I was about to board the Shatabdi Express on a chilly morning last December when a young foreigner came to me and said, “Could you please help me board the train as I am confused by the way these coaches are arranged?”
“Sure,” I said and asked her the coach number. She gave me her phone, which had the ticket, and led the way. I was startled how can somebody give her phone to a stranger and walk away.
It was the C5 coach and the seat was 21. I saw C6 and concluded that the next coach would be hers. Moreover, there was no queue at the door of C6, whereas a few people were trying to enter the next coach. So I told her, “Hey, let’s enter from here and we’ll head straight to the seat.”
We entered the coach unhindered and made our way into the next coach. We found out the seat in a breeze, and she kept her luggage on the overhead rack and sat comfortably. I was about to hand over her phone when a middle-aged woman appeared and said, “This is my seat.”
I replied, “Aunty, I guess there’s some mistake as this is her seat. See this...”
“This is E1,” the woman said with confidence. The girl remained puzzled as the whole conversation was going on in Hindi, with me waving her phone to the woman.
Seeing our faces, the woman said, “The next one is E2, and then comes C5.” I said sorry and thanks to her, and then turned to the girl and regretted, “Well, we have entered the wrong coach. Let’s move on...”
“No problem,” she got up, grabbed her luggage, and again we started trudging through the crowded aisle.
Finally, we found her destination while I was wondering how stupid have I been. This haphazard arrangement of coaches was bound to embarrass me in front of a foreigner, but I should have at least checked the numbers. She settled down and thanked me. I said that it was not required; moreover, I was as clueless as she was. She giggled, “It happens...” Then I returned her phone and gave her a subtle warning, “You should not hand over your phone to strangers and walk away. Be careful!”
“Oh! I’ll take a note of that,” she said with a serious expression on her face.
After I took my seat, I began to reflect on how innocent and vulnerable this girl was. She was trusting strangers with her valuables and she had no knowledge of safety precautions needed in public places of this country which are not among the safest in the world.
We often keep coming across news reports regarding breach of public safety in different crime episodes. It has become routinised, normalised, and trivialised. We need to reflect on what perception we are subconsciously creating for the world regarding our public safety, and also what kind of society is our ideal to live in and cherish.
emailtoaakashbajpai@gmail.com
