World's First Sanitizer

I was on a train once. Looking out the window enjoying the scenery outside.

But then, suddenly, I stood up and started walking. I didn’t know where I was going. So I was surprised. Still, I continued walking. And when I had crossed not even the forth bogie, I began to cry. For no particular reason.

I was crying and my teardrops were falling and the wind, cruising in through an open door, was taking them away… and a few passersby passed and they looked at me with empathy and disgust, and I didn’t stop crying.

After I while, my face stained with the coolness of teardrops, when I was standing near the door looking outside, I said to no one in particular –

It’s like this. Tears are the world’s first sanitizer.

I kept on walking until I reached the last bogie. Where I stood for a while. And looking outside, through an open gate, once again, I said to no one in particular-

When you cry, do not fight back. Cry.

For when you fight back, and if you win,

you lose the greatest battle you’ll ever fight.

I stood there for a long time. There was no Ticket Conductor. And the train was running with a speed of not more than 50 km per hour. It was a mail express, going from Mumbai to Chennai, and there were many stations where it would stop. I would come down to the platform then, and suck on a cigarette or eat something.

One such time, pardon me I have forgotten the name of the station, I met an old man. He was a beautiful old man. With tears in his eyes and gout in his knees. And somehow I knew he had been crying a while ago. ‘Why were you crying?’ Something made me ask him.

‘I don’t know. I just felt like it.’ Something made him reply, to a complete stranger.

And it was then that I said, to no one in particular–

‘Where would we be if not for our tears?

Perhaps in fears. In our lonely fears.’

I really didn’t know what was happening to me. Had I turned into a sage? NO NO. I had three kids, and a wife and a house-maid to look after. And there was an old father and an old mother who had taken care of me when I was young, and now I had to return the debt. And I didn’t know when, but I had also taken many debts from the banks and everyone was happy with me; no one sad with me.

And yet - why was it that I was the only one giving sermons to strangers? I could not afford to turn into a sage.

I was so enrolled in my musings that I ended up missing the train. There were clothes and cash, and many important papers that were inside my bag which was now on the train, which had gone away from me forever maybe. My life was more or less ruined, now.

It was then that I started laughing. With tears.