My 'Siddharth' moment

No, I didn't meet any Siddharth. Siddharth as in Gautam Buddha before he became the Buddha. Everybody knows his story, right?

So here goes mine. I rarely travel by trains. Thrice in past 10 years or so, to be precise. And earlier when I did travel by trains, it was the rajdhani between Mumbai and Delhi and that cannot be called our quintessential train - let's just say it is nicer and cleaner.

The past 3 times, I have travelled between Hyderabad-Bangalore. Of these also, on the earlier 2 occassions, I reached the station just when the train was about to start. I was very late and I did the whole running on the platform routine and barely managed to get on the train. (Exactly the opposite of what my dad taught us all our lives).

Anyways, long story short, the last time I travelled by train was the first time I spent whole one hour on the platform waiting for a train that caters to the aam aadmi. And I happened to find a spot where the non-ac, sleeper compartment was expected. And to make the story shorter, let's just say, I saw a lot of stuff and lots of people I am not used to seeing. Old infirm couple managing on their own, husband taking such good care of his wife. Small kids crying for treats their parents couldn't afford. And so on. You get the picture.


But what made my heart cringe was this little girl travelling with her sister who was barely 4 inches taller than her and these two were all by themselves. On that station. In a crowd of hundreds of strangers. Waiting for their train possibly for an overnight journey. Hungry. Thirsty. Alone.

I was generally chatting with the girls and they shared my water and biscuits. The high point came when they saw a Ganesha idol being offloaded from the train. These little kids got so excited and ran to look at the Ganesha leaving their one tiny bag behind. And I could not hold my tears back because I was suddenly made aware that these are just children with their tiny hearts and tiny joys. Little kids loaded with so much responsibility, left alone to fend for themselves in a place which can intimidate grown-ups, when they really should be concernless and free to run and play and scream. Especially the elder one - she had to take care of the little one as well.

And THAT was my 'Siddharth' moment. I am not taking off to the forests just yet though. That would make the world a happier place and we don't want that. We want a state of moksha.

Anyways, I had to leave them when my train arrived and I'm sure they are doing well for themselves. They are strong and sensible kids. A little too sensible a little too early.