She won’t stop laughing.  I was looking sheepishly at my wife, when she controlled her laughter and asked to tell in detail.

Reluctantly, I started the narration of my last night train journey:

Bloody tired – that’s how I was feeling after being in the field all day. Touring is a big part of my job and as a Regional Area Manager, I travel to remote places to motivate Dealers and keep the targets in place. The only thing I wanted was a quick shower in the hotel room and my berth. No, I did not mis-spell bed as berth. I was actually longing for my berth in the train, which will take me home overnight. When I meet my colleagues in the office, every one had a new story about their recent train journeys or field visits. One of my colleague actually planned to put a berth in his bedroom as he can not sleep comfortably on his bed.

For me train journey is all about resting, so I normally don’t endulge in conversations with co-passengers. When I reached my berth and was quite releived to find that there were no families with small children. I think Railway should charge less to those customers who are made to travel with small kids around their seats. Its not that I don’t love children but their presence in train is nothing but a menace. They cry, they shout, they hang around like monkeys. Oh! why was I thinking about them. They were not there and I took a breath of relief.

There was an elderly couple sitting just opposite to me. After exchanging customary information about where we live, coming from and going to, I stood up to setup my berth. I was aware that people didn’t like to sleep so early but I just had no energy left. Ignoring raising eyebrows, which I was used to, I sunk in my berth along with the new novel, I was trying to finish from last two months. I liked this book because it was boring with a stale plot and sentences woven with rarely used words. Just two or three pages was what I could read and the dream angle would take me in his lap. Elderly couple followed me and soon lights were off and we all embarked upon a short journey into the dream world.

Right in the middle of my sleep, I heard a tractor noise. It was disturbing my sleep, so it can’t be part of my dream and soon I was woken up by the rising noise. Noise miraculously subsided when I woke up, but there was still some faint noise. Oh! I realised it was the snoring noise from the elderly uncle. It was not that loud but I could hear it. My ears probably become extra sensitive when I sleep, I thought and went back to sleep. There was no further loud sound which helped me to doze off. Right in the middle of my deep sleep, the snoring noise returned. Unable to sleep, I got up to find the source of the noise. He was still snoring, although not as loud as it sounded in my dream. I was amplifying the noise, I thought.

I was furious on uncle but couldn’t do anything. My hands reached for the ear plugs in my bag. After being equipped to deal with the noise, I turned around and went to sleep. The rest of my sleep was undisturbed as I could barely hear a single sound.

Next Part here