I am in the train. There is a moderately beautiful girl sitting before me. At the station, where she was conversing with her parents through the window while waiting for the train to move, judging from the brief interaction, I am of the view that she is slightly petulant. She is wearing a pink dress, perhaps a software engineer by profession-that would be my best guess. She has an indifferent face, like every girl that I have had the occasion to observe, she too, when on phone, goes harping about nonsensical drivel.
It was the manner in which she pursed her lips that attracted me, neatly together she maintained, with her lips, a demeanour of arrogance. She let her hair free, warm evening air that gushed through the window streamed through her hair. Every now and then she brushed her hair off the face and neatly tucked them around the earlobes with her index fingers. As I type this, she unconsciously kept tucking at her hair, curling them and furtively glancing here and there, and at me. She is on phone for most of the time. Her phone etiquette too- lazy, withdrawn, indifferent and corrosive
I have dissuaded myself from making any further judgements on this girl. Train journeys are very unique. A 12 hr journey in an Indian train’s sleeper coach is a crash course to understanding humans. If a Martian visits earth, and has to be taught about us, best place would be the side lower seat of a sleeper coach. From this position, one can see the different moods of the passengers. A family, like a herd, has a leader. He patrols the environment, after finding the seat numbers, he would indicate to the rest and they would join. They are all the same; usually rambunctious, they come with a baby or two, and the baby is always shrieking. Members of the family express delight and celebrate the baby’s crying, while the rest of the passengers silently complain.
If a lone passenger is travelling in the same coach, he finds himself utterly lonely unless he has a gadget or two. Without a gadget, he stares inconclusively and unobtrusively at his feet, examines his shoes for a while, looks at the ceiling for a while, adjusts his seating position every once in a while, looks through the window, looks at the feet of other passengers, looks away when he is confronted with a stare reciprocated. This is the microcosm of life; this is why lonely people marry.
Our hypothetical Martian might find it rather amusing that in a family though, everyone is at a relative ease- they don’t stare at each other’s feet. No one hesitates to trade his lower berth with a lady and sleep in the upper berth himself. Everyone is usually cooperative. This is the forest of life- under the protection of tall trees (older generation), the undergrowth (the young) thickens. But when there is a forest fire, as a war, which is precipitated by the thick shrubs would end up decimating the landscape, even the tall trees. Nature keeps the undergrowth in check by natural means, usually forest fires. But we artificially, put out these fires, stultify them and let the unnatural undergrowth thicken, which in turn facilitates the decimation of the forest (life).
But, just as there are quick sands in forest, there are pools of intense cultural aura in life-the AC coaches. In AC coaches, people are shut out of the atmosphere. In the controlled and dubious life, these men and women behave slightly inhibited. This, the Martian will find easy to conceive, but I wonder if earth men and women have comprehended this at all.
Comments