Friday 8 November 2013

It rained last night






Their journeys had come to a brief halt at a ghostly station from where both, after seven hours, were to take connecting trains to their different destinations. They were a woman and a man, who, after initial surprise and subsequent introduction had settled down, in an air of unease, in the lone waiting room at the lone platform. The station in the best of sunlight inspired little optimism, in the night it brought complete gloom. There was a stationmaster, who did almost every job except cleaning the tracks, a clerk who did almost every work except typing letters, a vendor who sold almost everything stale except tea and a coolie who carted around almost every load except passengers. Mostly poor people alighted here.
         When the coolie noticed a lady with some pretence to beauty, clad in a costly sari, get down from the train, his eyes lit up. He sensed a chance to make some money and rushed to her, who asked him to take her to the waiting room. An hour later the next train brought a rich-looking man, whose luggage too he brought to the same room. Two passengers in one single day had been godsend. Both looked stinking rich and their gestures promised him a good tip in addition to his charges. This prospect energised him and he rushed back to the vendor and brought them hot tea, with less sugar and milk. From his previous experiences he knew that the rich people, unlike the poor, didn’t take their tea heavy in milk and sugar.

                           (read complete story in short story section)

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