Regular travel, irregular circumstances

 I prefer traveling in train over bus and car, for it has washroom in it. I usually travel in train. Traveling in train 🚉 has become a routine for me. Everything is pre-planned. I plan every minute as to how I spend my time. If it's night journey not much planning is needed. Just food, bedsheet and pillow. If it's a day journey, elaborate planning is needed to make the most out of the Journey. If going to new places plan is simple, Lookout the window for beautiful unexplored places, capture pictures, Share photos on social media and talk to co-passengers. While traveling to familiar places it becomes monotonous. Hence, detailed planning is required. Plan is set in motion on the basis of number of hours ⏳ to travel. Binge watching, listening to music, reading a book 📙 or writing the blog. If the Journey is long, say for 2 days all of the above activities can be accommodated.

I was traveling from my native to Bangalore. Since the Journey was familiar. I had planned on binge watching & binge eating. Had 4 episodes of Dexter series, 1 episode of Baruto and Demon slayer Anime and the movies Shyma Singha Roy. For binge eating I had dairy milk silk, bourbon, bingo, home made breakfast & slices of bread 🥪 with Nutella.

The Journey started early morning at 5 am. As soon as the Journey began, I started my binge session. I had big target 🎯 to achieve, so had tossed away the sleep 😴. Everything was going on so smoothly as planned. Only deviation from target being talking to passengers, showing ticket to TC and watching a beautiful sunrise 🌅. 

I had almost completed all the targets, was in the climax of Shyam Singh Roy & the train arrived at destination. I got down in Majestic (KSR Railway Station), had not even crossed my boogey, heard a girl scream, turned my face towards window & saw a girl falling. I rushed to help her. The girl was shaking, her entire body was shivering especially her hands and legs. Some passenger said it could be lakava (paralysis) & asked to give her Iron. Look at the Irony the entire train was made of Iron, yet at that moment iron was nowhere to be found. We made her touch stand of the seat. After a minute, she stopped shaking. She wasn't conscious yet. Women in the compartment started to rub her hands and feet. We lifted her from floor and made her sleep. I asked the passenger if I should try calling the railway doctor. At first, they said she'll be fine in a minute and there isn't any need of doctor.  Moreover when that minute also passed, they asked me to call the doctor. While all this was happening near the door of my compartment. I saw, herds of people come and go without a care. They even pushed the women who were helping the girl. I asked the railway staff to call the doctor if they could, just like me even they didn't have idea as what to do. I saw a man with walkie talkie, explained him the situation and asked him to help. Meanwhile I called the railmadad helpline number 139 and explained to them situation in detail over phone. 

They asked for the girl's phone number and her PNR number. The girl was unconscious and was travelling alone, so there was no way to know that. I gave them my PNR number and asked them to send help, immediately. The person on the phone said please wait sir, I'll register your complain and give you complain number. Conversation on phone hardly took two minutes but for me because of emergency it felt like an hour. The person of the phone was like "thank you for waiting, sir...You're complaint ... and the call dropped. 

What the hell! call was dropped at such critical movement. In my mind, I was like oh no I don’t want to  call and go with the same process all over again. I was thinking this and a message dropped with complaint number and link to check the status of the complaint. Immediately a call followed. It felt like higher authority person. She said, “Had you asked for help?” I replied Yes!. The lady on phone said “we have dispatched an ambulance and a doctor will be there soon. Please stay at the spot; we need your number to contact. Meanwhile the girl regained consciousness. She was flooded with question, where did you want to go? Were you travelling alone? How are you now? Where  is your luggage ? The girl uttered only one word ‘Kadur’. What were we to make of the word. She was not fully conscious that was for sure. She was trying to get up, we asked her to relax and lay back.  We asked her to get in contact with her family. She opened her phones lock and called her mom (It was probably first number or last dialed number on the phone). One Woman passenger spoke to her mom. Her mom gave us out all the required details. The Girl was travelling from Kadur to Bangalore. She was going to her PG. Her mom had asked to send her back in the train; they will pick her up and get her treated.  The woman who was speaking to her mom agreed to drop her back until Kadur. The woman had to go to Dharwad, yet she was ready to detour and help the girl. I was impressed to see women helping each other and taking charge in dire times. Seeing the crowd a railway police officer came and asked ‘what happened?’ We explained him the situation. Police officer asked the girl questions. The girl was in no situation to answer. The woman who took charge earlier spoke on her behalf. She told the police officer that girl’s mom had asked her to drop her in Kadur, the girl doesn’t have ticket, what to do? The police officer said with authority, take her back. No one will ask, life takes priority over rules and regulation. I was surprised to see the police officer who showed apathy earlier was sympathetic now. I wasn’t convinced though. Point being, the person who has reserved the seat will surely object to it. The railway employee with walkie showed up with his supervisor in an electric cart with a team of doctor and nurses. They had medical instruments, ID card and Uniform that had insignia of Manipal Hospital. I was relieved to see them. First, the asked everyone to make room for the girl so she can breathe easy. Next the checked heartbeat, BP and blood sugar level. They said her sugar levels were low. They spoke to girl, where do you want to go. We will admit you in hospital from there you can go. Is that ok? In meek voice, she said speak to my mother, called her and gave the phone to talk to nurse. Later, they took her in that electric car to Hospital.

Once she left, I walked my way. I got two calls, one from Rail Madad, I told them, the girl got the required medical help, so close the complaint. Other call was from friend, who with his frustrated voice said’ Bhai, where are you, I’ve been waiting for you near Metro station. I told him, I was close to metro now, there was an emergency, I’ll come there and explain.

Special Thanks 

I want to dedicate this blog article for a friend and wish her belated happy birthday. Happy Birthday 🎂 little finger. Your the reason I started writing blogs. Its an interesting story : In our usual conversation I was explaining her how my day was and also about an unusual smile  I saw that day. The chat 💬 was so good that, the idea of making it to a blog hit me. I worked on it and produced my first blog https://21stcenturyindianthinking2.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-smile-traffic.html This wouldn’t have possible without you. Thank you little finger. Have a wonderful year