Witnessing the pompousness of an Indian lady…

Today, the morning began with a race to ‘hunt’ a medicine for my Mom. It was typically hunting because this particular medicine is available only in few medical shops across the place. It is a Sunday and 'fewest' among these ‘few' would keep the shops open on the day. After hunting for an hour at distant shops, I managed to find the medicine from a medical shop closer to my home. And that taught me the lesson for the day, ‘open your eyes and see what surrounds you!”

With that lesson being learned, I hurried to the railway station with a huge trolley bag – the journey back to my workplace. My Mom accompanies me and she is with a much satisfaction that she could buy coconuts and ‘Noorjahan’ rice (a kind of Kerala rice) from this home visit, two items she desperately missed since she shifted with me to Coimbatore.

The S5 compartment of Chennai Egmore Express was filled with students who must be returning to college after the Pongal holidays. Absorbing from the lesson learnt in the morning, I kept observing the people besides me, few times overhearing their conversations. From the blush of a college girl who got a huge surprise gift from her boyfriend (she was carrying that gift with her) to the old man nearby who was worried of his wife’s belayed pension, I was occupied in their world.

When the train reached Shornur station, I hurried outside to the platform to buy few ‘Little Heart’ biscuit packets along with an Elite chocolate cake and railway’s famous Rail Neer bottle. Little Heart biscuits, which once reigned the bakery windows across Kerala has now become a railway snack item, available only in the platform shops.

The journey had nothing specific till the train reached Ottapalam station. A family of three, a father,

a mother and a daughter entered the train. “Get up girls,” an authoritative voice turned our attention to the mother among them. It was their reserved seat and she was trying to clear the college students off the place. Jolting to the voice, they began emptying the place.

“What is the point of reserving seats if this is the case? People just don’t obey. The officials must be punished for allowing unreserved sleeper tickets inside,” she kept shouting as if she didn’t get her seats emptied. The husband was trying the ease his angry wife, but that ended up her screaming more. “You better ask TT when he comes,” she ordered him.  The rest of us looked at the pompous mother with a sense of disgrace.

Adding to the drama, she also displayed her multi-language proficiency by convincing her daughter to occupy the berth in Hindi and English. After few moments, they settled, allowing the rest of us to continue our peaceful journey. May be the pompous mother is too intolerant for a country like India.

Soon we ended our journey (of course with the pompous mother and her family getting down at Coimbatore station along with us), and reached the apartment where we stay. After a brief rest at the apartment, my Mom and I had a small shopping session, adding fun to a long day.