THE TRAIN TO FARRINGDON

We have short encounters with some people by chance who open up a different direction  to our thought process and the way we look at life. Our trajectory changes after such happenings.

“This train terminates at Farringdon. We will be calling on Luton Airport Parkway…..”, went on the announcement inside the train carriage, along with the digital display that listed all the stations coming up next. I felt good and mentally relaxed on this first train ride in England by the ThamesLink surface train. There was no anxiety as to when I will be at the St. Pancras International, the station where I wanted to get off the train. Communication in advance was at its best and that’s what keeps stress at bay in many situations in life. I really loved the punctuality of the trains and the prompt communication that happened in case of delays. My plan was to walk from St. Pancras International Station through the roads in London and visit a few important spots to begin with. Farringdon was the last stop for this train. It is a historic area bordering the City of London and known for the Smithfield Market, a centre for meat trading since medieval times. It also has a 12th century Romanesque-style church by the name of St. Bartholomew the Great.

It was mid-July and I still had my thin winter jacket on, as I always had the tendency to be overcautious with even the slightest chillness while stepping outside. But now that I had started to sweat while inside the train, I removed it. I took my phone and went on a clicking spree as I spotted a sea gull sitting on a fence a little farther away from the station premises. The fences on the station boundary looked beautiful, as though they had been specially crafted. I clicked a few of them too. “Is there anything sweeter than a train journey?”, I thought. Once we sit by a window, it’s like a private space for viewing the sky above, the birds that sometimes fly with us, the greenery, the bridges, the rivers and many more with no traffic lingering adjacent to us like what we experience while on road, or lost totally up in the clouds with nothing else to see while we fly. A journey on a train anywhere in the world gives us the same feeling. We get so close to nature as the rail route runs through mountains, hills and thick greenery.

The train moved and while these thoughts were slipping through my mind, I had not noticed a few other passengers who had got in and occupied the seats close to mine. A tall fair young man sat close to the next window opposite to where I was sitting and was fully engrossed into the music that was pumping through his headphones. Once a while, he put his hands up with the fingers pointed down and moved his palm up and down, when his enjoyment with the music hit the peak. There was an Indian family sitting on the other side of the aisle adjacent to where I was sitting, and they seemed to be more excited than me on what they were seeing through the window. “Hey, woh dekh”, said one of them. “Ithar dekh”, said the other. It was great to hear a conversation in an Indian language. I assumed that it was probably their first visit to London like me. I also noticed a passenger sitting opposite to me. He smiled at me when I was preparing for the next shot, and I became a shade conscious of his presence. Nevertheless, I continued with my photography. He looked like a European, but I thought that he could not be a British individual as Brits are generally not social and would never easily let out an expression of any kind of communication with a stranger in a normal circumstance. He had a well-trimmed French beard and an enthusiastic pair of eyes observing through his rimless spectacles. The music of the train tracks sounded like what I had always heard in India, especially when a station was closing in. The train stopped at Luton Airport Parkway. “This station is…” came in the announcement. A big bunch of people got it and soon I could see many standing. They preferred to stand at the area close to the exits. The train started again.

It was now moving at a good speed and was approaching a beautiful yellowish green patch spread across a hill. I could not hold back my enthusiasm. I had seen pictures of similar terrains and understood that it was a patch of rapeseed flowers in full bloom. I went into a full swing again, clicking pictures while the train was speeding ahead. In between a line of trees came in and hid the view and then disappeared opening up the grand view again. I was switching onto the movie mode in my mobile phone when the European giggled. Hearing this, I turned my head a little towards him and saw him give me a broad smile. He giggled again. I quickly turned towards the window and focused on the video I was shooting. The rapeseed view had slipped away and the train closed into a station and stopped. “This station is Harpenden. This train terminates at Farringdon. We will be…..”, went on the announcement. I turned towards the European. He smiled again and I gave him a half smile that was almost made up and studded with uneasiness as I was not sure why he had giggled earlier. It made me more conscious. The train moved and the silence between us became louder. 

A few flowers and leaves from the branches of trees that stood close to the railway tracks, brushed past the window. The train sped past a farm which had some long-haired ponies grazing. I clicked the snaps again and turned towards the European. He smiled again. “I think you are missing the beauty of the larger scene when you focus on taking the photographs of the entities that you focus on”, he said with a short giggle. I gave him a blank look as I could not decipher what he was trying to say. He understood my expression quickly. “Did you spot a small and beautiful pond with a flock of ducks in that farm where the ponies were grazing. Some of them were up flapping their wings, he explained with a smile. “No. I missed that”, I replied. “I think you should sit back and enjoy a train ride, just watching the scenes unfold. Taking a few pictures is fine but if we delve too much into clicking pictures, we will lose the wonderful larger moments that present themselves and slip by quickly”, he said with a smile. While I was absorbing what he had explained, the train came to a stop at the next station. “This station is St.Albans City. This train…..”, went on the announcement. The European got up and adjusted his jeans and gave me a warm smile. “Have a nice day and enjoy the ride”, he said and left.

I did not click any more pictures for the rest of the journey. But I could not fully concentrate on the beautiful views either, that were slipping by, through the window. It was not just about photography and the words of the European, that my thoughts were soaked into. What struck me more was that even the life that I was living through every day, seemed to have myopic stretches in it. And whether those stretches were happy or tense moments, getting entangled in those small stretches, probably led to my losing out on spotting and soaking in the larger perspectives that life was offering. I felt different when I got down from the train at St.Pancras International. I pondered further on this small thought and kept moving but soaked myself into the larger perspective that it opened up for me. However great a human is, he is never that lucky like any bird, big or small, which can always fly and see a larger view of a space from above. A bird’s eye view of things can drastically change our trajectory of life.

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