Long back, when Rajiv's millionaire father asks him why Rajiv always travels by 2nd class railway when he can easily afford a private helicopter ride, Rajiv said "Kyonki asli India sirf 2nd class train me dekhne ko milta hai, aasmaan se nahi. " .Now, that was a scene from Subhash Ghai's movie "Taal" .... During one of my recent train journeys in the Sleeper compartment of Indian Railways, I experienced the Asli India in my own way ... Here are the excerpts :
My eyes, while trudging along the words in the never-ending novel 'Atlas Shrugged', suddenly caught the glimpse of a few govt. workers in uniform with high-tech cleaning equipment barging into the train, the way commandos might barge into a terrorist camp, as soonas the train halted at Raipur. Whoever said that govt workers are lethargic at their job should have witnessed what followed. The workers were so hellebent on cleaning the toilet that they started banging on the door of the occupied toilet, shouting at the lady occupant to come out !!!! .... Right in the midde of what she was doing inside !!!!!!! Hehehhehe .. That's the spirit my boys ... Yo India!! Go India!!!
The Pantry car wokers were selling mineral water belonging to a suspicious brand called "Amust". As if the weird name wasn't enough, it had an awesome tagline - ' Piyo pyaas bujhaane ke liye ' - so proudly displayed that I felt the urge to ask the vendor - " Paani aur kis liye peete hain ?? " .... Talk of creative advertising !!!
A group of Bengalis were arguing loudly on a totally arbitrary topic - Whether the recent introduction of an extra sleeper berth in the Indian Rail comparments would change the scene of progress of the nation's transport system ( ??? !!!! @@@ ) ... As I tried hard to steer my attention away from the painfully funny conversation ( part-Bengali, part-English ) , I could not help but be amazed the number of times Bengalis use the sound of the syllable "ch" ( aasche, jaasche, aache, etc ). The count had reached around 45 in a span of a couple of minutes !! Ok Ok .. I admit that it was probably the most useless thing anybody would have done at that point of time on the entire planet, but I guess being alone on a 30 hr journey takes a toll on your intellectual habits... :P
Another station and I get bored of the overtly descriptive writing style of Ayn Rand. So I let go of Atlas Shrugged and get down to buy an issue of Stardust !!! Yes, you heard that right ... I told ya !! a 30 hr journey takes a toll on your brain !! While I was contemplating whether to buy it at the exorbitantly high rate or not, my eyes fell upon the cover page with Kareena quoted as saying " I don;t think I can love any man the way I love Saif" ... and inside she said " Nobody can understand the sensibilities of a woman better than he can !! " ..... Now that's called lying through your teeth !! Firstly, she said the same thing about her ex-boyfriend a year ago.. and secondly she was referring to Saif Ali Khan - the man who is trying to set a guiness record in dumping and duping as many women as he can before he hits rock-bottom !!! Phew!! That made me laugh out and take out 60 Rs from my pocket to give the vendor ... Thus, I set forth on my journey of exploring the funnily surprising cracks that our filmstars shower upon the public !!
Asli India dekh liya yaar !!!! No wonder people say its the most unique country in the world !!!
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