Theme: Wrong judgments
Short Story 03
Indecent Fellow passenger.
Ragav is a marketing person based in Bangalore. He commutes to nearby towns by train in air- conditioned class, on every business day.
Some times, the engagements with clients will take so long that he would miss his lunch.
Today was one such day. Ragav, hungry and tired ,
returned to Railway Station to board his train back to Bangalore. He hardly had any time to eat as the train was entering the platform. He picked up some cookies, a couple of magazines before he boarded the train.
It was a two-hour journey. The compartment was filled with passengers.
He kept the plastic bag containing the cookies near his feet along with his laptop and briefcase. He started reading the magazine.. From time to time he would reach out to his bag to pick a cookie.
Suddenly he realised, another hand also accessing the same bag. He immediately looked at the person sitting next to him. He withdrew his hand and smiled at Ragav. The person looked affluent and well fed.
Should he be stealing a cookie from his bag! He wondered! This repeated a couple of times.
He could not read the magazine but pretended to read. His attention was on the passenger seated next to him. He was watching him.
There was the last cookie in the bag. He waited to see if that indecent guy next to him repeats the act of stealing from his bag.
After a long wait, he decided to pick that last piece. The other guy also must have waited. Coincidently, both of them attempted to pick the cookie at the same time. Ragav was furious. He even murmured, “there are thieves even amongst upper class travellers “.
The indecent guy must have heard, but yet he smiled.
The two-hour journey came to an end. As the train pulled into the station, every passenger got up from his seat and picked his luggage.
Ragav also picked his. To his surprise, he discovered that his third bag, the plastic bag containing cookies was there, infact, untouched.