Train To Destiny And Pasts

In an autumn Midnight in the ghostly silence, he moved down memory Lane piercing the train's horn. His memory shows how a man yelled at him to pick up a Rag trolley. The Midnight turned darker, but the stars had their own spark. His eyes were filled with some fluid. The fluid stroked his right cheek gently while the silence continued....... 

That silence never seemed to have existed for the comical noise had taken place the next day. It was like any other day for the station but for him it was bitter. He usually had been yelled at two times in the morning on an empty stomach. Once in the afternoon and thrice in the night often empty stomachs.

But today he had a kick start for his day as a boy 

running hurriedly unknowingly kicked him and his master yelled at him thrice in the morning. The third yell was to go to the godown to clean the old shelves.

One of the newspapers had the names of some lost children with their photos. The photos were quite blurred but the names were readable but for him, they were not.

I mean he did not know how to read and write and pronouncing so tough names was way too difficult.

He still chose the shortest of all. He tore the piece of newspaper with that name and cleaned the godown and the shelves.

There were some daily visitors to the station. One of those was an old man who looked crazy and was quite silent and crooked one ever talked to him. The master often referred to him as 'the crooked unsung station master'.He was not the station master though. The nickname given to him was quite strange but he expected the same from his cruel master.

He went to that man to ask him for help to read the name. As he read it rivers started flooding with the larynx getting blocked. He turned red his hands shivered and he turned pale. All he spoke was 'Arya....Arya....Aaar'.

The chaos remained and strengthened even more when it got empowered by a sponsor of a large wild crowd 

running after their train. His body more like noodles moved with the crowd into a random train all he could do was cry and shout but in such chaos who would have listened to him?

He, still like noodles, was in a random train, in a random boggy, and BOOM the train started!

He was slapped by a random bag. A random man was trying to keep his bag below the lower berth where he had fallen with some unknown random force. He did not know where he was going and on which train he was. All he knew was that he was in big trouble! The night came and it became ghostly silent again. He was standing near the door. Every night he used to watch the stars but today, it seemed as if the stars were watching him and going past the train. 

He was crying and filled with that fluid again.

He slept or maybe fainted. When he opened his eyes the sun was rising he was still near the door.

When the station came he jumped off the train. He wanted to cry more but he knew that he had to stay brave. He opened all his senses and heard someone saying on call that the train had reached New Delhi.

He had heard about this place from his master. He walked and walked and reached a place where nothing was visible, all that was visible was a large pile of waste a very large one. He went there in search of food he found some but a crow snatched it. He was so ill with hunger that he was about to starve but he knew something his existence was blank and now it's up to him whether he dies of starvation or stays courageous in every situation. He spent a few days roaming and eating waste, begging on the streets until he found a new master. That master was physically very strong and beat him but all he wanted was to survive and one day become the best. The winter came. One morning the master was about to beat him but stopped when he saw a gentle man. He looked quite handsome. He called the police to arrest the master for the offense of child labor.

 He then took him to an orphanage that he owned. That orphanage looked very big. He was given new clothes and saw a lot of children. They shared their stories. One of them named Guppi said that his parents were very ill he gave the money for his survival to his uncle but after their death, his uncle took the money and left him in that orphanage. One girl was called Yankee by everyone because she liked that music. He did not know anything about music. Most of them did not share any stories because they did not know anything about their existence just like him. Some of those children were even specially abled. 

The only person they loved was the owner Mr.Rahul. All of them loved him. He was a big businessman in the city. 

At night he went outside in the garden and saw Yankee gazing at the stars. He sat down. They started talking about stars and what they mean to them. Yankee shows him her bracelet. It was in the shape of a star. She said whenever she was afraid she would touch her bracelet. She told him that his fadest memory is seeing the stars with his grandpa in front of a glittering castle.

The next day many people came to record him, his life before meeting Mr Rahul and after meeting him. He was very confused. Yankee told him that this happened with every new kid who joined the orphanage. He did not like it he thought they all were being used for the promotion of Mr. Rahul's company and fame. He had heard people talking at the railway station about a lot of famous people who were frauds. He matched those traits with Mr. Rahul. 

As months passed got to know more about Yankee. She had never seen her parents and got separated from her grandpa 10 years back. For him every year was the same but Yankee knew a lot about years and dates and told him that it was the year 2010. Yankee taught her how to control a smartphone and a camera they had got one and being the eldest Yankee handled it. All the children were younger than her but he seemed to be of her age. I mean he did not know his age.

As he became closer to Yankee one night he told her what his feelings were about Mr. Rahul. Yankee who considered Mr Rahul a father figure, got extremely annoyed and with disheartened tears of disheartedness in her eyes went back inside.

He tried to explain his feelings to everyone but all the children started considering him mad. No one ever talked to him and Yankee ignored him as if he never existed. At night they even stopped seeing the stars together. 

One day a new kid who was blind was brought into the orphanage, while Guppi was introducing him to everyone he knowingly skipped him. 

He was very much tensed. He was missing his life at Agra railway station. Now he was roaming had the smartphone in his hand. He thought of visiting Mr. Rahul's cabin in the orphanage. That cabin was big and luxurious. He was about to enter but saw someone inside.

That person was giving him huge money in return for his 4-year-old bind kid. That person called his kid a burden. Now he joined the dots and recorded the meeting between that man and Mr.Rahul.

He ran towards Yankee. On watching this Yankee was shocked. She knew what to do. She found the location of the PM's residence and they skipped the guards to run towards the PM's office. They ran from busy markets to stay undercover. As they reached the main road, a black car blocked their way. Mr. Rahul got outside from the car and told the kids to stop. His guards tried to take the phone from the boy, but Yankee jumped over them to save him. They grabbed Yankee. Her bracelet broke. Now the boy had no option he had to give the phone to Mr Rahul.

"Well tried kids but the game is over". But wait it's not the end, while running he had posted the video on Facebook, and boom, the DM himself was here.

Rahul's trade game was over. 

The children were praised and awarded by the government. The orphanage was now looked over by the government. The night after the happenings, when He was seeing stars with Yankee again, she said sorry to him for not trusting him. He told her to close her eyes and keep the broken bracelet in her fist. She smiled.

"I thought I had lost this in the fight with the guards."

"No, I had picked it up"

Suddenly they saw something shiny in the bracelet there was a gold-plated name, Arya. She told him that it was her real name but she did not know that it was written inside the star bracelet. 

He joined the dots again, The newspaper was of the year 2000, and the old man read the name Arya and cried. The old man came to the station every day as he missed Arya. Yankee's real name was Arya. She lived with her grandpa and was lost 10 years back i.e. the year 2000.

Yankee gazed at the stars with her grandpa in front of a dazzling castle, the Taj Mahal. 

He told Arya everything they told their caretaker and went to Agra where he met his master, by this time these kids had gained a lot of fame and the master respected him a lot now. 

Then in the evening they went to the Taj Mahal and saw the same old man again, he was teaching some poor kids. Arya moved towards the man and the man stood still seeing Arya with stars in his eyes the Taj Mahal at the back and a starry evening.

What a charm!

Arya reunited with her grandpa and the boy was also adopted by him. They became a great family.

Grandpa named him Arjun.

In the end, Arjun and Arya lived happily ever after, shining like stars.