Last semester, during my Holi break, I had to go my grandparents’ place in Allahabad by the Kalka Hawra express. I reached to Kalka from Solan , from where I had to board the train, by bus. As the departure time was 12 o’ clock and I was tired, I quickly went off to sleep. Next morning, while I was languishing in the cozy ac two tier compartment, reading  a novel to pass time, I was somehow, reminded of my first journey from this very train.

 It was about three years back. I, along with my two other friends had to go to Kanpur from Kalka. It was a last minute plan, so we had no reservations. We bought the tickets of the general category as it was not possible to get any other so late. We boarded the train at 11 0’ clock and it was still one hour before the departure time. But it was already full to the capacity. The three of us could hardly manage a seat to sit. It was getting increasingly hot and sticky inside but leaving the seat and going outside for a breather meant risking our seat. So we waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity, for the train to depart. It finally left after an hour. As it crossed various stations on the way, the people only seemed to get in and nobody seemed to disembark the train. The train compartment became more congested with the every station that we crossed. Train reached Delhi at about 7 0’clock. What I saw at the Delhi station really appalled me. Our seat was right in front of the emergency window. The coolies were literally throwing people inside the train through the emergency window as the path was too crowded because there were so many people sitting on the floor as well.  Up till now, it was still possible to flex our bodies or move just a little bit. After Delhi, it became impossible as people were now sitting so congested that even the sweat from our bodies was mixing and emanating enormously pungent smell. I was feeling a tremendous urge to take a leak but it wasn’t even possible to make my way to the toilet. Even in such overcrowding, somehow some eunuchs managed to get inside the compartment. They not only walked through the swarm, but also extorted money from each and every individual in their own well known way.

 Our agony ended when the train arrived to the Kanpur station and we disembarked the train through the same emergency window because if we had tried to take the proper way, we wouldn’t have been able to come out of the train in time and it would have departed.

 This time when I was traveling by the first class, in the very same train, the journey was as comfortable as it could’ve been. I was sleeping for most of the time or reading a novel to pass the time. I had a comfortable berth, a pillow and a blanket.  No beggar or eunuch was allowed to enter this compartment. But when I thought about the people who would still be traveling in the most awful circumstances, I was forced to realize something that I had known all along. I realized that life too is so much like a train and how contrasting the lives of two people, following the same phases of life (or stations in a train), can be. While one does the same things in depravity, other has more than he needs. This was no epiphany but still a very strong reminder of the truth.

 My thought process ended when the train reached Allahabad and I saw that my uncle had come to receive me. I got down from the train and passed by the general compartment and I could see the commuters crammed for space, who would have to wait for few more agonizing hours before their journey finally ended.