Yesterday I returned to Chennai after a 20 days summer vacation spent mostly at my small village in Bihar. It was a train journey via Howrah where I was joined by one of my college friends. He had booked ticket of AC III for both of us in Coromandel express. We reached our compartment 10 minutes before the scheduled departure but found 9 people already seating in that compartment( earlier it used to be 8 but Lalu introduced extra side berth in each compartment but thankfully Mamta has directed to remove them all). When we inquired we found out that 3 people have been given RACs for a single seat(not ours) and thats why we two were extra over there. Somehow we managed to adjust and got place to sit since this RAC puzzle will be solved only when T.T.E arrives.
The train started as per schedule. Our co-passengers in the compartment included an elderly lady tavelling all by herself(Tamil), a gentleman in his late fifties(Telegu), three men almost of our age(all contenders for a single seat, I couldn't find out much about them) and a Bengali family of beta(son), Maa( mother) and Maasi(Mother's sister) travelling down south because beta had to attend counselling for some medical college.
Ten minutes into the journey the family started complaigning about the heat and congestion. Beta looked most restless of the lot and complaigned to coach attendant about the same. The coach attendant assured that the heat problem will be solved in another half an hour as AC requires some time to show effect but he told solving congestion problem is beyond his capacity. So the family had no choice but to wait for another half an hour.
But it seems there was some technical snag in air conditioning system and there was no improvement in temperature as half an hour passed. During this half an hour I think the family informed almost everyone in their khandaan(clan) about the problems they are facing. Meanwhile the attendant along with his helpers was trying hard to fix the snag amidst the constant cribbing of the family and threats of lodging complaign against him at the next station. Thankfully both the problems got solved before the next station. Two people with RACs were alotted seats in other compartments bringing an end to congestion and AC started working properly bringing an end to heat.
Now everyone looked comfortable but the family still had a problem, one of their seats was on the opposite side and the elderly gentleman had that odd seat on their side. So they started cajoling him to exchange his seat. The reason for exchange they gave was it will be convenient at night if all three from the family have berths on the same side. All this conversation was taking place in Hindi. The old man thought for a moment and replied "Sone ke baad family kahan yaad rehta hai"(Who remembers family once he/she is fast asleep). His remark threw the rest of us in splits of laughter. But he obliged to their request and exchanged the seat.
The next day we all had little conversations among ourselves and it was mostly in English or Hindi but I don't know what was it with the family they assumed we all knew Bengali and will suddenly switch to it during conversation. We nodded twice or thrice but since they started using more and more and more Bengali I had to tell them that "aami Bangla jaane na"(I don't know Bengali). But my friend continued nodding whenever they spoke in Bengali to him. I was damn sure he don't know Bengali but I had no clue why he was nodding his head on every sentence they spoke.
Anyways when we were about to reach Chennai our conversation finally touched upon the place we come from. They were surprised to know that my friend is not a Bengali. One of the ladies asked how come he spoke such a fluent Bengali. I was surprised because he never uttered a single letter in Bengali but my friend smiled as if he was expecting this question and told that he can understand a little bit of Bengali but can't speak. Well the family looked a bit disappointed, they exchanged looks among themselves and my friend, he was nodding.
