creates situation that are hilarious such that one would remember throughout one’s life. This series of anecdotes is compilation of such incidents. The protagonists in these incidents are from different generations, countries and societies. For this purpose, and to hide the identity of the protagonist, a generic name Boka Bob has been assigned to the protagonist.
The Missed Train
Life in Mumbai is hectic – more so for people who have to travel by local trains to reach their place of work. Travelling in a crowded train, twice every day, is made bearable, to some extent, by striking up friendship with people one spends time with in the compartment. In a crowded city, with numerous local trains shuttling people from one point to the other, this is made possible by habit of most of those travelling by the same local train that leaves at a particular time, in the same compartment every day. Some such acquaintances spend time playing cards, (the regulars who somehow always claim the same seats, a luxury, (most probably boarding the train at the starting station) and others just stand around conversing with their acquaintances or friends. Some of these relationships are made in trains only. The friendship with Boka Bob was one such relationship born out this necessity to have some distraction during the travails of travel.
Both of us had moved to Mumbai for professional reasons. Fresh out of a reputed B-School, offer from a reputed consulting firm – we were in seventh heaven after the interview. After all the family celebrations, when we returned to Mumbai, the reality hit us. None of the topics – forecasting, budgeting, risk assessment etc. covered in the MBA had prepared us for this scenario. We soon realised, and accepted the fact, that renting a place in South Mumbai was out of question and despite having earned a fancy degree and earning good salaries, we will have to live in the suburbs and travel back and forth from work in local trains just like any other “aam aadmi,” spending about an hour each way. This is where the learning in early schooling years, a line from Serenity Prayer – “Serenity to accept the things I cannot change” helped more than anything I had learnt in the B-School.
Still, trapped in a crowd, with unknown faces, being pushed around by the waves of people entering and exiting at every station, was not a very happy experience. But the depression did not last very long. Within a few days, I knew I was not alone in this situation. I noticed a couple of other people in the crowd in a similar plight. And soon, “birds” with full sleeve shirts and ties, even in humid summer of Mumbai, flocked together. These acquaintances not only helped pass the travel time discussing work, anecdotes from work, respective bosses and their personalities and organisations and their shortcomings, but also in finding shared accommodation at a reasonable rent. As luck would have it, Boka Bob, another person and I found a decent accommodation at reasonable rent and soon settled down there. We used to have quick cold breakfast, lunched at work and decided took turns to cook dinner at “home.”
As time passed, we got to know each other better. Boka Bob was also very forgetful, and hence, landed in odd/tricky/funny situations very frequently. The other part of his personality was a unique mannerism with which he handled various situations, especially adverse ones, without flinching, and with calm and cool. He also did not have any misgivings about sharing such stories with us. This usually made our journey in local train interesting and virtually “short.”
One day, when we met at the station for our return journey, Boka Bob appeared fidgety and soon announced “Sirji, I missed lunch today and am very hungry. I will just go and get something like a sandwich to sustain me till we reach home.” With the spectre of missing our regular “fast” local, we tried to dissuade him. If we missed this, the next train, a slow train – with more stops, longer travel time and more crowded, was half an hour later. But once his mind was made up it was impossible to change it. We warned him that we will not wait for him if he does not show at the train departure time. His responded “Arre Sirji, don’t worry. I will be back 5 minutes before the departure time” and walked away.
As the clock ticked, we, not blessed with carefree nature as Boka Bob, started panicking. We were standing close to the door of the first bogie, our regular compartment, desperately looking over the crowd down the length of the train for some sign of Boka Bob. The horn on the train blared and the train started creeping slowly. It was decision time for us – to get on the train and follow our routine or wait for Boka Bob. Mentally cursing Boka Bob for this situation we ultimately decided not to ditch our friend and leave him to travel all alone with unknown crowd. There was not an expectation but there was some sense of “feel good” for the sacrifice we were making. As the train picked up speed, we wistfully watched the bogies pass by while our mind was visualising our forthcoming ordeal of wait and then travel on a slow train, in an unknown crowd, reaching home late and then cook and eat. Suddenly, this picture was shattered by the sight of a familiar face on the door of the last bogie. There was Boka Bob with calm composed and satisfied look on his face taking a large bite out of a double sandwich.
On our delayed journey to home, no thought of delay, crowd or hunger entered our mind as it was working overtime creating innovative ways to kill Boka Bob. The door of the apartment was latched from inside. We had to knock on the door. After a short delay the door opened. There stood Boka Bob with complete calm on his face. Before we could physically move or even speak, he said, “Arre Sirji, how come you are so late? Did you miss the train?” Then, without waiting for an answer, he turned around, started walking to his room saying “Please cook something quickly. I am very hungry.”
— Nishant Banthia
Image Credit:
https://pixabay.com/photos/india-mumbai-bombay-train-crowds-296/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Public_transport_in_Mumbai.jpg
https://pixabay.com/photos/india-mumbai-bombay-train-crowds-295/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tataimitra/15338488802/