...continues

                  I usually travel in ladies compartment for reasons apparently unknown even to me.I know what you are thinking...for security reasons right. No. I don't believe that the other compartments pose a security threat to ladies. The reason might be that I don't have to be self conscious. Some people(men) stare as if i am from a different tribe.If i am in a mixed compartment (where the ratio of men are greater), I either shield myself with a book and pretend to be in deep reading or sleep with my head resting on my bag(in my lap).Otherwise I stare to eternity through the window.When ever I look around for a change, i catch someone staring or someone catches me staring and it feels very awkward.
                 I guess the railway entertainment department (if something like that exists) read my mind and installed televisions on either end of each compartment. And it did help...now all i have to do is get a seat facing the television and enjoy the old movies. And only the intercity had this development...more reasons to love the train. But all this good girl stuff happens only when i travel alone. When i travel with friends....well we are the trouble makers. We look around catches all the love birds within...make fun...tell tales...laugh out loud and what not.For reasons unknown after a few months the televisions were removed.  
                 The first time i traveled alone was when i just joined the college. It was terrifying. May be because it was the first time i was going to a big city all alone. I didn't know how to get out of the station...catch an auto or give the directions. I literally forgot the use of tongue. Going from a station that has just 2 platforms to one that has 6 was confusing and scary. But i soon learned it all. Now it is my parents who wonder how i find my way around the traffic and people. 
                 So back to the ladies' compartment....it is exhausting. I even felt dizzy once owing to the lack of oxygen. The daily going employees and students add to the rush. The seats are 3 seater but one can find atleast 5 ladies stacked in one pushing this way and that. The aunties comes to you and say 'please adjust' and then if you do, you will have to take the full responsibility of being crushed, plastered to a side wall or thrown out of the seat. There are times when i had to sit in a space that wouldn't even hold all my 5 fingers...and that is how i acquired my balancing skills. Once in some what such a situation when i was crushed by two fat ladies on either side and covered up by others standing so close, i decided to lean to the front and read a book balanced between my knees. After some time i realized that something like flakes was pouring down from above ( no it was not a pleasant feeling like snow fall i see in all christmas based films). I looked up but since i was covered by two chattering women it was dark and  i couldn't see the origin of it. It continued and at some point I managed to find some light and discovered that i was being showered upon all that time by peanut shells by the two women. They were crunching down the peanuts and were dumping the waste on me!!! they were almost finished...so there was nothing much to do than brushing it away. More of my train adventures will come to you but now i think is the time for a kitchen war.