The great outing

15.12.2009

It’s been more than four years alak and nanda has married each other. Alak wanted a child and Nanda was not giving in. they both lived a very hectic life, hardly had any time to meet each other except on weekends and holidays.

When they both were able to manage a fortnight at the same time they felt like they have won half of the world.

They both settled in their seats of AC first class, planning to spend the fortnight in goa, just with each other.

They were already in the mood for their second, well earned honey moon when they heard a soft, sweet voice in the passage, the giggling of a child. Alak looked at Nanda with mystery in his eyes.. then the door to their cabin opened and a middle aged couple entered the cabin with six children aging from two year to 14 years.

A few minutes later an elderly lady apparently the grandmother of the kids walked in.

All of them settled in the seat opposite to them and the love struck couple found themselves under the intense scrutiny of 16 eyes, only the two year old spared them. She simply scampered out of her mother’s laps and landed herself on them. Her mother pulled her back with a proud smile and told them in English, “She is very friendly.”



Alak and Nanda had a look which made it impossible to guess their province. And this time they both decided without even consulting with each other that they won’t let the family know that they belong to the same province. Alak just shrugged at them and Nanda stared out of the window, Alak could guess she was trying to hide her hysterical giggle.

Well, soon their amusement vanished because the kids were out at vandalism. They forced their way to both the windows of the coupe. The entire coupe became a battlefield, one was screaming, the other one climbing to the upper berths, third one jumping down from the birth to show his acrobatic skills and the parents smugly smiling and watching them with great affection.



They looked with utter disgust at the scorn on the face of the poor couple when their precious ones were at rampage of things, regardless of owners.

Well the ticket collector came and the hapless couple got the information, two seats each of this coupe and the adjoining coupe has been reserved by their amicable co-passengers.

As the night settled in they gathered that the grandmother will sleep in their room with two of the older children and the couple will go to the next room with smaller ones.

Well, they retired to their coupe well past midnight, all the while keeping the coupe busy, bluntly ignoring the displeasure on the face of their co passengers.

The tired couple retired to their berths but could not sleep .. the children decided to chat the night through and climbing up and down the berth.

Finally peace settled just before the morning. They were deep in sleep when they were jolted out of sleep, someone was banging at the door like a maniac.

“Open the door now!!!” a shrill child voice pierced through the door. One of the kids scampered down to obey it. The moment the door opened two of the older ones scrambled inside the compartment.

“I will sit beside the window!!” everyone was shouting the same thing and tugging at each other while their grandmother sat watching them fondly.

“uncle, uncle please open the window!!! I want to see outside!” one of them started to tug at Alak’s sleeves.

He got up and opened the window, and went to brush his teeth in the toilet.

Nanda pulled her sheet up to her nose and thanked God that she has chosen the upper birth. But her happiness was short-lived, suddenly she felt something scurrying under her feet, she jumped up and saw one of the kids, sitting there, grinning from ear to ear at her surprise.

She folded the sheets, pillows and went down below, sat down on her seat with a look of exasperation on her face.

Suddenly she heard a commotion and to her surprise she heard Alak muttering in the passage, she went out and saw that one of the children has bumped into him, and the tea cups he was carrying were lying on the floor.

“Come inside, we will order when the caterers come.” She cooled him down with her sweetest smile.

He sat down beside her and handed her over one of the newspapers and started to read the second one.

“Uncle can I see the cartoons? Please uncle!!!” he heard a voice and gnashed his teeth this time.

“No you cant, not till we are finished, you go and watch outside the window till then.” Nanda said sweetly. Alak could see from the corner of his eyes that she was grinning like Cheshire cat.

“Sweets, it will so much fun if we have two of them as our children, wont it? He heard her voice.

Then she started to first giggle and then laugh hysterically. He was stunned for a while and then joined her.