Payanam

Although life is unpredictable, fate is the certainty that something will occur if it is meant to. If the multimillionaire's son and CEO of the largest tech business in the nation, who has access to anything he wants, gets dragged out of his fantastical existence then that is fate. If my fate is to travel with this low life people then lets get this over with. Today, my automobile suddenly develops a problem even after a routine service, and I am now stuck halfway between my residence and the office. I don't want to be late because today is my first day in my office and to take over my father's role as the company's CEO. Unfortunately, I wind up in a collision with my current employee from my firm and my childhood pal, about whom I never cared. He asked me not to hire a cab after realizing my situation because it would be hard to go to the office in time in Chennai's traffic. He invited me to travel in the local train with him since he was also going to work.

                                     It is not even eight in the morning the sun starts to show its rage and the heat is unbearable to me with all my coat and suit. I've never been anyplace this hot, and I'm sweating profusely from every pore. To put an end to my suffering, I agreed to ride with him on the train, but I had no idea how much worse it would be. It is so hot inside and I have never seen so many people in my life that I have literally taken a bath in my suit. I never spent much time outside of a climate-controlled space, and now I find myself in a burning hell. Even worse, I'm sandwiched between a fat man and a woman, and occasionally the woman gave me an odd look. My coworker recognized my suffering and held a seat for me when it became available at the next stop. When an elderly man tried to take the seat, I quickly moved in and claimed it. The elderly man gave me an unclear smile as he stared at me.

                                              Suddenly a foul smell starts to take over the entire compartment and before I started to hurl up from nausea I covered my mouth and nose with my handkerchief . Is it a load of dead fish? , yes it is , a women with a basket full of dead fish enters , I didn’t take my kerchief off till the lady gone and thank god she got off in the next stop. How the hell these people living such places and it is disgusting.

                                            A young girl of my age with dark skin sat across from me, and judging by the way she looked and the shoddy, outdated clothes she was wearing, she might be from local area. She is staring at me and smiling; I knew these were cheap techniques to hoodwink a wealthy man like me, and she would have been able to tell I was wealthy just on my appearance. Her smile vanished as I glared back at her with a disgusting look. In a short period of time, she entered the compartment like a ray of light piercing the night. She is as fair as she is able to be, and I love her style; she resembles a delicate white lily in murky water. Everyone in the compartment is looking at her. I flashed her my lovely smile as I turned to face her, but to my astonishment, she returned the same disgusting expression I gave before. How can she give me that look? My grin begins to wilt as my rage grows. She must have assumed that I was like everyone else, so I need to show her who I am but now I understand the pain and how the girl would have felt when I gave the same look then I realized karma is boomerang.

                                             My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of drums playing and I looked back to see a women in her thirties wearing ragged clothes carrying a baby on her back with a saree and a drum in her hands, a boy of may be six years old stood next to her. The boy begins somersaulting and acrobatics to the beat of the drums while gripping a circular metal ring. The youngster bending his entire body to fit into the circular ring fascinates me. The boy approached me after the performance when ,He looked and smelled disgusting, so I turned away, but he scratched my pants. I flinched when I saw him, and his hands were outstretched, pleading for food or cash. When my eyes first landed on him that’s the first time I saw what poverty and sufferings look like in his eyes. I have several thousand rupee bills in my pocket, but my mind won't allow me to take out them and give them to him. When my employee gave that child a ten rupee coin and he moved away, I averted my gaze.

                           Those eyes are new to me and are distinct from any other pair of eyes I've ever seen. Then I understood that many people had those similar eyes, and some even don't have those eyes.Many people with impairments have recently come begging for food and cash. I learned that there are people out there who go without even a single meal a day, decent clothing, or a comfortable place to live.My heart begins to ache, and an unidentified sadness overcame me.

After hearing the sound of claps, I became aware that it was a transwoman who was begging for money and blessing people who donated it. After seeing the transwoman, I still had some nasty feelings, but more than that, my mind was racing with thoughts and feelings I had never experienced before. Even after she asked me three times, I still didn't give anything. After collecting from everyone, she proceeded to the end and stood close to the entrance. Without batting an eye, I stared at her as if I were viewing an extraterrestrial.Soon I realize that she is getting molested by two men standing next to her as she felt uncomfortable and tries to move they hold her hand and before she could react they started to beat her.Then the two men accused her for stealing their wallet , the whole crowd joins and starts to beat the hell out of her.I am aware that she is innocent and that the two men are lying, but I am too scared and coward to speak the truth or support a transwoman. I can hear her weeping, but no one seems to be listening .

Everyone exited the train after trashing and cursing the transwoman when our stop arrived, which was the last one . She was sticking to one end of the wall while holding her thighs close to her breasts and her clothes are tattered . When I approached her, she attempted to move away in panic but was unable to do so due to the beatings. I took off my coat and covered over her and then without counting I took all the money I had and gave it to her.She stared at me with her hands clasped in a gesture of thankfulness but was unable to speak a word. I held her hand and apologized for my cowardliness , Tears were rolling down my eyes.

I stood up, got off the train, and turned around when I realized that my entire life had been a lie. I had been living in a fantasy world all these years, and now the harsh reality had hit me. The journey had just started; it didn't end here.

I turned to face my friend, who said "You are welcome" with a smile.