When Kanpur bound Gomti Express was about to leave, I looked toward her, it was a farewell time. She said” Bhai Gale nahin lagega”, and I embraced her, and she too hugged me with her both hands. Suddenly I felt some wetness on back of my neck. I knew it was her tears, which she was controlling for a while.
She is my sister, not cousin aur Moonhboli Behan, but my real sister, with whom I spent twenty years of life. Engine was whistling, she asked me to go down from the compartment. She has the phobias that once the train open it would be difficult for me to walk down. I came out from the compartment, the problem in AC coaches is that you cannot stand in front of window or say goodbye from outside.
I know there is still couple of minutes left in moving the train, I came outside, wandered at the platform aimlessly then stood on the stairs. She knew that I had not left and I knew she will come on the door. And she came, looked me stood on the stairs. She waved her hand and waved my handkerchief. Train started moving slowly and then gathered momentum, I indicated her to go inside her berth. I see the last compartment to disappear from the platform, but still I could her waving the hand. I move toward the exit, I knew she would not go to her birth, instead she would go inside the toilet and close the door and then cry by pouring all of her heart.
I came outside the New Delhi railway station, bought a bottle of water, memories splashed in my mind. It looks like it was just yesterday; time is the very important commodity. The twelve years has passed like a dream, like a sleep, like a rain. Twelve years back we were very young; there were many books and enthusiasm that is called life. We were perfect siblings, in those days there were debates and discussions, late night teas, studying together till midnight , life was all about the fun, Ideologies, arguments, and Days at Delhi university.
Now all that has been over, it looks like a distant dream, or a film seen long back on Doordarshan, she is busy raising her two children and looking after her family, and I am struggling in my career. Life is like that, days gone never come back, but the memories are your ultimate treasure and bank balance.
