YORKED

Your kind attention please.
“Train No 2345- Hyderabad –Cochin Sagar Express is expected to leave at 7.15 pm from platform No 9”. It went on unhindered in Hindi,English as well as Telugu. It is a great mercy that the announcements are only trilingual and not multilingual, imbibing all the languages we have.
The train was still playing truant even when there were hardly fifteen minutes for its departure.
The platform was crowded. There were more people than the passengers. In India each journey by train is a big event A whole tribe descends to see off a passenger. The passenger finds it a Herculean task to wade through the sea of humanity juggling around on the platform and locate his seat.
“Hi Tony!”
The tall boy with thick glasses blinked.
“Good Morning”
He blinked again.
“Have you forgotten us? We are your class-mates.” the girls giggled,” I’m Preetha.I’m Neetu.”
The boy was dumbfounded.
“Where are you off now?”
“Kottayam”, self conscious, Tony replied with a reddened face. Though he had been studying in a Co-ed school for the past ten years, this was the first word he had ever spoken to a girl. Orthodox parents had brought him up. The upbringing was conservative. The unspoken message had ever been, “It’s a great sin to look at a girl, let alone converse with her.”
Tony was on his way to Kottayam to visit his relatives. Rohan, his elder brother, James, his dad and Sarasu, his mother were with him.
A whole year’s planning had gone into this trip. It has been a ritual every year.
James and Sarasu were teachers in a higher secondary school at Kirandul, a God forsaken place in the outskirts of Hyderabad. They were at once teachers and wardens. It had been a tough task to keep the girls off from their own talented boys. They knew their boys would find their own girls. But they didn’t want the girls to distract their sons from their studies. They had lots of unfulfilled dreams. How are they going to realize their dreams through their children, if they are allowed to lead their life as they liked, following the footsteps of their parents.
For James and Sarasu, it had been a courtship that had lasted whole through their school and college. As cupid had grown strong, they could not concentrate on their studies. Talent had given way to mediocrity. It was with great difficulty they could land a job after two children. Life had been difficult and the story might have been different but for the job in the school.
Tony sat there quietly. Across him sat Preetha and Neetu. They were smiling at each other whispering in conspirational tones.
“We have to teach him manners. Why, hasn’t he come across girls before?”
Preetha looked 15 years and was as tall as Tony. Neetu was shorter; but she too seemed of similar age.
Preetha began, “Hey Tony, you haven’t spoken yet. Pity, you don’t recognize us. We’re from the same school and same class.”
Silence, Tony decided, was golden. He got up quietly, walked over to his parents and apprised them of the difficult situation.
“ I’ll go and assess the situation”, said James. He went over. Both the girls got up at once and wished him in unison, “Good Morning Mr. James. How’s ma’m?”
The girls were in slacks and jeans. They looked familiar. James returned to Sarasu. “Why don’t you have a look?” he added, “The girls are our students.”
“Good Morning ma’m,”the girls cried out with respect as soon as Sarasu made her mark. Sarasu was in two minds. “Were the girls really their students or were they bluffing?”
The train started moving. She went back to her seat and asked Tony to go back to his seat. “Be careful, girls are full of venom”, she advised.
Finding solace from nowhere, Tony returned to his seat, grim faced. He took up the textbook for Geography - his mother’s subject, there will be hell to pay if he is not proficient in it – and tried to immerse himself in it.
How can he divert his attention when he has two beautiful girls across, smiling at him. But he held on and kept the book open. Preetha won’t let go. She opened up. “Tony, you are scared of Mrs. Sarasu and Geography. Aren’t you? We too are.”
“ The vacation has given us a well earned respite from Geography,” said Neetu.
Tony went straight to Sarasu.”The girls are from my class. They are scared of
Mrs. Sarasu and Geography.”
“Forget them,” said Sarasu, “Enjoy the journey watching the countryside flash by.”
“What kind of a person are you?” James scolded Sarasu. “You have always been like this. You don’t know anyone anywhere. You do not even know your students,” he added. Sarasu fumed but kept quiet.
“Come Tony, have a bite” Preetha offered part of a samosa she was devouring.
Tony fumbled, looked around and as no one was watching took the samosa and devoured it. He loved samosas.
“Why don’t you buy us a coke, Tony at the next station?” prodded Neetu.
“I’ve no money,” said Tony.
“They are both strict and stingy”, blurted out Preetha glancing furtively in
the direction of James and Sarasu. “We’ll put up the money if you would share
the coke with us”, she added.
Coke had always been Tony’s weakness.
“Dad, Tony is on the platform. He’s buying a coke,” Rohan blurted out
“He must have saved his pocket money. If you had, you could have joined
him.” Sarasu admonished him. Rohan remained passive.
“Thank you very much. You are so sweet.” The girls were in chorus.
“Please open the bottle. We’ll drink from it in turn. There are no cups.”
Though it sounded unhygienic, it seemed not a bad idea to Tony.
Tony, Preetha and Neetu took their own time in sharing the coke.
A day and a night went by. The train passed through several stations
stopping at a few of them. Tony, Preetha and Neetu were having a fine time
They had become very friendly and were cracking a lot of jokes and enjoying
them .
‘Girls are after all good companions,” Tony told himself.
The train thundered into Ernakulam South station.
Preetha and Neetu were preparing to detrain.
They said, “Bye, Mr. James
Bye, Mrs. Sarasu
Bye, Rohan
Bye, Tony, have a nice time”
“Hey, Tony, We’re not your classmates” said Preetha and Neetu in unison as they stepped out of the train.
Tony blinked.
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