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Prakash was retired defense service personnel who worked as an Airman. He retired at the age of 33 after serving a fifteen year bond. While in service; he pursued his academic interests and completed A.M.I.E. degree and developed software skills also. Thus he could land in Software Company immediately after his retirement. While in service, his daily routine included going to the office and staying back in his quarter after the office hours. He never ventured out and had no one to visit. Thus he remained aloof. In a way he did not know much of the world outside. Therefore he did not get married and did not feel the urge also.
Once he was into the software company, he noticed that the world around him was different. There were young people around him and a lot of “socializing” was taking place. At the end of the day, he felt like an odd man out. So he gave his details in the classifieds section of a paper stating his preferences to get married and immediately there was a call from one of them but they asked him to visit them within two days for preliminary discussions.
He rushed to the station in the evening and jumped into a heavily packed reservation compartment of a moving train. As the T.T.E got into the compartment, there was a lot of scuffle among the passengers and fortunately for him most of them alighted in the nearby station as they were daily commuters. Prakash noticed that the T.T.E was very accommodative as he allowed him to occupy the T.T.E’s seat for the time being after he showed his identity card which informed about his status as an ex-service man.
In the nearby seat he noticed that there was a teenaged pair. He called the boy aside and asked where they were going. The boy replied “I do not know”. Prakash was surprised. Upon further enquiry the teenager whose name was Joseph, replied that he was eloping with his girl friend Padma, as both their families were against their love and they arranged a marriage to Padma.” Don’t you think you are doing wrong?” asked Prakash To this question Joseph took a big lecture on the joy of falling in love and the bliss and finally quipped ”Sir it appears you have never fallen in love”. Prakash felt stung and was left pondering whether he lived his life correctly or not and did not prioritize properly. In the next station, the families of both the teenagers came jostling into the compartment and whisked them away along with them.
In the next station a couple boarded the train. From the hindsight it appeared that they were like an aunt and her nephew. They asked Prakash whether he could accommodate them. Prakash agreed because he himself was sitting on a borrowed seat. Slowly he noticed that the young man was making ugly overtures to the woman and was also trying to make indecent contacts in the dim light. The woman was also secretively responding. Slowly he recognized that they were not aunt and her nephew and lovers with a lot of age gap between them. He started conversation with the man in a low voice and soon he came to know that both of them were married and are having different life partners and that, they were working in the same office and hence “savoring this indecent relationship”. Stunned with this reply, Prakash vacated his seat and adjusted in a nearby seat with a man in late twenties, who was talking continuously over the cell phone and telling all sorts of lies because when one man asked where he was at the moment, he was replying that he was in a cinema theatre.
After adjusting in the cramped place, he overheard the conversation. The man first said” So when are you going to come” and with the loud speaker switched on the cell phone , pat came the reply from the voice of a lady saying” once I get a divorce from my husband” .To this, the man replied. ”No, I cannot wait until that time; I want you to come immediately”. The man argued and told her that he will be leaving to U.S within a week and could return only after three years. Then the lady replied that she will come once her husband leaves for a camp to Delhi next week. The man agreed with a lot of discomfort and in the mean time bargained for a “meeting with her” on the coming Monday. Prakash noticed that this is another fishy relationship and vacated that place also. Slowly he moved towards the door and he noticed that a girl was trying to jump out of the moving train. He dragged her back and counseled her and then enquired her about the reasons for resorting to such an extreme step. The girl replied that she was deceived by her husband as he developed a live-in relationship with his colleague in the call-centre. She replied that it is the second time in two years of their marriage that she was getting deceived by her husband.
Finally, the T.T.E called Prakash and told him that seat no 72 is ready and therefore he can go to sleep. Prakash felt relieved and went to his allotted seat. Without wasting any time he fell asleep as a terrified man and got down at his destination the next morning. For some period of time he was alone on the platform and hence sat down on the bench. He made a phone call to the people he is supposed to meet and they replied that they would send a car in 15 minutes to pick him up. In this time, he reminisced the eventful previous night and got engulfed in emotions. His view of the society underwent a big shift as he felt that the ideals of the previous generation are lost now. He thought that if a sample of four cases that he came across in the train is any indication then the morals in the society are definitely on the lower side. He felt he was gripped with a fear as to what kind of a lady that he is going to come across now. ”Are the women of now becoming more provocative? “ He said to himself. He further opined” without the active consent and indulgence of a woman no man can press forward to indecent relationship”. He also recollected how nice the T.T.E was and good nature is still left in the world. Finally the car arrived and he got into it.
The girl he was supposed to marry was seated in front of him in a traditional way. As he saw her, he was pleasantly surprised. She was none other than his colleague, Bharathi, in the office and his most ardent supporter on the views on morality that he expressed during the lunch recess amongst his colleagues and for which he was booed by some of them. Thus she planned a surprise for him. Soon after the whole event was over, he forgot the previous night’s journey and felt relieved that he was indeed a lucky man as he is going to get married to an equally virtuous lady and that too a person whom he knew pretty well for quite some time. Finally he said to himself “what you get is what you are”.
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