ONE NIGHT AT BEGUN KODAR RAILWAY STATION

If the name of the ten ghost railway stations in the world can be found on the internet, then the name of this Begun Kodar railway station in Purulia of West Bengal, India, will definitely come up. This station is in Purulia district, in the middle of Jhalda and Kot Shita stations. This is a halt station, no express train stops here. Only a few passenger Trains stop.

I will now say that I once had the experience of spending one night at this station.

I worked as an internal auditor in a private company. The company headquarter was in Kolkata, at the Kamalaya Center on Lelin Sarani. It had 22 branch offices all over West Bengal. One of these branch offices is in Purulia town. The experience came when I went to the purulia branch office for auditing work.

In that year Durgapujo was held in late October, so Diwali was held around mid-November. When I went to the office after the Diwali holidays, one of my senior officials said that the Purulia office had been open for about six months and had not been audited yet. So I need to go there once.

 In this context, I would like to say that my job is not only auditing, but also to trained branch staffs i.e. how to keep accounts, how to write cashbooks, how to create vouchers, how to upload, how to verify. Besides every branch also have to send a report to the head office every day, I also trained them about it.

Although, in the city of Kolkata did not feel cold in mid-November, but there is a good feeling of winter in the villages at this time and if it hilly areas it feels cold. Winter clothing has become urgent since the afternoon.

I left for Purulia on 25th November, the train goes to Purulia via Panshkura, Kharagpur, Tatanagar. The train left Howrah at 10.15 am. When I reached Tatanagar, the sun had set in the western sky. In the winter, it is shown that the smoke is seems to be in a straight line, slightly above the ground, in the shape of a cloud especially in the rural area. There is a big difference between day and night in November. Now the night is much longer than the day. When the train passed Jhalda station, it was 8.30 pm. Since I was travelled in express train it will not stop at this station. About 3 minutes later I saw the train leaving Begunkodar station. I was in the air-conditioned compartment. It was after four compartments behind the engine.

I think as the last compartment of the train passed Begunkodar station, the speed of the train started slowing down and finally stopped. The next station, Kotshita, is about 6 km away, everyone thought there was no signal so it stopped.

About 5 minutes passed like this, I saw through the window the signal is green but the train is not going. I came to the door of the train to see what was going on. Many people, like me are looking up from different compartments. Someone goes down from the rain and starts natural calls. I also go down from the train to starts natural calls to a little distance. When I opened the zip of pants, the train started by blowing the horn. I also finished the work as soon as possible and started running to catch the moving train. Everyone caught the train. My body is bulky so I couldn't run too fast. Still, I ran as fast as I could and stumbled upon a large rock, and the train speed past me. When I got used to it a little later, I saw that everyone who was going down from the train got up. There is only one person walking along the railway line from behind me, although it is not well visible in the dark, it was understood that the gentleman is old, has a stout body, sugar patient , an employee.

He is sugar patient, because at this age and bulky body no one will go down without station, and employee because many passengers travelling in these express train at the weekend in reserved compartment although they have unreserved tickets.

 Seeing the gentleman, I stood for a while, when he come closer then asked him, “are you also travelling in this train”.

 The gentleman cleared his throat a little and replied in a loud and rough voice, "Yes Sir"

I said, "Will you go to Purulia?"

 The reply cames, “My house is in Shimultala village, 5 km away from Purulia”.

This is the first time I noticed his voice coming from far away, like the voice echo in the air, even if he was standing near me.

 After a while, the gentleman said, " I think You don't residents in this area , where are you coming from?"

I said, "Calcutta, will go to Purulia."

 The gentleman said, "Do you know anyone in Purulia?"

 I said, “No, but knows the branch manager of the company. He will come and wait for me at the station, I told him to get in this train. "

The gentleman was silent for a while and said, "Come with me to the station. There is a train in the mid-night. If it stops, you can reach Purulia."

 Seeing no other way, I walked with the gentleman towards Begunkodar station. As I approached the station, I saw him in the dim light, fully covered with a blanket, a muffler and hat on his head, thick-framed spectacles and thick glasses, gloves in his hands, socks and rubber shoes, that’s why there was no sound while walking.

 When we came to the station, I saw a man is getting nap at a ticket counter. There are two lights on either side of the platform. “Begunkodar Halt Station” is written on a plaque at the end of the platform in yellow background black ink,in Bengali, English and Hindi language, 360 meters above sea level, Ranchi Division of South Eastern Railway.

 Everyone knows that any rail-station never closed, because there must be a man to show the green signal to the train passing at mid night. In small stations, one person does more than one job, such as handling counters, giving signals to trains, and cleaning the office if necessary. I think at this station this guy done all of these. There is a seating area on the platform, the gentleman asked me to sit there and went inside to know the time of the next train.

The ticket counter was visible even though it was blurry from where I was sitting. I saw this gentleman standing in front of the ticket counter but the man inside the counter remained relaxed. The counter man did not feel the need to look up head once and see to whom he was talking.

 After few minutes, my fellow gentleman came and said, "Purulia Intercity express will come after midnight."

I said, "Intercity is not a mid night train ."

 He said, "The train is late so it will arrive at night."

 What can be done? I sat down. After a while, the gentleman said, "do you have some water?"

I said, "I had water bottle, food in my bag, which is left in the train but it doesn't seem to be available anymore."

Gentleman, "Did you have a reservation?"

 I reply, "B-3, 26 side lower".

 Gentleman, "Okay."

About an hour has passed since then, I have already gone out of the platform and just had some tea. I didn't see the gentleman anywhere, I just sat and fell asleep, at that time a cold touch woke me up and I saw that gentleman calling me.

 Gentleman, "I have found your bag."

 I said, "How do you get it ?"

 The gentleman said, "One of my acquaintances was visiting your compartment. He saw that you do down from the train and not able to boat the train again. That why he took the bag and go down from the train at Purulia station. His house is opposite this station. He met me outside the station. I told your problems casually then he returned the bag to me.

 I thanked God in my heart and began to think about the possibility of such a co-incidents. After a while, the gentleman said, "Please check your bag." I opened the zip of the bag and saw that I had my laptop, water bottle, tiffin, office papers etc.

 I said, "You asked for water." With that I handed the water bottle to him.

 The gentleman said, "No thanks , I have already drank it." It was late at night so I took dinner, drank water, and sat down again. I generally take a betal after dinner with 120 baba- jorda .

I said, "You please Sit here and I go outside the station to take a betal."

 The gentleman said, "I have it," and handed me a wrapper. I took it and realized it was cold as ice.

I said, "Why is it so cold?"

 The answer came, " I had it in my pocket that's why."

 I thought, if I had anything into my pocket, it would be hot not cold, and one more thing comes in my mind when I need anything how it is available to him. I am thinking all about these.

After chewing the betal I realized it was as I used to take, so I say thanks to him and asked, “Sorry I do not know your name, because you help me very much today. By the way my name is Chandan Chatterjee ”.

 The gentleman replied that his name is Bikash Chakraborty, and also said, "An express train is coming down."

 I said, "I don't need Down's train, if it's Up, it's better, and it stops here."

 After a while I really heard the sound of a train and see the dim light of the train in far. Gradually the light became brighter, the dim station became brighter. I went a little near to the rail line to see which train was coming.

Seeing me go close to the rail line, the man stood up and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't go near to the line you will die."

"I am not a 10 years old child that the train pull me away," saying this I looked at the gentleman. In the light of the train, I clearly see he has no face, only two burning eyes from the blanket try to burn me, he spread his hand to catch me. I saw the hand is only skeleton so skin on it.  After seeing such a horrible scene, I screamed and ran towards the ticket counter. I ran a little and stumbled on a rock and lost consciousness.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a hospital bed. After regaining my composure, I asked Doctor, "How did I get here?"

 He said, “Mr. Bikash Chakraborty saw you lying unconscious on the side of rail line and picked you up and admitted here. How are you feeling now? "

 I said, "Good."

After a while, I remembered everything like a movie flashback. Getting off the train, stumbling, getting acquainted with a gentleman, getting my laptop bag, take betal from the man, finally seeing a burning eye and skeleton hand in the light of a down train and lost consciousness. I saw my bag near my head. After a while, the doctor gave me first aid and released me.

"May I see the hospital visitor's book," I asked.

 The doctor said, "Yes," and he took me with him and showed me the visitor's book at the reception counter. It has a signature B. Chakraborti.

Suddenly I thought that if the hospital man had seen him, then the CCTV camera in the hospital would have photographed him. I went to the superintendent of the hospital and told him everything and wanted to see the CCTV camera footages. It showed I am lying on a stretcher, the receptionist talking, but not visible the person in front of him . The pen got up by itself and signed to the visitor's book, my bag seemed to be floating in the air. Seeing this, both the superintendent and the CCTV operator likely to be consciousness.

                                    The End