Page 30 - Seniorstoday June 2022 Issue

and explaining the sequence of events, the of times.
power block was cleared, power restored and
the train started moving towards Lonavala. It
happened rather quickly. It was a rather dark
evening and therefore the movement of the
train was not noticed. The train had not picked
up much motion and I was able to catch it. But
the boss could not make it. He was left all alone
at the site. Fear was seen on his face. Night
appeared as a poorly lit version of the day with
the light from third rate coaches falling on
my boss. It made him look humble. I realised
the problem and jumped down quickly from
the train, more as a duty less as a help to him.
Seeing me jumping down, a supervisor also
jumped. We shouted for the diver to stop
the train, but our shouts were not audible.
Supervisor is like a JCO in the army.
We started walking towards Lonavala on
the track. It had rained during the day and
the ballast on the track was still wet. Walking
along the track was not easy but that was
the only option. The frogs settled in the
darkness were croaking happily, creating
just the opposite effect. We walked on the
track opposite to the proper direction of a
train movement. The shoes were soaked in
rain water. The fibres of decayed wooden
sleepers along with the wet ballast made the
walk quite difficult. We assured the boss that
it was safe on this track. Ever confused, the
boss looked repeatedly in the front and at the
back to ensure that a train did not appear from
somewhere. In the process he tripped a couple
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By now I realised that the boss who had
been a terror, a roaring lion, was less than an
ordinary person. One can see the person’s
true colour when he is insecure. He was
continuously worried about the snakes,
getting run over from the trains, highway
robbers and reaching the destination.
We knew that no train would go towards
Lonavala for a minimum of two hours and
therefore we had decided to walk! But he
was fearful of everything. After walking
for about fifteen minutes, we reached the
over bridge of old Bombay Pune road which
crosses the tracks from east to west. The
tracks at this location are at grade and the
road over them. Abutment of the road bridge
is pitched with shapeless stones. There were
gaps between the stones which provided
the space for bushes to grow. Instead of
walking all the way up to Lonavala, it was
prudent to take a lift from the road vehicle up
to Lonavala. We therefore decided to climb
over the sloping abutment to reach the road
level. My supervisor was a well-built Sikh,
who climbed swiftly and reached the road
level while I was halfway of the climb. The
boss took some time to start, fearful of the
grass and bushes. He thought that the path
taken by the supervisor was safe since the
supervisor had almost reached the top. The
boss started to climb. Maybe due to a hurry
to reach the top, the supervisor loosened some
stones which started rolling down, in the path
thought safe by the boss. Boss got terribly
scared. The knee high grass and bushes on
the slope had created fear in his mind. He
started repeating “Sai Baba, Sai Baba, Sai
Baba’’ loud enough for the truck drivers to
hear. The fear of snakes was an apprehension
but rolling stones was a reality. The stones
were not visible due to the darkness. I too
got worried for his safety for the stones