On 3 April I boarded Jaipur Express. I found two brothers, one may be 35 other 45 having their lunch. They talked in Bhojpuri accented Hindi and proved to be nice travelling companions. Beside their baggage, they had a sack full of 40 Kg rice and seemed fond of eating and kept munching on this and that throughout the journey. They were from some far off village and seemed fond of each other. Younger brother told us how on his recent visit to his native village his Bhabhi (sister-in-law) took care of him. He was tired after the long journey, his Bhabhi arranged for his bath and provided him with good clean clothes. When he sat down to dinner she took his dirty clothes to wash. And when he finished eating ,his aunt was ironing his clothes. Food was awesome and he was over-whelmed by her loving care and wished she remain forever young.
His elder brother called home admonishing mildly his son who had created a ruckus as his mother didn't let him watch T.V. .He told him he is a big boy now and should respect his mother and not call her names. And he should do nothing to malign or tarnish his Family name.
Our train stopped at Kasganj Station which is inhabited by lots of monkeys. They kept jumping on the train, one of them quickly snatching chips packet from a little girl as she was returning inside the carriage.I had Tea and chips at Kasganj, Tea was just ok but Masala chips were horrible and I wondered why I even bought it.
A young handsome boy and his elder sister with her daughter entered our cabin at Farrukhabad, they had booked from Kannauj but boarded at a later station. Sister was an impatient woman who would snap-talk before she think it over. Before checking facts in a level-headed manner she would recklessly snap at her brother and later regret when her brother would patiently point out facts.
An old experienced policeman was travelling with us who kept telling us many interesting anecdotes especially a long one about a Mr Khan who adopted an orphan. He said if companion is good journey becomes pleasant. Also story of a kind-hearted T.T. .He later on advised a Muslim guy travelling with us not to consume Tobacco. Muslim guy said he used to wake up all night till he started eating this pan-masala, it somehow induced him to sleep.
That night we had partial eclipse of moon and I gazed at it through the window.
A guy who had lost his ticket had to pay a fine plus ticket fare all over again. Two guys came around near our cabin chatting in a southern accent, one of them later put his Laptop on charging.
Journey was beautiful and scenic ,saw en-route a semi-circle of street lights which were there for no obvious reason as no street was present. We passed many crop-fields and brick-fields. My younger brother was reluctant about my going away, so enjoyed lesser, had to try hard to relish the vistas from the window of moving railway carriage.
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