Twenty-two houses for every village and an endless paddy field.
We glide over the iron tracks, across the valley, watching lights flicker from the distant horizon. Night Brings moon, and it spreads its wings over the vast fields. An ancient snake screams out its disgust. Leaves only smoke
When it’s gone.
No one got down at Ludhiana. No one boarded the train.
Only the onlookers looked back with a strange emptiness
As I blew out the much needed smoke
Through a hole by the toilet window of our AC train.
A train snails out of the Jalandhar railway station, reluctantly.
We are already running an hour late, the TT says.
Many trains have been running late I hear,
Violence in Amritsar they blame.
I sit watching a kid hop, kick and jump for six hours.
Restless inside a cage, like those tiny fishes in the aquarium that
Adity spent the day watching.
I reset my watch
For the trains to reach when they must,
And for us to feel a little less weary
When this journey ends.
-30-
Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.Please send in your feed back and comments to editor@madrascourier.com
