Prologue

PROLOGUE

Not all those who wander, are lost

-          J.R.R.Tolkein

Samuel sat there brooding by the window; its fibre glass pane was down, causing the tube lights on the platform to reflect as blurred lines.  His head was inclined at a weird angle on the pane, inviting ogles from the people passing by his berth. His breath fogged the glass, further blurring his vision, but still he was able to make out the yellow LED light box, blinking nearby.

He was in a train, the Madurai Express, departing from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus at 12:15am, bound on a 36- hour journey to Tiruchirapalli from Mumbai. The LED light kept blinking. He was left with 5 minutes, before the train left the terminus.

As it was always, there was a flurry of activity on the platform – porters heaving the luggage into the compartments, people scanning the passenger list that was pasted a mere 15 minutes before the departure time by a railway official, people by the water counter filling in their water bottles while casting anxious looks on the LED monitor. To Samuel, none of this mattered. He was lost in his own thoughts.

A sense of nervousness engulfed his very spirit. He had never done this before – gone on a journey alone. Sure, he had been to different states but then, he had someone accompanying him. At 22, he was about to embark on a journey on his own for the first time in his life.

He started having second thoughts about it. He was worried about his safety; his mind pestering him constantly, flooding him with thoughts of robbery, disaster and what not things. He was worried about his brother and sister, whom he was leaving behind. Although, the journey was of five days only, he was down with anxiety at the very prospect of leaving them back in a messy situation.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Someone tapped his shoulder. Samuel yelped and found himself face-to-face with a polite looking chubby guy.

“Yes?” said Samuel in relief.

“I am the coach assistant. Would you like to move your bag to the upper berth? I can help you with it,” the assistant replied kindly.

“No, it’s okay,” said Samuel, not trusting the assistant at all.

Perhaps it was the Samuel spoke or the way he looked at him, the assistant recoiled and went away from there silently.

Samuel saw him disappear behind the door leading to the exit from the coach. He sighed in relief. He managed to stuff his backpack near the window, threw the blanket over him and prepared to lie down for the night.

The train’s whistle pierced the silence of the night. It was 12:15. It began to move out of the station.

Samuel saw the tube lights passing him by from the window, their glare illuminating the semi-darkness inside the compartment. The compartment was not full yet as people would be boarding it from different stations on the way along.

The sound of the train’s engines gaining momentum under him began to reverberate around. There was silence in the compartment as the other passengers had already gone off to sleep, the sound of their soft snoring echoing through the narrow passageway. The assistant came and sat in the empty seats opposite to Samuel’s.

“Sleep well, sir,” he said again in that kind tone.

Samuel was sure that the assistant meant no harm. Yet there was that weird instinct in him that prevented him from trusting the guy. He held on to his bag a little more tightly and drew the blanket over his face.

As a matter of fact, Samuel had stopped trusting anyone. He did not even trust himself anymore. He did not think whether he was actually capable of doing something like this for ever. Barely at the age of 22, when life has just begun for many, was Samuel a man with a broken soul and a twisted mind.

He was a lost soul, stuck in the chaos of his world.

Only time would tell whether he would find himself again...