Endless Night

    It was an Endless Night. The train from Florence to Venice was at 1.45AM and we had to go from the main station in Florence to another station named Campo Di Marte roundabouts 10.30PM. I didn’t like leaving the relatively safer environs of the railway station because the idea that thieves infest Italy like how rats infest godows was firmly set in my mind. Outside the station we hung around for a long while for some public transport to arrive, but in vain. Finally mustering courage we hailed a taxi hoping that he, the taxi driver, would take us to the required destination and not to some other place to rob us. Thankfully, he did (not rob but take) and I spent the time until the train arrived by sitting in the waiting lounge of the station.

    What followed after we boarded the train was even more tiring and quite scary. The train authority led me and Vikas to this compartment and it was loaded to profusion with suspicious looking people (three actually). I held dear to my life and luggage in the closed train compartment for the whole journey. It could seat six people in all and I was sitting in the center seat on the left side of the compartment with Vikas, my companion in the trip, to my right and one of the three fellows at window seat to my left. The fellow sitting in the opposite seat to mine was stretching his feet - socks clad feet which later would become, if there is any truth in my guess, chloroform soaked socks clad feet - and acting as though he was asleep. Ditto the two other guys. As in, they were not stretching their feet but were acting as though they were asleep. For completion sake, the third suspect looking guy was sitting beside the guy sitting opposite to me, i.e. opposite to Vikas. (Hope you have neatly visualised the arrangement in the compartment. It was an attempt to describe a scene-of-crime in detail.) They were basically waiting for me to fall of asleep and then wanted to get into action, rob me of my belongings, passport and things to that effect. I being luckily forewarned by friends that Italy is dangerous when you travel by night in trains and the thieves are hand in glove with the railway authorities, was awake for almost the whole journey and the period when I got a few winks was the time when these rouges used to move a bit and gesticulate or mumble something incomprehensible (it was incomprehensible to me, not to one another). With all these things playing in my mind, I started feeling suffocated and giddy. They say ignorance is bliss. Vikas, on the other hand, not privy with what could happen was oblivious of the surroundings and was all the while sleeping like a baby - to my chagrin.

    Anyway, after a couple of hours or what actually felt like a life time, I got up unable to bear any longer the cat and mouse chase or hide and seek or whatever you choose to call it, shook Vikas and moved to the next compartment which by then was luckily having room for the two of us. It was kind of funny - the next compartment had an elderly couple I don’t know what she saw in us but it was clearly evident that the lady was extremely hassled at the thought of sharing the compartment with us. Smiles. It made me remember that everything in this world is relative. In fact, all the while it could have been my imagination and paranoia playing tricks - probably the three fellows in the other compartment were just some regular travelers. Anyway, what with it being better to be safe than sorry and all that sort of thing, I didn’t want to take any chances and I finally reached Venice safe and unsoundly slept.

A parting word: Italy could actually be quite safe to travel by night since nothing actually happened. As I mentioned before, it was probably just my mind playing tricks.

Comments

[Deepali]

Hey Arvind,
I know exactly how you felt. I had a somewhat similar experience. During one of my weekend trips to New York (when I was in Long Island for a customer project), I decided to watch a hindi film as I had been craving for one. I picked KAAL and went to the Movie Hall which is right on Broadway, very close to the Times Square. I didn't expect the theatre to be crowded, but when I entered the movie hall, I was flabbergasted to find just me in the Hall!! It was too late to back out. I had already spent about $10 for the ticket. I kept hoping that more people would pop in. Well, somebody did come in..a guy..and he sat a few rows ahead of me. An unknown fear gripped me. What if this guy was a murderer / robber/ whatnot? I wanted to run away, but the fact that I really wanted to see the film, and I was paralysed with terror kept me glued to the seat. SRK and Malaika started gyrating to the music, but for my fears there was no respite. I kept imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios (mostly inspired from Psycho). Finally towards the end of the song, a family of 4 walked in and sat in the row ahead of me. That's when I gave a sigh of relief! I was safe! After that I enjoyed the movie as much as I could under the circumstances. After 'The End', while walking out of the hall, I stole a glance at my would-be attacker. He looked like a regularAsian, probably lonely, who had come there for some desi entertainment. He didn't really look that scary in the broad daylight. Just goes to show how one thinks of the worst in a given situation. But I have learnt my lesson. I will never ever go for a film alone anywhere in the world.

[Arvind]

Deepali: oooo... that, i am sure, is a scary experience. But i appreciate your spirit - not leaving the movie hall and braving it all for the sake of a movie. That is the stuff movie buffs are made of, isn't it?