Weeding Awkwardness

In India, getting a train ticket in the month of May is next to impossible. Even those who pre-book months ago do not get a confirmed seat. 

That is why Harish was thanking his luck. Even though he booked a week back, he got a seat to travel to his hometown, Dehradun. Though he did not care to see that it was not a confirmed seat. It was a RAC, meaning he had to share the berth with someone else. 

This was not the first time he was sharing his seat while traveling. But this was the first time when he was sharing the seat while traveling for more than 40 hours.

Harish was a young MBA who just began his career. Staying in the mountains, he always dreamt of living in a metro and working in a skyscraper. 

That is why he had planned to do his MBA in Mumbai so that he could start getting a taste of living his dream life.

It had been 5 years of living in the city, and his dreams were almost fulfilled.

He had a package that everyone back in his home were proud of. His office was in one of the poshest locations of the city. The sea was visible from the window by his work desk.

Working for a multinational in consumer goods, all his company travel involved flight journeys that were on the company's expense.

But at times, his personal travel involved taking train journeys. An unplanned flight from Mumbai to back home costed a bomb. So, he preferred to go home by train.

He was not expecting to share his long journey with a female traveler. Sharing the same berth could get awkward and uncomfortable with a woman.

Moreover, he was never comfortable in the company of a woman. His all-boys schooling could never prepare him for appropriate conduct with someone of the opposite gender. That is why he was never good at striking a conversation starter in his dates.

But today he had to share a seat for about 2 days with a woman who he had never met before.

His co-passenger Nisha hated the summers. Her wish was to have a uniform season of winters all the time all over the globe. But right now, the month of summer was at its peak.  

But then, all the wishes do not get fulfilled. That is why Nisha was careful about the decision of choosing her profession wisely. 

She was the junior scientist at Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. Her profession involved monitoring the recession of glaciers. So, her work demanded her to stay at the glaciers most of the time. For Nisha, this was the most beautiful way to spend her professional life.

But to reach back to her job and to the glaciers, she had to reach Dehradun from her hometown Mumbai.

This trip was not a part of her plan. 

She had taken 2 months of vacations which were cut short because of an emergency at the department. 

New development had begun to form at her site and she was immediately required.

Like always, summers never favored Nisha.

Neither she could get a flight nor she could manage a train ticket in such short notice.

Thanks to her father's contacts at the railways, he could manage a ticket for her. But that was in the non AC compartment, that too in RAC.

Nisha dreaded on the thought of such a long journey. The long journey without an AC and a proper seat terrified her.

Her next shock was sharing the seat with a man.

Nisha and Harish exchanged the customary soon to be forgotten smiles and went about demarcating their territories for their upcoming long journey. 

Harsh avoided talking to Nisha, and made sure not to intrude in her territory on the berth. 

The moment TTC passed by them, they both pleaded him to get them a separate seat. 

But the train was over its capacity, and there was nothing that could have worked. 

Harish even tried requesting him to share the seat with a male. 

But all the other RAC passengers were sharing the seats with their family members, making his proposal futile.

But the TTC told them that since the journey involved a number of halts, there was a possibility of getting a vacant seat by the next day. 

He would keep both of them informed about it. But the first 24 hours of the journey they would have to comply with each other on a single berth.

Both of them tried to adjust to each other in order to pass their journey time amicably.

But neither of them tried to strike a conversation.

At about 3 am in the morning, Nisha woke up to the smell of a strange smell. 

With her co-passenger nowhere in sight, she felt a little tense. But his luggage was under the seat, so she knew that he must be somewhere around. Thinking about how to cope up with a limited supply of seating for the journey, she went near to the door to get some fresh air.

She found Harish standing at the door weeding away to glory.

He smiled at Nisha, and she returned the smile with grace.

He offered her the joint, which she accepted gleefully. 

Smoking a joint melted the ice between them. It broke the awkward silence that had developed between the two for the last few hours. Sharing a joint made both of them comfortable in each other's company.

They both discussed everything while standing at the door. From their jobs, the heat, the journey, their families, their home towns, and anything and everything that they could. 

The passage between both doors was the best place for both of them to chat. It became their private area for the tête-à-tête. They both spent hours talking to each other.

Whoever passed by them assumed both of them to have known each other for a long time. Others assumed that they were a couple who were traveling together.

They both were oblivious to everyone around them and were lost in each other's company.

At about 9 am in the morning, the TTC offered them a single berth in the adjoining coach. 

But none of them woke up. Both were sleeping away to glory in each other's embrace.