12510 Guawahati Bangalore SF Express
3 AC - B1 - 09
23/12/2015 5:30 PM
As the train pulls into Vizag
station.. I hear a man shouting 'Ice cream'.. Half the compartment is sleeping,
all the seats are down, I sit up stooped adjusting my head against the middle
berth hanging above me. I peep into the bogie passage excited, I stop the ice
cream vendor and ask him what ice creams he's got. Before his response hits my
eardrums he opens a vanilla ice cream cup, pokes a wooden flat spoon into it,
keeps it on my seat and its now considered sold.
It does irk me a bit but I do like
vanilla (or any ice cream for that matter ;) ) so I ask how much its for..
Vendor : 20 rupay
Me : Aap ke paas change hoga? 500
ka? (I ask in anticipation of a "nahi madam")
Vendor : haan dijiye
A little surprised and a little
happy I keep my phone down on my seat and reach out to my wallet to get the Rs.
500/- note. While I hand it over to him he picks up my phone, keeps it back a
little closer to me saying:
Vendor: phone sambhal k rakhiye
madam koi utha lega
Me: kaise utha lega mere samne rakha
hai!
Vendor: woh leke bhaag gaya toh aap
bhaagengi kya?
Me: Arrey itna bhara hua train hai
kahan bhaag lega? Anyways aap mera change dedo
Meanwhile he has kept his small
carton of ice creams on my seat and has taken out his bundle of notes.
He counts the change to be handed
over to me for the 2nd time.
Its around 5:30 and a little
dark as the lights of our compartment are still off and our only source of
light is the setting sun of Vizag reaching out to us through the tinted AC
coach windows..
With a little bit of attention I see
him counting 7 notes swiftly. He folds them up and hands them over to me.. But
wait! It should be 8 notes right! (4 - 100s , 1 - 50 & 3 - 10s). So
obviously he's made a mistake coz I had not noticed any twenties when he was
counting it.. I count the notes n before I finish my response - "bhaiya
apne 10 kam diye HELLO!", he has taken off, at a pretty good speed.
Co-passenger : woh toh chala gaya
Me: uska ice cream box toh yahin hai
I check the ice cream box and there
are 2 more cups left. A minute later the train departs from Vizag, I finish my
ice cream and peep left & right into the bogie passage as I keep the empty
cup down, no sign of the vendor. The ice cream box sits by my side leaving me
confused about what had just happened.
The vendor sells the ice cream at
Rs.20 per cup. He handed me over 1 cup, left behind 2 cups and ran away with
Rs. 30/-.
I'm left wondering:
Did he leave it there so that he can
come back n pick a fight with me? Did he leave it in a hurry? He literally
stole Rs 10 from me!! Wat the heck! I'm not giving his ice cream box till I get
my Rs 10 back!!
15 mins later:
He gotta be back. He cant just leave
his stuff behind like that, he must be having supervisors who keep a count. (He
was dressed in a kind of uniform, black shirt, black trousers, Some yellow
red logo embroidered on his shirt, meals on wheels logo I guess).
30 mins passes by and still no sign
of him. A 2nd look at the cups tells me if I wait further the ice creams would
melt and he wont be able to sell it anyways. So I should eat them while they
are still edible ;)
And thats how I got to eat 3 cups of
ice cream!!
And I'm still left wondering why the
vendor left them behind.
