An Autobiography of a FAN

Part I
“Agla station Borivili, Next station Borivili”
Hey the station is arriving, hurry up ladies. Hey you women, forgot to switch me off. Why do you want to spoil me? I have grown old now. I also need rest.
I am just waiting to go to the yard and get some clean up and oiling. I have become really noisy since so many years.
Ah! I still remember the time when I joined the railways.10 years ago, when the new train was made. Wow, it was yellow and brown on the exterior and green in the interiors and I was place right in the middle of the compartment with my sister at my side. And guess what it was a 01st class ladies compartment….wowie..I was so happy. I got a view of almost the entire passage where all the pretty ladies could sit. My sister was not at all excited, but it was the happiest day of my life.
I was black in colour, with 3 hands and a netted cover on me.I was put into the Churchgate –Virar train.

It was 6.00 in the evening, the train entered Churchgate and huge group of ladies started entering from both the sides and ran in for a seat.It was so funny as if they never got to sit on the cushioned seats. One of them looked up at me, and realized that I was off. She put me on and gave a sigh of relief.
This was my 01st day at work.
There were hawkers selling bhel, Vadapav, mineral water etc. The train started moving. As we reached Dadar, it was packed. Everybody had claimed seats. As we reached Andheri and Borivili it was completely stuffed, there was no place for any new women to enter the train. Finally when the train left Mira Road, that’s when they got to breathe. Oh these poor Ladies.
So this was my route everyday, – to and fro from Virar to Churchgate.
The 01st class ladies compartment is no less entertaining than a television.
Mornings were just too much of fun,I got to study with the college students,So that’s how I know lil bit of Economics, French and Accounts.
The aunties and mummies were busy cribbing about their offices or their children who would never listen to them.
Young girls would make their picnic and shopping timetables. Infact they would also make Hens Party plans and discuss everything that they would do.From Start to end...It was fun to see them describing the cake and decide the dress code and the gifts, …Ghosh I dint know they could go to such an extent….At times I had to close my ears…
Festivals were fun. There would be distribution of sweets and Mithai’s. Girls would dress up in the train. It looked a like a 01st class beauty parlour. They would even change right in front of me. The aunties would help the girls to drape sarees. This time I had to close my eyes… hehehe I felt so shy.
We celebrated birthdays and played antakshari in the train.
Summers was bad. I had to keep running all the time. And if by mistake, I stopped running these women would prick me with pens and combs. “Oouch”.. I would scream, and wished they could hear me. Winters gave me good rest. Rains – I never worked due to the water dripping on me all the time.
I was very happy in the ladies compartment. But my sister was not. She wanted to move into the gents compartment and admire the handsome men.
She was so jealous of me as I got all the women attention.
One of the fans from the gents compartment had to go for repairing. Since we were 3 of us in a line,they wanted to shift one of us there. I was praying really hard.I dint want to leave this heaven and go to hell…
I mean what would I do in a gents compartment? Admire them ? Smell their clothes full of sweat..? Or see WWf everyday ? Coz unlike women, it was never a mouth to mouth fight. it was a hand to hand fight. These thoughts were driving me crazy. Suddenly I heard my sister scream with joy. They were taking her there. I was so relieved. Phew!
As time passed by I went on serving the railways, I was their loyal servant. They kept oiling me and taking good care of me.
And I kept giving them good service and enjoying among the ladies. They were my motivation you see.
And then one day something beautiful happened. There was a lady who was pregnant. She got in at Vasai, and wanted to get down at Charni Road.I guess she was nearing her due date as her stomach was really big. Suddenly at Borivili she started getting pains. I think it was time for her to get into labour. Luckily there was a doctor in the train who took control of the situation and advised everyone to calm down. She instructed all the women around, delegated the respective tasks to them. The mother wailed and cried in pain. I wanted to help, so I started moving really fast and gave her as much breeze as possible. Then when the train crossed Dadar, I saw a tiny head coming out and then the whole body alongwith tiny lil hands and legs. It was a Baby Boy! Yippppeee…. All ladies started clapping and screaming with joy. I couldn’t hold back my tears. Then at Charni Road, they helped her get out of the train and took her to the nearest hospital.
It was one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life.

Part 2
Days, months, years passed by. And I kept giving top class service to my company and my clients. My sister on the other hand was way too excited on her transfer to the gents compartment. We could communicate with each other as we had the same wire connecting us internally. She would go on and on about how handsome these young men looked in their formal attire. That the college guys would look so cute…Blah blah… my crazy sister would go on nonstop and give me day to day report on the various type of guys she would see.

Then one incident changed my life and shook me completely.
It was in the month of July. The rains had not started. It was very hot, so I had to use all my energy and generate as much breeze as possible. As usual the train left from Churchgate in the evening, and got packed at Dadar. We were on our way to Bandra,when at Mahim I heard a loud noise and stopped running.The power went off. I looked around there was panic everywhere. Nobody knew what was happening. Women were all jumping out of the train.
Then I looked at my sister’s compartment. It was ripped open, with body parts scattered all over the place.There was only blood all over. Then I heard someone screaming it was a bomb blast. “Oh my god…My heart was beating so fast”. I tried to search for my sister. But she was no where. All I could see was men who had lost their limbs, some were bleeding, some could not move. Since the compartment was ripped open the whole incident was right in front of my eyes. I started crying. I was so helpless. I looked around to find my sister. Then saw something on the tracks, one of my sisters hands was on the tracks…I lost my sister…She was no more…I cried out loudly…I wish someone could hear me.

Then all the people from the surrounding slums rushed towards the compartment with bed sheets and started picking up the injured people.
Some even collected body parts and the belongings of the wounded. The ambulance and police came to the spot followed by journalists and cameramen. And they started clicking snaps and interviewing the people around. It was a nightmare, as I heard that similar blasts had taken place at 6 other locations all in the western line. It was the worst day of my life. For the 01st time I had seen so much of blood around me, for the 01st time I saw so much of destruction, so much of pain , so many tears, for the 01st time I had lost a loved one. I cursed myself that day, if I had moved there instead of my sister, she would have been alive.

It was 9.00 p.m. the Press was still there. Many more people had gathered. People were searching for their family members. Some managed to find them, some found their body parts. I just couldn’t see all that. Then slowly the crowd started dispersing. And finally by midnight there was no one with me but silence. It was very scary. It was dark and quiet.I only cried and cried recalling everything I saw on that dreadful day. At 2.00 in the night, I heard the horn blow and slowly my train started moving and they took it to the yard.
The rest of the days were only maintenance and repairing of the train. It took almost 3 weeks for the train to comeback on track. I kept hearing more and more stories about the number people still missing and injured and so on.

After 4 weeks of complete make over the train was back running , and so was I along with it. But not like before. This time there was no noise in the ladies compartment, no fights, everyone looked at each other with suspicion. At Churchgate they would check the bag rack properly before getting down. The whole atmosphere was tensed. Sniffer dogs were brought in to check for any suspicious objects. It almost took 2-3 months for everyone to come back to normal.I took longer time. Now there was no one to give me updates on how the guys looked in the gents compartment, and who was the best dressed. No one to fight with, no one to listen to.

That indeed was a dreadful day, not only for the people but also for objects like us coz we experienced it too.

Now I m back, and things are normal again, I have grown a little old, but I still admire these women, my motivation. But now I need oiling frequently coz I stop more often and these women are fed up of poking me as there is a lot of dust on my net. These people hardly give me a cleanup.
But I’m still their loyal servant and will keep serving them for lifetime.
But I only pray that I never get to see such an incident again in my life.