Ticket please!
I was running to catch the morning 7:45am Churchgate local from Dadar. My life had enough problems in addition to having an expired train pass. So I said to myself, "Chal beta ticket nikal.".
As destiny would have it, the line was huge.
"Saala, jab naseeb hi #$% to kya karega pandu!"
People still in the queue were getting restless as the guy issuing tickets was taking "strategic timeouts" so long that entire T20 match would be finished by the time he returned from one.
I had managed to take a ticket and was in time to catch the train even though I had to cross the foot over bridge.
Pleased with myself that I was on time at the station, I was walking towards platform number 2.
Dadar station foot over bridge was crowded as usual. From students rushing to college, working people desperate to get to office, hawkers ready to take their space on the bridge, every movement on the bridge had a purpose. Even I was going to be a part of something special that day, and I didn't know it till that point of time!
"Sir, please believe me I had a ticket to Churchgate", a college girl pleaded to a ticket examiner.
"I had it in my hand just sometime back before entering the bridge".
"Then show me the ticket", was the ticket checkers' brief and equally gruff reply.
"I can't find it now sir, I may have dropped it somewhere".
"Is that my mistake?".
"No sir, but I request you to leave me, I am getting late for my exam".
"Come over to the station masters' office, pay the fine and then I shall leave you".
"Please understand sir, all my year long effort depends on todays exam."
"I can't change the rules for you, sorry".
The examiner seemed unmoved.
"Here's the ticket you were searching", I said handing it to the examiner.
"The lady had dropped it from her hand unknowingly and I thought of returning it.".
The examiners' expression changed from serious to perplexed and finally settling at an expression best described as dejected. After verifying the ticket he let the girl go. I watched the girl leave in a hurry.. or was it?
At the climax of of those nervous seconds, she had given me a smile of gratitude so innocent and touching that I stood gazing at her as she drowned in the crowd.
Coming out of his momentary stupor the ticket examiner turned his attention to me. With a still dejected look he asked for my ticket.
"You have already checked it, sir".
"What! but it was the .... wait .. you mean to say you gave your ticket saying it was hers'?".
"Yes sir, I didn't want her to miss her exam just because she had lost a train ticket".
Now the examiner found it too difficult to contain his bewilderment.
"I have caught many ticketless people; but its the first time I have caught someone ticketless like you, shabaash beta. Chalo station master ke office me jaake aaram se fine bharna aur apni bewakoofi pe bhi roona".
"bewakoofi?", I asked.
"You have been good to the girl, but why would she remember you? Wo to chali bhi gayi.. even without knowing that its your ticket you had given.".
"Sir, she would know its not her ticket.".
"Kaise? Tera photo hai kya ticket pe".
"Aap ne ticket theek se dekha nahi shayad. On the other side it says..."
"ALL THE BEST - 9833550975".
