So a near death experience happened,
thankfully not to me or Sharon but almost to an unsuspecting local......
This is how it all came about........ Sharon and i were on our way to
the hustle and bustle of Delhi, travelling by train. Loaded up with our
luggage we arrived at the station only to find that our train was
delayed by a couple of hours, nothing we could do but sit it out. We
plonked our bums down on our backpacks amongst the hundreds of locals
milling around also waiting and killed time. Our 'killing time' seemed
to be very amusing for everyone else, this becoming apparent as a crowd
around us gathered to watch us play cards, eat and watch me smoke....
Two little boys tried conversing with us but neither of us spoke the
others language so we resorted to sign language, unfortunately this
wasn't very effective either so in the end after a lot of shrugs and
laughter we said goodbye.
Our delayed train was due soon so we hoisted our bags on and went to
the designated platform, again found a suitable sitting position in
wait. By this time i was struggling with a headache and so Sharon
kindly rummaged through her bag in search of some tablets, that found i
popped the pills, not really very exciting i know but to a local man
watching he was fasinated. Why? I am not sure..... he picked up the
packaging and then proceeded to call his mate on the phone, spelling
out the medication letter by letter.... thank goodness i wasn't taking
it for anything too personal. Sometimes there are things you want to
keep to yourself! What a nosey parker!!
Sitting there and still no sign of our train i decided to go and
investigate, i went to the tourist information to just double check
what was happening. What i found out sent us into a flurry of
activity....we had been ever so patiently sitting on the wrong platform!!!!!
We pegged it up the stairs to the right one as a train was leaving,had
we missed it after all of that? Sweating like a dog in a chinese
restaurent we inquired again and were informed it was due shortly,
phewey!
Standing and waiting the drama was to unfold before my eyes. Sharon was
stood near the platforms edge backpack on, day bag positioned on the
front reading her book, i was stood a little way back smoking a ciggie
and watching the world go by. A young lad on a bicycle trailing a cart
carrying planks of wood was slowly moving down the platform...... all
of a sudden i heard a shout, as i turned around i couldn't believe what
i was seeing. The bike, cart and young lad suddenly toppled over the
side of the platform, his mouth making an oh shape as he hit the
tracks, planks flying everywhere. Sprawled on the track he quickly
sprung up as another lad hopped down, clearing everything off the
tracks into the center aisle at the rate of knots. Luckily the boy
wasn't hurt..... I couldn't believe it!
I turned to hear Sharon shouting at me "backpack, backpack!!!"
It seemed to be that she was stumped for words as when i asked her if
she was alright, was she hurt? - those were the only two words that
she could muster. After a couple of minutes, Sharons composure
regained, her power of speech restored she told me exactly what had
happened. As she had been stood there, they had shouted at her to move,
obviously she didn't know what they were saying and by the time she had
worked it out it was too late. The cart scraped her day bag, the lad
behind the cart tried to help by pushing it and the lad in the drivers
seat not looking where he was going wobbled and presto there he was on
the train track.
Nightmare! Sharon did try to apologise but i am not sure whether
'sorry' actually exicts in the Indian language. I certainly haven't
come across it when being bashed into by pedestrians or bikes... The
train arrived about five minutes later and thank god not a minute
sooner or the end of this story could have been very different indeed!
Gald everyone was okay a guilt ridden Sharon and i boarded our train
and headed for Delhi.
