Initially let me clarify, this write up doesn't have any resemblance with Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupe. Giving her all the title credits let me begin. This write up is about my experience travelling in
a ladies coupe in a reasonable long distance.
Ladies Coupe. A small compartment reserved for ladies, which is usually attached to the tail end of a train. I have heard that it’s a different world when comparing with the other twenty or 20+ bogies preceding Ladies Coupe. Of course it is… Not even a vendor is concerned about the women souls there. My grievances are not over just by pointing out the absence of vendors. There are no good berths there. You may counter me by saying; it’s for the folks who travel a shorter distance. But I have seen good seats in passenger trains and why these uncomfortable seats in ladies coupe? From my experience, I met more than twenty ladies whose tickets are to the destination station and I hope they reached safe after travelling in an eight berth compartment for an overnight.
In between all these, I can’t end it without
sharing the fun I had. When my friend suggested travelling in a Ladies Coupe, I
totally disagreed with her and now thanks to her for giving me a unique
experience.
We got into the Ladies Coupe by one O’ Clock
at noon and the temperature outside was high. With all these rushes,
spacelessness, heat, sweat and smell of jasmine flowers (we had some Tamil
ladies in the coupe) we started our journey. The food which we bought, thinking
we will have space to eat (as we used to have in sleeper coaches), somehow we
had it and the lady sitting near to the window helped us to clean our hands.
Ladies Coupe was tightly packed. There were people from all walks of life. From the old lady who sat opposite to me to the small kid who cried in regular intervals, home makers to working women, school going kids to college students, continuously talking nanny to the silent old women, it was full of life. And most interestingly I had met some teenage girls and ladies reading ‘Mangalam’ weekly. In our theory classes of magazine journalism, we never paved attention to these weekly’s saying their era has came to an end, and here am witnessing people interestingly going through the pages!
Facial expressions, it speaks a lot. And especially when I’m sitting alone nothing to do in particular, I used to be a good observer. In the journey also same thing happens. This time I don’t need to look outside the windows, I have a whole lot of world in front of me and I just need to sit and watch till I reach my station. When there is a feeling of relief, in the faces of ladies who sit the ones who stand where wiping their faces and looking around to find a place to sit. Relief changes to anxiety, eagerness, tired and desperate as the train started. Engaging phone conversations and the expressions they have… what their faces say when they complain to each other about their in-laws… when someone asks to move a little… to hold a bag or book… when seeing another crowd waiting in the next station for the train and obviously when they make the rush to get into the highly packed one… It’s worth watching and sometimes we will be having the same expressions as they have.
I still hold to the complains I have, at the same time I can’t forgot some innocent smiles I received in that journey which made me smile, leaving everything that runs in my mind for a few seconds. Those smiles were the best things happened for me in that journey and as I believe Everything Happens For a Reason.
