The trains shall pass

Tonight as I took my dog out for his after dinner walk, I glanced towards the railway tracks that run along our sector road. A passenger train was bustling through, suddenly my thoughts strayed to the purpose of the train. To take a person away from where he was, to another land where he had some other hopes, some other dreams. As I stood watching I couldn't help but feel a tug in my heart to get into that train and go away somewhere. As Shailendra Singh says in his book, that was my gut talking, always listen to your gut. But then my brain kicked in saying what do you think you will get by going away? Will going away give you what you want?

I remember when we shifted here, there were so less people around that we would hear the train every night, a bit disturbed yet a bit comforted. You see the place where we lived before was sandwiched between a railway crossing and an airport. In fact because of the crossing which was a few stops away from Delhi's main station, the trains would thunder through, their shrill whistle blaring all the while. That doesn't include the rumble of the airplanes taking off every 5 minutes, some of them belonging to the air force which insisted on making their presence felt. Not like a 10 year old bespectacled boy was complaining.

I had gotten used to the noise. It was comforting in its own way, the thunder, the roar, the drone, the rambling of jet engines just itching to leave the confines of the ground. Sometimes, in the times of power cuts, when it would be completely dark, I would go to the roof (pulling myself up over a narrow opening to access the roof, by keeping a foot balanced on the verandah rod and the other one hinged somewhere on the front door). I would sit and look at all the dotted lights blinking and moving so slowly, waiting their turn to touch the skies. If I wanted to spot trains, I just had to turn my back and perhaps I would catch a glimpse of the iron giants hustling and puffing through, their shrill horns used to full measure. 

Today I sit in my room, only the sound of my music and dogs barking in the distance. Life was chaotic back then, but it was fun. These days it seems the fun has just dried up, and dark days seem the norm rather than the exception. Perhaps time to board that train and explore something that is more than all this?