A lifetime experience

Today I was chatting with a friend of mine, as we always do, and were talking about every possible topics , recalling incidents from the good old days and narrating incidents from the not-so-good present daily happenings. He was telling about an incident of encountering a ticket-checker in a rail station which was quite enjoyable. I could not remember my solitary experience at that moment, but now, I can remember about that incident which was not pleasant at all.

It happened in 1998, during a winter afternoon. It was before exam time, and I went to see-off a friend of mine after a "study session" - which was chatting and eating mainly - at the Bidhannagar rail station. Bidding him goodbye, as his train left the platform, I was on my way back home, when I was caught at the exit gate by a ticket checker.

Ticket checkers were rare species even then, and for a station like Bidhannagar, one could hardly expect to meet with them. But whatever it was, I was right in front of him, and the following conversations followed. For getting the right tempo, I am narrating them in Bengali:

TC : Ticket dekhi.
Me : kisher ticket? Ami ekjon ke chharte esechhilaam.
TC : tahole platform ticket dekhi.
Me : seta ki jinish abaar?
TC : platform e dhukte geleo ticket laage, seta kothay?
Me : ohh, seta jantaam na, ami -
TC : shotyi ki kauke chharte eschhen? apnaar bondhu kothay?
Me : ki aschorjo, bollam je chole gechhe? train ki etokkhon dariye thakbe naki?
TC : fine lagbe.
Me : Poysha nei! kotobar bolbo je ami berate jachhilaam na, bari theke esechhi, bari jaabo.
TC : hmm......promaan ditey parben? ki kore bujhbo je apni kothao theke aschhilen na?
Me: dekhchhen na, hawai choti pore keu kothao theke ase? tar opor ei dress, eta dekhe ki mone hochhe na e ami bari thekei aschhi?
TC : jodi boli na?
Me: tahole bari cholun, fine diye debo, amar bari ei kachhei. aar noyto ektu bade eshe diye jachhi.
TC : Hmmm. ki kora hoy?
Me : porashona.
TC : besh, ekhonkaar moton chhere dilaam, in future, erokom bhul jeno aar na hoy. Bari jao!

As soon as he said this, I walked hurriedly past him without looking back. This person must have been a teacher sometimes or a lawyer it seemed, the way he was questioning me!

This incident has left such an impact on me that from then, I have never entered any platform just for seeing off somebody, and fortunately enough, I have not encountered any TC since then while travelling too, maybe because everytime I had a ticket with me!