Part  1

The train stopped at Kharagpur station and Seema fiddled with her phone idly. The Geetanjali Express (a usually reliable train) was miserably late today…plodding and chugging its way through the short route between Jamshedpur and kharagpur and had stopped in peculiar unknown fields for long stretches of time due to mysterious reasons. Seema debated climbing down from her upper berth for a stroll in the station but the soothing strains of “fir le aye dil” floating in from her I pod made her snuggle cosily into the rather uncomfortable train blanket. “Excuse me ma’am I really need to make an urgent call and the network isn’t working in my phone…can I use your phone for a second??”…Sheila looked down to see a lanky bespectacled teenager peering up hopefully at her. He looks really upset thought Seema as the guy brought out a gleaming new phone from his pocket and kept it on Seema’s seat “I am keeping my phone here…I will just make a short call from your phone…thank you so much maa’m” . Seema handed over her phone and the guy began to talk to someone in heavy Bhojpuri accented Hindi. It was the accent which first shook Seema from her musical reverie.