My First Train Ride Alone

On 25^th July, 2013 I boarded a train alone for the first time, at the ripe old age of twenty-four! I was going home from XIMB, to spend the weekend after the mid-semester examinations. Yes, my stay at XIMB is the first time I am away from home, ever! All my life, my schooling, my engineering under-graduation, my job, everything was based in my home city, Kolkata. On 9^th June 2013, I boarded a train, not alone, to come to XIMB, which is my home now and will be for the better part of the next two years. Needless to say, this is the longest I've ever stayed away from home. So when the time came to go home after six weeks here, it was new experience for me. I told myself, “How hard can it be?”, and plunged into it without hesitation.

On reaching the station, I realized just how uninformed I was about travelling in trains. I did not know previously that train coach numbers came up on electronic boards on the platform. I had asked at least five different people how I would know where the compartment was where I had to get on. The waiting time was just five minutes in Bhubaneswar, so I was worried about missing the train (your regular ‘Jab We Met’ moment).

After getting on the train itself, there was another surprise waiting for me. The train was the Puri-Howrah express. So, it had already travelled one and half hours before it reached Bhubaneswar. The time when I boarded the train was just before twelve o’clock. What greeted me in the compartment was darkness! Everyone had already made their beds and fallen asleep! I don’t think I have to point out that life is in full flow at any B-School at Midnight. So, in six weeks here at XIMB, I had gotten used to that lifestyle as well. Unfortunately, I had no option but to tie up my suitcase, make my bed and pretend to fall asleep. Sometime later, a serious looking Ticket Checker turned on an overhead light and asked for my ticket. On being satisfied by what I produced, he left, leaving me, again, alone in the darkness. I knew there was no way I would fall asleep that early. So I decided to spend some time playing Blobby Volleyball on my cell phone. Eventually, the phone started making noises indicating low battery, so I had to give on that avenue as well. I resorted to looking out the window. It was raining.  I could make out that there was a strong wind blowing from the way the trees were moving. I saw some headlights but couldn’t make out if they were from a car or a tractor. Eventually, I grew tired of looking out into the darkness and decided to call it a night. The time was almost 2 a.m.

When I woke up the next morning, I had almost reached Kolkata. The weekend which followed was refreshing.  I caught a train the night of 28^th July for Bhubaneswar, my second train journey alone…