A life worth peanuts

A few weeks back I was backpacking cross country just to get to know more about the country. It was great fun, we traveled 1000’s of kilometers at the minimum possible cost - hitchhiking , traveling without tickets were the order of the day. This was the first time I ever made a trip like this and boy ohh boy was it fun! This also happened to be the second time in my life that I boarded a general compartment of a train (first being during my internship in Gujarat), life now seems so different; before the trip I was oblivious to the harshness of the world. I never knew what it felt like to travel in a 4by 6 sqft place along with 30 odd people (yeah its true). A true eye opener, I remember I used to crib when had to share the sofa with my sister while I lounged all over it and here we had 7 people sitting on a ransacked wooden bench meant for 3 (while it was at its prime); god knows how they did it? but they all managed to squeeze out every last bit of space from between their bones (coz that’s all they were made off). The train finally started as I breathed a sigh of relief, things could only get better now; but as usual Mr Murphy managed to make an appearance, as the train slowly chugged its way people started running for the entrance, (how they planned to get in is a whole different story).

As the train caught speed, it seemed that now its too much of a risk for anyone to board the train now - I felt the hellish ordeal was over, Suddenly this frail 5 footer pops up and tells me to hold his bag while he runs like his lungs will pop out of his mouth and being a nice guy (Ahem Ahem!!) I take the bag an place it where my left foot was before(now its pretty much suspended) .The guy having a negligibly small mass manages to squeezes himself through the crevices (please don’t ask which) between people there and manages to make it to the middle of the compartment. Now the guy wants his bag back, to which I promptly reply “Please take in when the next station arrives , there is no place for me to bend down here” (not to forget with just one leg on the floor). Then he utters the magic words which have me astounded he says “I got on the train because of what is in the bag”, suddenly half of the compartment is shuffling around just to make enough space to retrieve his bag. I started wondering what could be in that bag that was so important to him, I thought maybe something really precious, that’s why he took such a big risk to board that train.

Well irony and life are twins that never got separated. After a few seconds of pause to let his lungs recuperate the guy peeks into his back and then calls out “Karare namkeen moongphali le loo 3 rupyee main 50 gram” (salted peanuts neone – 3Rs for a pack of 50 grams). I stand there on one foot contemplating and cursing myself what a big jackass I’m. within 15-20 minutes the man finds that all the sales potential of the compartment has been exhausted so he plans to move to the next compartment.

Easier thought than done, the train was doing an easy 80 kmph fast enough to scare the shit out of the guy hanging near the door, that’s when the frail fellow decides to move to the next compartment and within a few seconds just vanishes from the compartment . He apparently switched compartments by climbing onto the windows of the train, hmm tell sean connery from the great train robbery to eat shit we got some one who did the same thing much faster and without ropes. Great huhh

I was not until another 10 minutes that I was hit by the stark difference in the lives of people, here, I had so much more in life ( infact more than the guy could dream off ) than that man and still I complained. The guy was Risking life and limb for a bag of peanuts worth no more than 200 rupees , the double of which I blow off if I happened to go for a single movie ……. Wow , It hit me and it hit me really hard. I wonder what did he do wrong to deserve a life like that and what did I do right to deserve a life like this? I have many unanswered questions in my mind which baffle and scare me. Why do I deserve more than him ? Or does’nt everyone deserve at least the basic needs of a human being . I started to hate myself for no apparent reason, for not being able to do anything or not being able to feel anything all this while. I feel helpless because I know no matter what anyone thinks nothing is going to change in the coming years.

Its only when you stop looking at the stars and start looking at the ground that you truly get the picture. Dreams, Ambition etc are important but so are equality and the lives of the lesser fortunate.

The Fool on the Hill

Beatles

Day after day alone on the hill The man with the foolish grin
is keeping perfectly still But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool And he never gives an answer

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head See the world spinning round

Well on the way, his head in a cloud The man of a thousand voices
is talking perfectly loud But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make And he never seems to notice

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head See the world spinning round

Oh, round, round, round, round, round And nobody seems to like him
they can tell what he wants to do And he never shows his feelings

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head See the world spinning round

Oh, round, round, round, round, round And he never listen to them
He knows that they're the fools But they don't like him

The fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head See the world spinning round

Oh, round, round, round, round, round oh