DON'T EVER SAY BYE

Some time in August, 2003…After spending two vital years in Bhopal, it was time to say good bye to the city…already almost all the university mates had left for various destinations in the country with future dreams…in the past four days I have visited the nearby Habibganj railway station nearly fifteen times, to see off friends…one of the most touching moments I have gone through in my life…we were getting scattered just as we gathered in the city from every where two years ago.

And now it was time for me to arrive at Habibganj (the first and only ISO 9002 station in the country…), probably for the last time in the next few years. The last half an hour I spent there, waiting for the train to leave I tried to grab a few snaps of the station, place I loved the most in the city...the place in Bhopal I will be mission the most in future.. .

There were memories scattered on the platforms in the platforms, on the waiting chairs, near the tea stalls…every time we felt low, we wanted to spend some time alone, we used to head to the station...the most striking feature of the station is the cleanliness...I was stunned I was first time at the station...maintenance persons sweeping the platforms round the clock...proper dustbin...more than that the air in the platform was such that instills the feeling of responsibility in every person entering the station...you must think twice before you throw something scrap somewhere other than a trash bin.

As it's not the main station, you will not find the rush all the time...If you sit on a bench for half an hour you will experience some thing that will make you review many ideas you have about you life...every time there is a train, the station comes live..."Your kind attention please, train number....coming from....going to...will be arriving shortly in platform number"...suddenly, from now where, you will see people flooding the station...feeling the space between you and the railway tracks...just few minutes after the train leaves you will find yourself sitting alone on a bench at the platform deserted again...at most a few maintenance personnels talking among them selves...you can clearly listen to the sound of caretakers sweeping the platform...you will feel like having a cup of tea...

On countless occasions, we wake up in the middle of the night and walked to the station to stroll with a cup of tea...as if to exploit more from the air of freedom, we used to sing loudly, the empty platforms reverberated to enhance acoustics...

most of the time there were demands for Silk Route's Boondain....

" koi ho yaado main...

palko pe boondain liye...

aaina banee yeh akhe teri..."

(There is some one in the memories...drops of water in her eyelashes...her eyes become a mirror for me)

And there were Shan's
“Ankho main sapne liye
ghar se to chal to diye...
jane yeh rahe aab le jayegee kahan..."

(Left the home with thousands of dreams in the eyes...who knows where the roads will lead us to)

I have seen eyes getting wet with drops...Soum and me spent most of the time on the night of 31st December 2004 strolling on the platform, as if to grab the year that was slipping out of our grips...there were something in the tranquility of the platforms that supplied us the energy to rearrange our lives...

" Attention please, New Delhi Bhopal Intercity express, from Habibganj to Hajrat Nizammudin is ready for departure from platform number one...passengers are requested to take their respective seats. Thank you"

I felt as if the platform told me in the words of Faraz-Al-Basar

Wait,
do not leave yet
Let me rearrange the world
for you...

But I was restless...my dream was waiting somewhere there in Delhi...I waved back from the moving train...Habibganj was running away from me now...

Monday, September 19, 200512:40 AM