he bug by Parameswaran
It happened in 1984. I did not get time to book in the Malabar express. The present day generation, even ourselves, can think of booking a seat in trains only through .coms. In those days, booking a ticket is probably the most difficult thing in this world as people are smart. everything was manual. If you did not plan your travel months in advance, gone; your travel plans either gets cancelled or it is horrible that you will take a sapath not to travel in trains anymore. The travel agents also play havoc to your plans. they book or block seats in advance.
and i decided to go to Trivandrum on a day just before a holiday. Malabar Express is the only train from Pazhayangadi station to Trivandrum. The train came fully packed and people who boarded the train from Pazhayangadi, only a few, squeezed themselves into the general compartment. Nobody seemed to be worried except me. I kept standing for about an hour and felt sleepy. Finally i found that some of co-passengers have brought newspapers with them which were neatly rolled out for sleeping on the passage. I found a new way out. I lied down with head under one seat and extended my legs to the opposite side. Nobody was able to sleep but all were half-sleep. It was almost mid of the night. A sudden scream in the compartment and all stood on their feet. I got up and found a most horrible thing. A man who proudly sat on a seat and looked down upon us was probing into what was the blood stains in his mundu and lifted the mundu beyond reasonable limits only to show us a handful of bugs that lived happily on his blood. The scene was horrible..
I wonder now where these bugs have gone. The trains now have only coakroches...
