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Train Journey Vs Life Journey
We have come across many people with different attitudes. Like minded people are difficult to locate in this world.
Even if we locate them, it's for certain principles only, like how in politics people gather together for one principle. It could be for power, money or publicity or for something else. For example, if one likes something, another one likes something else. If one is fond of collecting stamps and other paraphernalia to his time pass, another one is busy in watching movies or reading or writing and some people find time to chat with their friends. It’s like if one is celebrating his feast, other one may be fasting. This is a general view of the general public. We see the same general public in a crowded train. I have seen all these general public when I travel in the suburban local trains in Mumbai. It's a routine sight during peak hours in a local train journey; the commuters are acting their parts in different roles like how in real life we act in different roles. Some people are reading newspapers. Some group of people playing cards. Some people are singing devotional songs with all the essential musical instruments they brought with them. Some of them enjoy the music and give lip service to the music. Some of them clap their hands in tune to the music in an attentive mood and tilting their heads in clockwise and anti clockwise alternatively in a peaceful way. Some of them find time to take naps. Some of them arguing and fighting for a seat vacated by someone else. Some of them solicit the salesman who visits quite often with his stuff with very attractive discounted price. His promotional trick will make even envy to the advertising companies. Some of them eating snack. In sum, within a radius of 25 meter x 15 meter which’s our maximum possible view of the train compartment, we could see that there are different people with different attitudes and different tastes. If we liken this with our life journey, it's similar. Yes everyone takes their ticket to a certain destination and get down when the destined station reaches. Likewise, I think our destiny of life already fixed before we reach to this world. Our life journey ends depend on the period of our journey. That we call one life time. Some people make long journeys and some people make short journeys. As can be seen in a train journey, we meet different people in our life journey too. Our journey ends when we reach our destination. I don't deny the fact that we had seen massive death of people from the fury of nature like earthquake, tsunami, cyclone, flood, and war. In the train everyone gets down one by one when they reach their destination. The whole commuters in the train will not get down in one station when the train continues its journey. But in the life journey, either the nature fury or calamities happen, all life's put in a complete halt to their journey. Why their fate was sealed in one destination? It actually happens in the train journey too. That's how in a major accident in a train, all commuters are perished at one go like massive death of people from the fury of nature. We see in our life journey different people in different walks of life with different tastes, that’s what we could see in any train journey too which are similar in essence. So, I don't find any other good comparison to life than to a train journey.
Published: December 16, 2006
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