Not A Coach for Disabled - 1

The sun flowers were feeling guilty to face anyone as the clouds did not disclose the asset of the sky on time. The station where the train stopped was maniyAchi.. The smog created a natural CG for the trees. And, the cranes, not much excited, feeling lazy to spread their wings just walked browsing the land... They ate nothing... Just they were doing some window shopping and when the sun started negotiations with the fog, I could see their beak-on light!

Unlike the so called noisy metropolitan, where the concretes contribute in making the sun and stars abstract, here, the fields and landscape played a supporting role in magnifying the glory of the immeasurable sky... Quiet natural..!

I was inside the coach for disabled and nearing nAgarkOil on 26-2-10. The round trip was really coaching me the odds of the society, which invoked many thoughts regarding the disabled and regardless authorities.

My ticket read SL1 and Ananthapuri was about to leave Egmore at 7-15pm and the clock showed 6-55pm when a guy mounted the reservation charts. Arun and Krishna found that compartment at the tail end and took me there. There stood a man, seemed to be the guard who checked my tickets and said, “Two more passengers, one handicapped and her escort will come... Then lock the doors inside... don’t open it at any cost even if someone knocks... this is meant for you four only.”  Being unaware that the moving train is going to furnish many moving incidents that will touch the tender corners of any real mind, without a compulsion for connectivity or relevance, I remembered the question, what is the difference between the guard and the guru? The guard minds the train; the guru trains the mind.

The place accommodates two disabled persons and two escorts and four is certainly a crowd for the poor condition of the rest room. Thank God, I didn’t travel with any PYT or GF, but felt extremely happy that the train tried to throw some light on a single’s secrets and stayed disappointed like many dudes who tried to unveil the unbuttoning!

Ha ha... guys, I am joking...  It was a day light match-jyOthirmaya journey with seven bright-tube lights (oxymoron!). It seemed as if the Minister for Railways, a servant of the Italian Delight would not have nodded to grant switches for the lights or plug points for chargers as they are endangering specimens for the handicapped. In reality, Disability makes people immobile and the coach did the same too!

Not even a single or married plug point existed there. But, this particular compartment was drawing solar energy through its broken body. While the emergency (why the picture always shows a guy jumping out of a window as if the husband returned unexpectedly, emer-gentcy?) windows on either sides were capable of letting in any anti-social element through the “holy” shutters, there was an easy solution in the name of broken-plywood-inner wall. They were actually like hidden tunnels and you can open it if you be daring enough to slide through the fast moving shaky train. That is the syrup (speciality) of the medi-train which shakes the content well before use. Doesn’t matter, you will be on the right track fortunately if your train is on the left track. Even otherwise, you will enjoy that you have been left “on track” from the right train! The train travels reverberates the gravels of the mind to remain “never mind” in any such given conditions.    

The compartment is spacious enough to wander with a wheel chair and the toilet really lets access to the rest room with a broad door, giving room to the rendezvous of both WCs! (wheel chair - western closet). There was a hand rail under the windows in lower level that, if you walk, you need to bend too much to reach it. But, the only greatest thing one can appreciate about that is, even if a year old kid tries to hang itself, the kid will survive!

The seat is broader than the usual, giving a comfort stay for my bumps (are they still bumps if one lies on his back?) and while mine was feeling great, the entrance of the rest room lacked one. As a result, the water, crossing boundaries were causing boundless worries to the patient-gers. “Waters from holes are never holy waters!” As the surface is wet, it red carpets an easy approach for cockroach encroachments. I kept my mrudangam on the upper berth to prevent any “hit-die” creatures exploring it and as an expression of gratitude for the divine instrument which keeps an all time lover of lower be(i)rth guy in the upper berth of artistic values.

The constant knockings and loud tapings on the windows and the door, reminds you that are in homeland, you can never miss even a smallest station though you are in deep sleep. People wake you up not only by ignorance but also because they think it is their right to enter and also they envy you for you have space inside. These kinds of problems are perennial as 'sky is the limit' in and for space!