JOURNEY:-

Rhea could have very well flied to Hyderabad that night and avoided that grisly experience. She could have taken the safer and an easy way out, But she didn't. She took the tougher way, which she thought will be fun and a new experience. To an extent it was, but what happened or could have happened that night would have changed her life for real. She wasn't like the girls who jump on the sofa after seeing a flying cockroach or the girl screeching after seeing her girlfriend in a mall .Nor was she the stereotypical classy rich girls that we often see in Karan Johar movies. She was different, she was smart, edgy, spontaneous, always looking for an adventure, and she was the quite essential "bindass types". Her mum often referred to her as "the one who invites trouble with "open arms". Her family always wondered where their only 18 year old daughter got so much nerve and courage from. She was the weakness of her family. After convincing for 15 minutes, her dear dad glided like butter on toast and agreed on sending her alone to Hyderabad. Being an avid traveler that she was, she wanted to try something different this time. Do something that she could talk about even after years. Rhea wanted to do something unforgettable. She wanted to be on her own for a change, and make this trip alone to meet her dear uncle and aunty. Finally the day arrived; she was so excited that she couldn’t get her siesta. She was anticipating the things that could happen tonight. Good things. After all this was her first long distance train journey. The whole truth that there was no one to watch over and tell her what to do and what not to, made her joyous. She was wondering those new friends she would make on the journey, those garam chai that she could have on the station and maybe jump back into the slow running train before it caught speed. It was all too much exciting. Half a dozen people were on the station to see her off. Her parents were worried, but choose to hide their feelings, and the traditional “did you carry that, hope you didn’t forget it” reminders begin, with last minute advices of not eating from anyone’s tiffin and not talking to strangers end in a jiffy before the train could pick up speed. She boarded the Hussain sagar express departed at 21.40 IST. It took her 15 minutes to get comfortable, and she was travelling in a cabin where there was no one except her. She was ecstatic to look out of the window and see so many lights. It was like night had brightened only for her, she drifted in thoughts as cold winds danced with her hair. Half an hour into the journey and she was disrupted. Ticket Checker entered her cabin, the uniform and expressionless face made her happy for no reason, she was happy to have a ticket and show it to him. It sort of gave her a responsible adult feeling, after seeing her ticket and going through the list he had. TC told her she had boarded into the wrong compartment, and that her compartment was right behind. She enquired if she could stay here instead. as she was already comfortable and didn't want to shift. But the TC politely told her there were reservations and people would get in here after few hours and would need to shift sooner or later. She had a lot of luggage. That smile turned into frown as she carried her 3 heavy suitcases to the second last compartment. Lesson 1. See which compartment you are entering. Her hands were paining by now, and seeing a young, attractive girl all alone, guys tried to offer her a helping hand, she refused at first but then she thought –what the hell! So she gives all her bags to this fair guy in goa shorts and ice blue shirt. This is how she breaks the basic rule of not talking to strangers. This handsome stranger happens to be doing a lot to help and so as a pay up he asks her personal sort of questions and tries level best to hook up, after 20 minutes of carrying heavy luggage he realizes that this wasn’t going anywhere so with a scorn he tells her this all that he could do, and has to get back now. She feels bad letting potter go away but then is happy when she realizes that her compartment was just 10 feet away. She happily makes her way through those cramped up compartment, reaches her cabin takes her bags inside and locks it. But when she takes a look at it she realizes, she has jumped out of the hot pan into the fire. There were 3 dark men, broad, unfriendly and dressed in shorts and vest. Cold feeling of fear gripped her. That untidy hair, those blood shot eyes made her extremely scared. Somehow she adjusted her luggage; none offered help but their vacant eyes and cold expressions gave a bold statement about them, she parked herself on her seat and told herself to relax and to avoid any eye contact. She thought may some TC could help her. What made her confused about them was they did not speak language that she could remotely understand. So when these guys looked at her and laughed, she tried her level best to pretend all was okay, she was fine, but well she wasn’t . Her fear had changed into mild fever. She thought she should go to sleep, so she removed her bed sheets and tried to get sleep but the constant stares by these men made her so uncomfortable that it became impossible for her to close her eyes. She thought maybe she should call home after all it was just 11.30. So she took out her phone and became angry to see she was out of network. She said a genuine prayer and swayed as the train picked up speed. The lights flickered in the cabin, her heart stopped beating for a while. The short guy among the three got up and poured out something in glasses, everybody said cheers and had a sip. After seeing this from a small hole in the bed sheet she covered herself like a dead mummy in the sheets. The tension was growing after every few minutes these guys looked at her after few pegs they switched off the light, and were still sitting and chatting with each other. Rhea closed her eyes and told herself to gather courage she hoped a TC would come, but no one turned up. So she made a strong decision to sleep instead, her troubled eyes were closed forcefully by her mind and her courage drew as a blanket on her, with those battles in her mind she slept. Only to get up next morning to see those horrendous looking men suit up in front of their laptops smiling at each other and discussing something serious, which thought would be about business. She got out of the cabin smiled at herself, said thanked God and realized how wrong her predictions were. She brushed her teeth and had a face wash,It somehow did wash down her terrible feelings of last night. Had coffee and continued her journey.