Guest Post - by Tasneem J.

Train No 12603

This document has been shared with me by a very special friend, and whose gleanings about the subject of life and love is a constant fount of wisdom for me. 

 The  Train No 12603 – A Travelers Journey beyond the Physical

Realms

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, Other  

                                              Lives, Other Souls.” - Anais Nin

             I’m sure most of us love traveling by Train either with Family, Friends or alone. These train journeys have several tales to tell, some last as long as the journey and some last forever. Every Train, every compartment, every seat has its own unique tale of the passengers who had traveled. Just imagine the number of stories every train has in store. Some stories strike a chord and this one is close to me. My story begins with a journey of a girl on train no 12603.

            The girl (well, lets name her as T) was on her way to her new home in a different city. The look on T’s face was one of gloom and sorrow. It looked like she was running away from some distress which was clogging her mind and thoughts. On that fateful day, she was unable to acquire an AC coach for herself as it was a public holiday and an extended weekend, which added to her misery. As she was sitting inside the Train lost in some thoughts, she felt the only consolation now was the fact that she was going home to meet her parents. T had a side lower berth and the seat opposite hers was empty for the first 1 minute after the train had started. The next minute there comes a guy (let’s name him Z) huffing and sweating and catching on his breath, relieved that he made it. T looked at her new neighbor very briefly that she hardly saw his face completely. By the time the guy settled down, T had already immersed herself in a book, written by Khaled Hosseini. T’s seat felt the turmoil in her head as she seemed to be reading, but her mind was entangled like a barbed wire.

             Z seemed tired and he glanced shortly at T once…. twice… thrice. T felt that the guy opposite was staring at her and she dint want to glance back at him. Z noticed the dress T was wearing, the caption on her Tee, the flat slip on, the title of the book and her Ipod. An hour passed nobody spoke a word. T was not in favor of talking to co passengers on her travels as she was an introvert and liked to keep company with herself. Z was flashing a glance every now and then. At last T’s mobile rang and it was a call from home, she ended her conversation with her mother stating that she wasn’t sure what time the train would reach the destination. The conversation was loud enough and after the call Z at last spoke, saying that the train reaches by morning 6, smiling gently. Z asked T whether she was traveling to her destination for the first time and from there on the two passengers hit it off on their interesting conversations which lasted till 1.30 am in the night. There was nothing stopping them from their never ending stories of each other they had in store. Z was a doctor, who was passionate about his work and helping his patients. He felt serving people was like serving God. He was an ambitious and a well read person who spent few years in UK. Z was a good looking man with something unique about his eyes. Something inside T told her that she had known this person before but she very religiously suppressed that thought and went to sleep. One of the common factors between these two passengers was that they could never sleep in a train. T went to the upper berth and Z was semi sleeping in his lower berth. These two individuals had no idea whether they would ever see each other again. The next day morning when the train reached the destination after an hours delay, T was feeling very heavy to leave Z for some strange reason. Z had spoken a lot on the previous night and he had touched somewhere the chords of her heart. She put away that thought, exchanged Email ids and waved goodbye to her unique, special co passenger who left his mark, of whom she could never forget.

              As days went by they started mailing each other and there were circumstances where she met him as a doctor in the hospital he was working. Though T would be sick when meeting him, but somewhere down her heart she would feel happy to see him again. I am reminded at this moment of the famous quote by Tagore:

     “Days and night Pass and Ages Bloom and fade like a Flower.”

Days passed into months, months into years and millions of things took place individually in both their lives, some where happy, some were disastrous; some were gloomy, some where challenging.

Both their lives were occupied with various things but T could never let his thought inside her fade. It looked to her as if he was holding one string of her Heart.

             The journey itself had a hidden message which nobody could apprehend. T believes that meeting Z was no accident or coincident, it was a choice the soul had taken long back. T couldn’t express her feelings till date to Z. It was neither an infatuated flick at first meeting, nor any flimsy imagination. It was just not Love, it was and is much more than that, in the spirits. It has no shape, no design, no letters, no gifts; it is something more than the earthly things. The intense feelings in its own have a thousand stories to share but unexpressed, suppressed and fear of disappointing Z.

          When T feels these feelings for him, she feels closer to God; she feels the goodness of Life. She feels complete. It’s a platonic relationship she shares with him and will remain with her through out all her lifetimes. It’s more of a metaphysical experience. This journey of T was just not a physical journey from one place to another, but a journey inside her soul and beyond the realms of this earth and recognizing the other through the eyes which is the window of the soul. The journey of these two souls doesn’t end here in this plane; it is a continuous journey of unconditional love which eventually will go back to its Source. T’s love for Z is the same till day.

         This article is dedicated to my Twin-Soul who I am profoundly in love with and will always be for the lives to come. I wish this lovely Soul is filled with the happiness that the world could ever hold for anyone. Today I know what love is. It is YOU.

“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, 

                                    his and mine are the same.”

                                                                       - Emily Bronte