Train stations.

Have you ever stood on a train station? I mean just stand there and let time pass you by. I guess not unless you are waiting for a train nobody just stands there on a train station.

I did today. Not because I was waiting for a train or for someone, but because I just wanted to. I saw people go by. I saw people pour in and vanish in those trains one after another. If you look at it you will find nothing special but if you see carefully there is always something happening.

Every face tells a story it might not be relevant to us but for that person it is something important. Like there goes a man late for somwhere, sits there a young boy sharing his chips with seagulls, and an old lady trying to cope with pace of young generation just to find a quite safe place to stand, her life is etched on her skin, every wrinkle on her skin is a tale in itself, of her sorrows,  her joys of everything she must have been through. She must have been young once just like one of us, but it was just so hard for me to go back those many years and picture her back then. She must have fallen in love, found a husband, held her children, seen them grow up. She must have a lot of loved ones but right now she just stood alone with her groceries and a walker on which she banked completely to walk. She is running out of breath and looking for place to sit but where? all the seats are occupied and no one even noticed her to offer her one. Too afraid to ask she just stands and waits but her train is after 20 minutes what would she do till then, so she stares at nothing...what was she thinking then? Tired she shifts her weight from one foot to another, luckily someone got up just to throw a can and she occupies that seat. She is waiting and waiting, and then she is asleep, her head is falling and she wakes up. Squints her eyes to check how much time is left, there is plenty so she dozes of again. "the next train to depart from platform five will be  the 9:22 Sydenham via the city loop" hearing the announcement she wakes up. Adjusts her dress, tucks her hair behind her ear just like she must have done 50 years ago, only this time her actions are slower. She get up with a great difficulty even though the train has not yet arrived and walks carefully trying not to come in anyones way or being pushed by someone, people push her but she apologises. The train arrives and only a few steps of gap is left between the two (train and the old lady) she waits for everyone to get on in the train first and then follow them in. The train doors closes and she is gone. I might see her again, I might never see her again, but in that moment somehow I felt that I knew her. In this rat race where everyone was occupied, restless and in rush to go ahead of each other aimlessly, she was the only one who wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. For me she was the lady at the station who took her nap while waiting for her train instead of calling someone and cribbing about it or sulking about it.