The Colleague on Chennai Express

One another of the funny scary events on one of my weekly trips to Chennai.... After a 3 hour long wait for the 10 O'Clock Chennai train, the train slowly chugged into the platform at 12 in the night. I sleepily dragged myself into the train, only to find that I had been assigned the last Side-Upper berth close to the loo... Sleep overrode any feeling at that point of time.. I hoisted myself on to the berth and immediately went to sleep... Half an hour later, sub consciously, remembering that the TTR hadn't come ticket checking yet, I opened my eyes only to find someone peering into my face in the dark... I was suddenly wide awake. To my relief, it was a colleague I had never spoken to...

"Idu S11 dane?", he asked me. "Amam", and I went back to sleep.A few hours later, I felt someone tugging at me.. I woke up again with a start. This time it was no colleague.. It was chain snatcher, trying to steal the gold chain I wore around my neck... I got up and screamed.. Before I could even focus clearly and do something, he had fled into the next coach... I screamed again after him... To my embarrassment, no one in the whole compartment woke up, except my colleague... I stared at him for a moment in the dark and went back to sleep again... Saw him doing the same out of the corner of my eye....

The next day morning, when we were close to the station, I slipped out of my berth to find the colleague sitting below.. I sat next to him and religiously avoided eye contact for some time...
Some time later, I turned to him and asked him "Do you work in Philips?".
He says, "Yes". Silence.
Again, "Did you scream last night?".
"Yes, I did". And I turned away.
After some moments of silence, "Actually, Someone was trying to snatch my chain."
"Oh. I see." He gave me a look. Obviously, he thought I was crazy, with my monosyllable answers and late explanations, he must have thought, I was making up the reason for screaming the previous night.

When the train stopped at the station, he fled without even as much as a goodbye.

Monday morning in office, I chanced upon him in the cafeteria... He smiled and waved at me and asked me,"Are you alright now?"

??!!@!!!!???!??!!@##@#?!?!?

Rain Drops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens......

The small and beautiful, sometimes kiddish things in life that give immense happiness.....

A silent walk with your best friend down a flower littered, silent road in the evening,
Sitting on the shore of the beach, holding hands with the person you love, watching the waves,
Waking up in the middle of the night thinking its time to get to work, but finding you can catch up on a few more hours of sleep,
Receiving a bouquet of flowers from your fiance at 12 in the midnight on Valentine's Day,
Getting off in the railway station in the wee hours in the morning and finding your dad waiting there for you,
A sleepy irresponsible Sunday morning,
Luxury of listening to AR 5 hours in a day,
Finding that book you have always wanted to get your hands on after a long time and getting to read it the same day,
A night on a moonlit terrace, surrounded by the 10 other people I shared a house with, and finally,
Blogging when listening to some soul wrenching AR....

PS: For those who didn't catch on to the title, its a Song from Sound of Music, titled "These are a few of my Favourite Things".