When I Was About To Miss My Train
For a girl from a brown household, planning a trip with friends without any family member is a dare itself. Back in the summers of 2019, I planned a journey with my friend to the Northern areas of Pakistan. Dreaming about adventures to be experienced there, we were entirely unaware of those unpredictable episodes waiting for us to happen. Among all those sweet and sour memories, I often recall the one I was about to miss my train.
The Great Economy Train:
My friend and I were so happy that our excitement was at a peak until we realized that we would be traveling via economy train as per our travel company, few days before the trip. After hearing this news, the emotions we felt were inexplicable, but there was no way back as we both wanted this trip to happen eagerly.
The economy train is the cheapest traveling mode with fewer facilities and no privacy. As the journey was almost about 24 hours, the thought of staying this long on an economy train was haunting us. The train was late for about a couple of hours, but once it arrived at the station, the crowd of passengers rushed towards it, trying to climb it straight away. We were waiting for them to settle down so we could also step up.
After placing our stuff in train and concluding the meet and greet session with family, we finally settled on our seats. As the train started moving ahead, we could see the platform fading away. Warm winds from the window caressed our faces while views were frequently changing between vegetation and dry land.
Call of Nature:
We passed our travel mostly lying on a berth from time to time, munching, chatting, and listening to music when suddenly my friend felt an urge to pee, the moment where actual thrill began. When we reached the door side where the toilet was located, we were hit by a foul smell arising straight from the bathroom. The sight of it was so awful that the desire to use the restroom disappeared. We rushed towards our place and tried to overcome the obnoxious experience. The journey continued for a while when the call of nature reappeared, and this time, it was me. However, I tried my best to suppress it, but it seems impossible to withhold the situation for long.
Much Awaited Station:
During our struggle to cope up with circumstances, we came to know that a station is about to reach where 30 minutes long break is scheduled, and it also has the facility of restrooms. This news turned out to be a ray of light in the darkness for us, and we have started eagerly waiting for that station to arrive.
Instantly as the train halted, we step down rapidly for a bathroom hunt. We began to search for it by asking about it from person to person when finally we came across some couple of bathrooms they were all preoccupied with a vast line of passengers already waiting for their turn. Disappointed, we were staring the line when a local notified us about few more bathrooms ahead of us on the backside of shops. Without wasting a minute, we ran towards it and finally accomplished our mission.
The Climax:
Our bogie seemed to be at a great distance as we moved out of restrooms. On the way back to the train, few tuck shops were present, so we decided to buy some snacks and drinks. Wandering on platform munching crackers and unaware of time we heard a siren, when we turned towards the train it was standing still, so we continued our walk, and suddenly it started moving.
We couldn’t believe our eyes that our train was departing and we are still far away from our bogie. We began to run as fast as we could. Our heart was pounding with fear of losing the train as we move ahead. We were not the only one experiencing the thrill run, some other passengers also accompanied us in the marathon, but luckily one by one, all of them got into their bogie while we were still running.
As we were increasing our speed the train began to move even faster, somehow we managed to reach our bogie but then came out the trouble of climbing the moving train with our preoccupied hands. Holding snacks and things in one hand and the other hand on rods, I was trying hard to jump inside the train, but my tiny legs weren’t able to make a big hop. I have never been as disappointed with my short height before as I was then because the step was relatively high for me to climb, but fortunately, I made it. Just as we got on the train, I could feel my heart was beating faster.
I can never forget that memorable episode of my trip — the scene supposed to happen in films only. However, the whole incident seems like a movie scene, except the hero, was missing to hold hands and picking me up on the train.
