Train journeys can be an intriguing affair – both in
solitary and in groups. I don’t really think I have a preference but both bring
out unique experiences.
Now that I’m older and paths have diverged, family outings have
more than faded from my time table. They do tend to bring an air of nostalgia –
playing chess with my brother on the top bunk, the exchange of dialogues across
the emptiness of space as we lay in our respective ‘beds’. Sadly, memory has
never been an area where I’ve been particularly strong at, so it’s more than
likely that I have forgotten a lot that I should have remembered.
But as is often said, accept the past and embrace the
present. Train journeys have become more
an excursion by myself since. Yes, given I have somehow managed to perpetuate
the student life despite having completed quite a few years on this earth – train
journeys back home with friends are something I have managed to experience even
after having a school and college life that robbed me of those moments long
back.
It’s so easy to steal something when you don’t realize it was
there in the first place, isn’t it? The perfect robbery of possibilities.
But I digress. As the years have gone on, I’ve tried to
understand how best to spend my time on a train – be it alone or with others. Alone
there are those constant friends – books and battery. But I do try to go beyond
that and see my surroundings, both the people who have become temporary
neighbours in this small portion of my life as well as the scenery outside.
Another activity is me reflecting on my own life when in my
own space. And the choices I’ve made. As I said, memory is not a strong point
of mine, so it’s doubly troubling that most of what I remember are the wrong
decisions I took instead of the right ones. It’s hard to focus on positivity when
bright spots are blanked out – which makes a colourful present all that more
needed.
Coming to the other side, a journey with friends. I have
never been on a car trip so that is still an area to explore (while I’m all
thumbs at bikes), but as I said – lets embrace the present first. Living 4
hours from home, I’ve had the opportunity to see what it is like to travel with
friends – especially those who reside in my hometown.
It’s been an experience
of multiple shades. More often than not, late nights have conspired to lull us
to sleep as soon as we hit our seats. But it’s the moments where we converse
that I found can be the best portion of a journey.
It’s hard to call friendships of just a year a proper one,
but then the definition has never been on length has it? Let’s just call them
people I’ve grown to care about. There are some people you listen to for hours
on and you never realize (and sometimes curse) when the train reaches the
destined station.
Maybe that is a metaphor for life as well. You have stops
you have to get off on, and you don’t want to. But then unlike a train, you can
always fight to move those stops, even a little. Cause even a little can make a
lot of difference to the big picture that is your life.
And the train goes on…...
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