The Muslim Lady

The route from Chennai to Bangalore by the night Mail was one of the most hot and sultry train journeys I have made in my lifetime. Especially in the month of August when humidity is at it’s highest. I have always fantasized meeting my prince charming on the train. But none of my co-passengers fitted his description. The only other woman in my coupe was a Muslim lady who seemed to have taken all measures to keep her herself well fed all through the journey.

Since I didn’t have anything to do or anyone to talk to I elapsed into my favorite pastime – daydreaming. I was missing all the delicacies that would have been prepared the next day if my mother had been home as it would be Gokulashtami. Then I realized I didn’t have anything with me to offer to God for the festival. I made a mental note to buy something on my way back from station. It was just then that the Muslim lady caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back so as to not look rude.

She happened to be waiting for the response as she started talking to me and pouring questions on me about where I was going, was I alone, who were there in my family etc. To keep myself safe from giving out too much about me to a complete stranger I repeated the same questions to her and she seemed more than happy to tell me about herself. She was from Ambattur and was going to Bangalore to visit her sister, who had just delivered her fourth child – a boy. She told me that she had only one daughter and couldn’t have anymore because of some medical problem.

Her husband though very loving disliked his daughter due to his orthodox views. He didn’t want her to study and wanted to get her married soon to absolve himself of the responsibility. The mother had other dreams. She wanted her daughter to study and at the least finish her graduation. She wasn’t sure how to convince her husband about the necessity of education for her daughter. She herself being illiterate felt she had been exploited and didn’t want the same to happen to her daughter.

I gaped at the story she was telling me because I came from a well-educated Brahmin family, which gave a lot of importance to education. The thought that someone was not being given education because she was a girl was a far off happening and wasn’t from my world. I told the Muslim lady that she should stick to her stand and get her daughter educated. I tried my best to make her feel better about her thoughts. By the time we finished talking, the lights were off and most of the passengers had gone to sleep. I decided to fall asleep to and bade her a goodnight.

The next morning she got down at Bangalore Cantonment station. But before she left she gave me some bananas and oranges from her bag to eat as my breakfast. I put them into my bag because I wasn’t used to having breakfast. I got down at Bangalore City station and went home straight. It was only after I reached home that I realized I hadn’t bought anything to offer to God. So I took a bath and offered the bananas and the oranges that the Muslim lady had given to God. Now I sit and wonder, did the girl get educated, did her mom win or her dad, or was that God’s ruse of getting something for him because he was sure I would forget to buy for him. Some mysteries never get solved.