The Chic Old Lady
I’ve done my fair share of ‘traveling’ by the general compartment (a.k.a. the unreserved compartment), way more than what my back would have liked me too. Though it often means being cramped for long hours into a tiny little portion of a wooden seat or the luggage rack on top of it, I’ve grown to enjoy these trips, where I spend an entire day and/or night in a overcrowded, irate and nosy space in the company of a class of people that I often don’t get to share spaces with.
These trips also mean a ‘lota’ reading and there is not much you can do otherwise, except gaze out of the window perhaps and the chances of getting a seat by the window is rather slim given the crowd et al and there are way to many bodies in your way to get a decent view of the world outside if you don’t get a seat by the window. You definitely can’t sleep either, not unless you are trained in the art of sleeping while you are seated upright in a lit up (F.Y.I. the lights never get switched of in an general compartment), cramped and noisy environment.
There are two other ‘activities’ (apart from reading and gazing out of the window) that you can engross yourself in, the first, and something that I often don’t indulge in, is to pick up conversations with your fellow ‘general compartment’ travelers. Like I said, it’s not something that I too keen on, though I’ve had some interesting conversation with the person seating next to me, these conversations have, more often than not, been initiated by the other person.
The second ‘activity’ involves your fellow travelers too, but instead of picking up conversations with them, you merely watch them, keenly, silently and discreetly (no one really appreciates a voyeur), and try to read their faces and eyes and observe their mannerism, their idiosyncrasies, their eating patters, their clothes, footwear or the absence of it, and eavesdrop on their conversations; personal or otherwise.
I don’t wanna get to deep into the entire man watching or women watching (sadly more men travel by the General Compartment than women) thing. I don’t really spend a lot of time doing it either.
I spend a majority of my time reading, and that is perhaps the only reason I travel by the general compartment this often (plus it’s cheap and you don’t have to book tickets in advance). And when my neck and eyes get a bit sore from the long stretches of reading, I straighten my self a bit and indulge in the whole man, women or (as in my last trip) old lady watching thing.
The lower middle class and the working class are an interesting class of people to observe. They are, heterogeneous (unlike the middle class) and brimming with character and intrigue and some of them live very fascination lives with a deep and mysterious past or so I would like to think.
But their fashion sense leaves much do be desired and one can’t really expect much from them either, they hardly have the means or the need to dress up. Having said all that, some of the women do sport a really nice sari from time to time, like the old lady who was sitting right besides me on my last journey.
She was dressed in a unique shade of green that fell right in-between the olive green and leafy green. It was bright and earthy (at the same time) and contrasted really well with her deep and dark brown skin and her tribal Dravidian features; large forehead, sunken eyes, prominent and high cheek bone and thick and pouted lips. Her face and skin was wrinkled and her face in particular overflowed with CHARACTER. She wore a thin gold chain and a gold year piece that consisted of a large and intricately designed ear-stud in the shape of a bell and an extended thin chain which went around the top of her ears and joined the stud in the other side. She also wore blue glass (or plastic probably) bangles and a large red Bindhi on her forehead, which added to her colorful and ‘chic old lady’ look.
It was her green sari though, which still lingers in my mind as an afterimage and I can still see the gold color embroidery that bordered it. And I still remember trying catch glimpses of the green in her sari as I plodded my way thru an Alice Walker book that I had brought along to read during that particular train journey by the General Compartment.
These trips also mean a ‘lota’ reading and there is not much you can do otherwise, except gaze out of the window perhaps and the chances of getting a seat by the window is rather slim given the crowd et al and there are way to many bodies in your way to get a decent view of the world outside if you don’t get a seat by the window. You definitely can’t sleep either, not unless you are trained in the art of sleeping while you are seated upright in a lit up (F.Y.I. the lights never get switched of in an general compartment), cramped and noisy environment.
There are two other ‘activities’ (apart from reading and gazing out of the window) that you can engross yourself in, the first, and something that I often don’t indulge in, is to pick up conversations with your fellow ‘general compartment’ travelers. Like I said, it’s not something that I too keen on, though I’ve had some interesting conversation with the person seating next to me, these conversations have, more often than not, been initiated by the other person.
The second ‘activity’ involves your fellow travelers too, but instead of picking up conversations with them, you merely watch them, keenly, silently and discreetly (no one really appreciates a voyeur), and try to read their faces and eyes and observe their mannerism, their idiosyncrasies, their eating patters, their clothes, footwear or the absence of it, and eavesdrop on their conversations; personal or otherwise.
I don’t wanna get to deep into the entire man watching or women watching (sadly more men travel by the General Compartment than women) thing. I don’t really spend a lot of time doing it either.
I spend a majority of my time reading, and that is perhaps the only reason I travel by the general compartment this often (plus it’s cheap and you don’t have to book tickets in advance). And when my neck and eyes get a bit sore from the long stretches of reading, I straighten my self a bit and indulge in the whole man, women or (as in my last trip) old lady watching thing.
The lower middle class and the working class are an interesting class of people to observe. They are, heterogeneous (unlike the middle class) and brimming with character and intrigue and some of them live very fascination lives with a deep and mysterious past or so I would like to think.
But their fashion sense leaves much do be desired and one can’t really expect much from them either, they hardly have the means or the need to dress up. Having said all that, some of the women do sport a really nice sari from time to time, like the old lady who was sitting right besides me on my last journey.
She was dressed in a unique shade of green that fell right in-between the olive green and leafy green. It was bright and earthy (at the same time) and contrasted really well with her deep and dark brown skin and her tribal Dravidian features; large forehead, sunken eyes, prominent and high cheek bone and thick and pouted lips. Her face and skin was wrinkled and her face in particular overflowed with CHARACTER. She wore a thin gold chain and a gold year piece that consisted of a large and intricately designed ear-stud in the shape of a bell and an extended thin chain which went around the top of her ears and joined the stud in the other side. She also wore blue glass (or plastic probably) bangles and a large red Bindhi on her forehead, which added to her colorful and ‘chic old lady’ look.
It was her green sari though, which still lingers in my mind as an afterimage and I can still see the gold color embroidery that bordered it. And I still remember trying catch glimpses of the green in her sari as I plodded my way thru an Alice Walker book that I had brought along to read during that particular train journey by the General Compartment.
posted by Arun Mukkath at 5:00 PM
2 Comments:
u seem to have an new found obssession"liking for older women"
lol...anyway great write up..very descriptive you shud have done lit dude ,i can picture you places..def not the office ur in rite now.
I thought the couch potato in me got the better of the book worm. But your post was quite rivetting and beautifully written, and got me hooked till the end. Turns out it's not TV, just bad writing that doesn't get my attention.
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