If you like people and hanging out with them in tight spaces, then India and specially Dardar Station is the place for you!
My mother, sister, brothers and I, were part of the millions that were trying to get on the train. The long awaited train finally arrived, we were trying to go from Mumbai to Pune. As soon as the train stopped on the platform, people poured in the train, it was like opening the dam, and the water rushing out! We literally poured into the train. The compartments were now packed to the brim, men, women, young and old, squashed together in a can. We did not care much about how close we had gotten to so many strangers, we were just happy that we were in! As everyone was starting to find their places and settle down, the train conductor with his khaki uniform and his ticket puncher walked in and started to shout something at the top of his lungs! Indian train conductors like their bus conductor counterparts were amazing, there could be millions of people on a train or on a bus and they knew who had and who had not paid for their tickets! I don't care where you hid and how you looked, they would catch you and get the fare from you.
Our conductor shouted, "Women Only Compartment, All men get out!!". He started to push the men out of the compartment. My older brother told my mom we have to leave, so me and my older brother left the compartment and we were back on the platform. Now we were trying to get on again, on another compartment, but they were all packed, every inch and no one could get on and those inside would not give an inch. We looked on the top of the train, there were people. Even the open gap areas between the compartments were pack with people. We kept walking nervously looking for a space to jump on. And finally there it was, we saw an open space between the compartments, just enough for two people! There was one man sitting there, so we ran hoping nobody would take it...As we jumped on, we realized why that space was available. The man that we saw siting was a leper, his fingers were gone, his face was disfigured, the tip of his nose was missing and he sat there just looking straight at us, perhaps shocked that we had decided to spend the next four hours with a leper! And we looked at him shocked that we were going to spend the next four hours next to a leper! We had seen lepers in Pune, who would sit down, lined up in the street begging, but I never thought one day one of them would be our travel-mate! But here we were, me a 13 year old boy and my brother 16 year old with our new best friend. We spend the first minute exchanging stares, and eventually we said hi, thinking that as the youngsters we should greet our elder!
The train started pulling away from Dardar and we were on our way to Pune. The train we took had a couple of stops along the way. Each stop was colorful and each station has its own character, most had the guys selling drinks and snacks, chai, nescafe, bhel puri, bananas, and everything else in between. Usually the seller would shout out their product, and one of my favorite was the banana seller who used to shout, "Ek Rupee Ka Chaar" that meant for One Rupee you get four [bananas]. On hearing the banana seller, I started to imitate him, "Ek Rupee Ka Chaar" and then I continued "Do Rupee Ka Aat"!, which meant for two Rupees you get eight and on and on...suddenly the leper with his disfigured face started to laugh loudly and seeing the leper laughing, my brother started laughing too (my brother's sense of humor was not as keen as the leper's!).
And at that moment, I learned that inspiration, laughter and comradery amongst humans can be created in the strangest of places with the strangest of people! And how lucky I was to have had the experience of sitting next to a man shunned by thousands of people on the train, who considered him worst than an untouchable. Ultimately, because of our own circumstance my brother and I were forced to sit next to him and now here we were laughing together! We found out his name was Arun.
By the time our train got to the station, Arun, my brother and I had spend a memorable ride back to Pune, a ride that included humor and a lesson in humility and humanity. As we said good bye and parted ways, I turned to my brother and said, "was that joke funny?", and he said," no, I think Arun just laughed to make you happy!"
Today as I recall this moment in my life and my encounter with Arun, I am reminded of these wonderful words of Rumi,
"If you could see the ugliest leper with the eyes of Love,
His beauty could out-dazzle in your eyes the starlit sea.
If one drop of the Wine of Vision could rinse your eyes,
Wherever you looked, you would weep with wonder".
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