From Platforms to Perspectives: Life Lessons on the Tracks
Traveling by train is a different experience.
Just 3 hours is enough to get you exhausted and also meet a whole lot of different people when you aren’t traveling with your friends.
I will narrate 3 different scenarios which are different.
While travelling on a train one evening …I was just listening to music and reading novels.
A middle-aged lady happened to ask which novel I was reading.
Those led to a few discussions and I found her friendly and knowledgeable. I'm always enthusiastic to discuss with experienced people about their perspective on life.
When I was young I used to go on a morning walk with my mom to a nearby park..and there I used to interact with aged people who were friendly, and cheerful and I always used to load them with a lot of questions. And I met a lot of people including one retired army officer who had gone to fight in the India VS Pakistan war. And the major question I used to ask them is What is life for you? Are you happy with what you did in life?
Sometimes, this quote resonates with me the most :
Let’s get back to that interaction!
I started asking about everything a youngster would be curious.
And I later learned she isn’t married as she got involved with studying and reaching a higher position in medical college.
When I asked her if she was happy and didn’t have regrets in life ..she told me she is completely happy and I couldn't figure out if she was truthful or not.
And another incident a middle-aged man offered his window seat to me when another man sat next to me in 3 seater ..seeing me in the uncomfortable situation he offered I was glad he did it ..who doesn’t like window seats lol?
And slowly our conversation started with the company we are working and speaking about professional experience he mentioned you should keep changing companies to get good hikes and higher packages and he made this mistake by being in his first company for a long time.
Then he talked about his responsibilities how his normal day with his family and how he can’t take risks now since he has to provide a good life for his kids and can’t afford failures.He also mentioned how his wife isn’t working currently since she has to take care of kids and how he single-handedly manages things.
How he gets tired at home .. yeah when he goes home he plays with his small girl ..then an older boy comes along to play with him ..and after finally done with that ..his wife complains that he doesn’t spend time with her lol I was laughing.
He gave advice to me to run after my dreams and take risks at this age as in the future we will end up with responsibilities.
Well, the talk ended with him showing his family picture and his cute kids.
And recently when I was travelling in the morning train ..early morning train usually sucks and I will be damn sleepy.
In the next station, an aged man sat next to me and he started speaking,
talking generally about his life.
He also happened to be unmarried and I can sense loneliness at his age since his parents have passed away and he has no one living with him. Asked why, he said after his mom passed away he started living with his father and with time he had already passed the marriage age and didn’t marry.He mentioned you should do things at the appropriate age.(Well, let’s not get to it as all elders emphasize on this xd)
He also mentioned going with the flow in life and not taking too much tension in life.
After these interactions, I was pondering ->
Should we go with the flow in life or take the steers in our hands and go in the direction we want? if we end up at the destination we want, then will we be happy, or what if we end up in a disastrous life, will we be satisfied since we won’t have any regrets that we tried?
What truly matters in life?
Let me know your thoughts on these. I hope you were able to enjoy reading it!
PS: Another book review coming up, and this book is really different the way the author writes and explains his points is surely breathtaking and after reading it you will have a sense of satisfaction :)
Thank you for reading until the end. Have a good day !
