2009 had started well. I'd gone over to Europe during the Christmas and New Year fortnight and then come back to India and headed straight for Sunita's village where her younger sister was getting married. Bahadur travelled with me by train to a town called Jaunpur and from there we'd taken a bus to the village. Sunita was of course extremely surprised since, despite her invitation, she hadn't been expecting me because I had earlier declined. Living a couple of days in an Indian village, experiencing the immense hospitality and joys of camaraderie, had all been a very humbling occurrence. I met her entire family, lived and dined with them, helped in the wedding preparations, and generally enjoyed myself thoroughly.
There had been a night of wanton sex with Sunita and in some small measure with her sister-in-law Anu. And the debauchery had been divine. Too soon it was all over and I was heading back to Delhi and work. We were all supposed to be taking the train together; Sunita, Anu, Bahadur and myself, but the ladies had begged off saying they would return by the weekend with Anu's husband Ram. We managed to get the tickets postponed and the local station master at Jaunpur had assured us that the empty berths in the compartment would not be filled. Bahadur and I would have the four-berth compartment to ourselves so my driver had organised a good bottle of Old Monk rum, some bottles of coke, and some savoury snacks to go along with the drinks. We were travelling first class of course.
Sunita's father had accompanied me from the village to the railway station and left me in the capable hands of the station master, his friend. He didn't wait for the train to leave because he had some work to do in the town before returning home by bus in the evening. Bahadur was to join me at the train since he had gone off to meet some very distant relatives in the neighbouring town. Departure was scheduled for 6:30 on this mid-January evening, just as the sun would be setting.
The train pulled in on time at 6:10 and Bahadur still hadn't arrived. I'd been calling him for about fifteen minutes but kept getting messages from the service provider saying the phone was not within a cellular range. When Bahadur still hadn't got to the station by 6:30 I was worried; I knew it was too late for him to catch the train but my concern was the fact that he was incommunicado. As scheduled, we left Jaunpur station just when the sun was setting; I heard the long hoot of the diesel engine and then with a slight jerk the train set off on its way. Ten minutes later my cell phone rang; it was Bahadur. After a thousand apologies, he finally managed to convey that his bus had broken down on the highway between the town he had gone to and Jaunpur. There was nothing to be done so I told him to catch the next available train to Delhi and that I'd see him at home.
When the conductor came to check tickets, I told him that the other passenger had missed the train. Since the station master had introduced me to the conductor he was very polite and said that I could keep the entire compartment to myself and that he would not be giving the berths to any passengers on the journey. By 7:30 an assistant conductor and another service person both entered the compartment and busied themselves with making the beds. They pulled down the backrest which converted to a fairly wide berth, spread a clean white bed-sheet on it, laid a pillow and neatly spread a blanket over another sheet. They also left a spare blanket at the foot of the bed. Then, surprisingly, they did the same with the other three berths; two top berths and another lower one. Clearly, nobody had told them that I was the only passenger in this compartment.
The ticket checker came in after his rounds and informed me that dinner would be served in the compartment shortly and wondered if there was anything else I needed. I pulled out the bottle of rum that Bahadur had left with me along with a couple of cokes and invited him to join me for a drink. He smiled and immediately went off to organise two tumblers and a pail of ice cubes. Brilliant! I poured out a round and we chatted about nothing in particular for a while before he said he needed to go back on duty. I was left to myself so I had another drink as I gazed out of the first class windows and saw the feeble street lights go past as a highway ran alongside the railway tracks for some distance. There was a short halt for about four or five minutes at a small station, possibly to pick up postal mail, and then we trundled off again.
Soon after that, the dinner service arrived; a white table cloth was laid out on the pull-out table between the two lower berths and a steel thali placed on it. Dinner consisted of rice and chapattis, chicken curry, a mixed vegetable, daal and yogurt. It all went down well with another glass of rum and coke. After I was done I went to the toilet at the end of the bogey, brushed my teeth, washed up and returned to my compartment. Standing at the entrance, knocking on the door, was the conductor and a lady wrapped in a dark blue woollen shawl. I excused myself past them and slid open the door, looking quizzically at the conductor as I entered. He apologised profusely for disturbing me and asked permission to enter.
Once inside my compartment, I invited him in and asked what the matter was. He continued his apology for some time and then said that a young girl, the daughter of the village head where the train had just stopped for a couple of minutes, needed to travel for about six hours. "She will not go all the way to Delhi, only a few stops and she will reach her destination by about 3:00 a.m. Please Sahib, I must give her a berth to sit so that she is not troubled by any scoundrels outside. She will not disturb you. She will be ready to leave the train at 3 o'clock and I will come to help her out. Sahib, only your compartment has vacant berths. A thousand apologies Sir but you can see my predicament, no?"
He rattled that off in one long monotonous string of words. I was a little put off, having been promised and hence had my expectations raised to believing that I would not have to travel with any company. But I understood the quandary the man was in, and more so the jam this young girl was in. So I acquiesced, nodded at the conductor and stepped aside for the young lady to bring her luggage into the compartment. As it turned out, she only had a tiny suitcase and a backpack. She pushed the suitcase under the berth and placed her bag on the side table at the foot of the bed, next to the door. The conductor looked at me with much appreciation, thanked me, spoke some words to the girl in Hindi, and slid the door shut. I wasn't sure whether I should bolt the door or not.
The next five minutes were spent in silence; a shroud that settled uncomfortably over the suite, only the rattle of the wheels racing over the steel rails in the night. The windows were all shut so the noise was limited but in its own way, a comforting rhythm. With an element of sublime arrogance, I poured myself another drink, thinking I wasn't going to change my pleasure just because I now had forced company. But then I began to feel bad for the girl, or at least my attitude towards her began to seem rather petty and mean. I looked up at her and saw that she was sitting quietly, mouse-like almost, in the corner and staring out of the window.
She had drawn her feet up and sat cross-legged on the lower berth opposite me. Her thick shawl wrapping her up so completely that all I could see of her was her head. As she continued to gaze out of the window the overhead lighting fell partially on her face, with the rest being in shadow from the berth above. She had a fairly dark complexion, darker than the normal wheatish brown that most other women had. Her hair was tied back tight over her head but then neatly braided from the neck down, the ponytail disappearing under cover of the shawl. Her forehead was broad and wide, the eyebrows well groomed, large eyes bordered by long eye lashed, a well structured nose, a small mouth with seemingly regular lips. Her chin was rounded but the jaw line running up to the base of her ears were distinct. Her neck was thin and a little on the long side but it flowed in well with her shoulders of which I could barely see an inch before the shawl covered the rest of her. It was a very young and pretty face and I found myself looking quite unabashedly at her as the train darted through the chilly darkness outside.
I saw her eyelashes flutter; that was the first movement on her body that I observed after we'd settled down on our berths. A couple of seconds later she turned her head and looked me, instantly bowing her head when she realised I was staring at her. I apologised, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to gawk like that."
