I woke up by the strange vibrating sound of the train that sounded like there was some thing definitely wrong, and while I was still getting acquainted with the idea that there was something wrong I could feel my self slipping from the top birth feet forward as the whole train seemed to be tilting gradually till the side finally hit the ground and then the whole thing came to a screeching loud halt that had a silence that was numbing. Then as people began to realize what was going on I caught hold of my laptop bag strung it around my shoulders and tried to figure out where I was, I spotted a bottle of water near my foot I picked it up and put it in the bag. I then took out my cell phone just like everyone around me in order to figure out a way out, I noticed there was no network, I secretly hoped it was just being in the coupe that blocked the coverage. My seat was in the coupe that had the emergency window and for a moment I felt it was a good thing. Of course there isn’t really anything good about being in a small closed place with the only way out being a reinforced glass pane that is designed to be resistant to all Indian weather and traveling through Bihar where often the train is stoned, in terms of relativity I felt it was some what better to be in a coupe with a window that is designed to be removed than any other. One of the gentlemen in the coupe tried to pull the rubber around the window but it broke. The emergency window had failed us. I felt a slight wetness on my hand I guessed I must have grazed it somewhere during the fall but now was not the time to care. One of the people trying to get that window to open asked me for help so I tried to make my way to the window on the top stepping on whatever foot hold I could find in the dark. I tried tugging at the window but it would not yield, then someone from the outside shone a torch inside, and all of us started calling out to the who ever was outside to break the window. While I was still tugging at the window and banging, calling for help, a stone was thrown on it, help was on its way which was my que to get out of the way, which I promptly did.
Soon the window on the top was broken and there were a couple of men outside with a big torch shining light inside, there were lots of bed sheets and blankets scattered everywhere and there was some blood visible, we moved some of the sheets and saw a disembodied leg, following the general direction revealed a hand, someone checked the pulse, there was none. There was nothing we could do about it, no one even knew who this person was. As inhumane as it feels now at the time it seemed more important to get out of the train first and let the experts handle the rest. One by one people were hoisted out from the broken window out in the open, an old lady who was injured went first, then a few juniors from my college and finally I was pulled out into the cool winter air. I checked if my phone had any network, it did, I called up home. It was around 2am and everyone at home was obviously asleep, papa picked up the phone drowsily, I told him the train had gotten derailed and that I was ok and that I really dint know when and how I was going to get home but I was quite certain that I would manage, he really dint know what to say, he was shaken, then stirred and then he gave the phone to mama who also dint know what to say and asked if my luggage was ok, I had no idea where the rest of it was. That is when I realized that I had lost my specs and my shoes. Then I called up Krithika, she was in the sleeper coach of the same train, she was also ok and I tried to figure out where they were. Then finally after figuring out what was where I got down from the top of the train, it’s a little difficult to explain the orientation but basically I got to the ground. My parents called again they had decided that they were going to come and get me right away, that was the first time I wondered where we were, I asked someone, around half an hour away from Jaipur, I told them it dint make any sense for them to come because they would take at least 4 hours or so to get here and there wasn’t anything they could do here that I could not even without my specs and shoes, they decided to hold back a while.
I located the others, Krithika and Sindhu, they were fine, they had managed to get their luggage and safely get out of the train even though their coach had also turned to its side. They had contacted another friend who stays in Jaipur, Roopal. She and her father were coming to get us. Krithika had an extra pair of footwear in her luggage so I borrowed her floaters, which fit quite nicely with a little help from the straps. Armed with the knowledge of a certain rescue and footwear I went to see if there was any way in which I could get my luggage back, my beloved digital camera was in it. I went and asked some people who looked like they had an idea about what was going on, I met a gentleman who was also seeking an answer to a question when he asked me if I was from NLU, to which I said yes wondering how it mattered. He then told me that he had seen someone from my college get hurt in the head and she had been taken to the hospital. He then went on to add that it dint look very good
I was naturally scared, I looked for other people from college and if they had any more information on this injured person, I found some first years one of which was missing, a few calls later we learned that Sonal was missing, Satyam, another friend was with her at the time of the accident and he has rushed her to the hospital. Among the same first years was another girl, Kriti who was also looking to retrieve her luggage, she had her class 10 certificates stuck inside. We waited for a while near the derailed metal box that was once our train, which was now being looked at by professionals from the railways. They had these huge lights and oxy acetylene flames and were well equipped with first aid etc.. they were going to cut up the coach and then remove anything that was still inside. I told them my seat number and the fact that there was a body there for them to retrieve.
Word came, Sonal had passed away, and there was no appropriate way for anyone to react, I don’t even remember what my reaction was. We just waited to hear something about the luggage, after a while we met this officer like person who said that there was no way that the luggage would get out any time soon and that we should check at the Jaipur station the next morning.
I got a call from Krithika saying that Roopal and her father were here, so I left Kiriti back with her batch mates and located Krithika and Sindhu and Roopal. We were joined by a few more people from college. The rest of the night was a dream, between sobering from the adrenalin rush and Roopal’s family’s extreme hospitality it passed, with a lot of phone calls from everyone who knew we were on that train. In the morning after a heavy home cooked breakfast, Roopal’s father took us to the station to see if my luggage had survived the train, it had, getting past the red tape took a while, and the fact that not a single cloth in my bag was neatly folded helped convince them that the bag was mine. Finally I was united with my luggage. We then headed directly to the bus stop where we headed to the destination we had originally boarded the train for, Delhi. At around 10:30pm, the night was over I was home.
