What are you doing?

I am always excited to travel even to a known destination and if it is a place that I haven't visited before gives me a double thrill. Getting on a train to get the right seat has always been an enticing experience for me. As soon as the train arrived, like a child, I wait for the coach to stop in front of me. If my allotted coach is far away I always make sure to walk to that distance to get inside rather than boarding any other coach. It was one such eventful journey I boarded the train. I got a right seat to sit down and read the lovely book which I was waiting to read with no disturbance. Train journeys meant for reading good books. I opened the book which I was dying to read for a long time. The initial pages were interesting and I was flowing with the life of the personality in the book. While I was reading the book, I was distracted by a lovely little child who was sitting on the other side of the aisle with her mother. As I was reading, I was also fascinated to watch their life story. As per my observations then and there the child was clinging to her mother and was in a mood to explore like any other child.

From the beginning of the journey,  I saw the mother was hooked to her smartphone than spending time with her child. She was browsing the phone by not giving any rest and relaxation to the phone. Her child was very adorable and she didn't even bother to ask for the phone nor in a position to disturb her. The child was in her own mood to talk something by herself and spent the rest of the time by watching the neighbors. To continue with the smartphone usage the mother continued to order chickpeas, biscuits, snacks, tea, and coffee whenever anyone comes to the compartment to sell their product. All the snacks have been gently passed on to her daughter and the mother conveniently spent her time on the phone. I was surprised to see the little girl having that much amount of patience. 

Few hours passed, the mother became so much tired of watching Whatsapp and she slept. The girl after having all the snacks and playing by herself all alone has got bored. While her mother was sleeping, she was sneaking from her seat and wanted to socialize with everybody in the compartment. She stood in her seat and told me "Don't wake up my mother. I am going to play" and she was walking down in the train coach. After some time  I asked her, "Why are you going outside. Please stay in your seat". Hearing those words her mother woke up and asked her to stay in the same seat with her. Just because I noticed the incident, the mother spent some more time with her and she continued going back to her mobile. 

The whole incident bothered me a lot. The smartphone captured most of us inside the four corners of the screen and made everyone as prisoners. None of us are spared from the evil devil. Only a few conscious human souls know the limitation of using it in the right way and at the right time. Train journeys are worth to remember and it's even worth when you are alone traveling with only your daughter or son. Because you have got the undivided time to spend a lot with your children. At home, mothers are always multitasking the work at most of the times. In a travel, there is nothing to take care except your family, belongings and the memories. Travelling itself is a wonderful phenomenon. There is always a lot to learn every time you travel whatever the mode of the transport. During the course of travel, be kind to your eyes, your family and look everything around you. Make memories and learn something and more importantly spend time with your family. 

Swap

I was traveling to Madurai for a conference. Our group had few adults with a lot of children. Everyone got a seat scattered in different coaches. Since we wanted all the children seated together, few adults went hunting for adjacent seats together by pleading and pleasing grown-ups.  None of them were in a mood to adjust to their nearby seats. I wondered the tolerance level of people even after explaining the situation about children. This attitude requires a serious thought provoking for all of us. We didn't ask families to separate and sit, either we asked a couple itself to move to the next place or singletons to move. But none of them heard our voice. They wanted to sit and not willing to move as that was the seat they occupied in the first hand. You may ask, they paid money and got tickets, so it belongs to them. Of course, Yes,  I don't deny that. All we said is the same comfort can be shifted to the other seat. Not even a single leg could move and offer a seat for the children. 

I am writing this because I am the victim of this incident.  When I get denied something which I strongly crave for any human being will be disappointed. That's the normal human psychology. We are also travelers in many occasions in trains. Imagine how would you react when someone asks for a seat-swap? Do you get angry or will you be considerate enough to consider the situation? The reply is totally ours and we are the ones to choose the best. Also, we can't-do that for each and every individual. It depends on the situation and the necessity. I am talking only during the times of necessity. A little bit of flexibility and tolerance level for the fellow travelers can help them and in turn that can mold us into better individuals for ourselves. Indeed these tiny qualities in life can help us sort many problems in the family. If there is a tiff between husband and wife it always matters to who makes it up first and rush towards harmony. This quality brings a better relationship in lending a helping hand to a friend who is struggling to find that one last code to finish the project. This little tolerance level can help a mother wait patiently until the tantrums from the child get over. 

So a seat swap for someone is not just a swap but it defines you, your character, your patience, your tolerance level with all the fellow passengers of this world. To co-exist in this planet with everyone, it is great to be a flexible passenger thereby bringing peace and harmony to the society and the world.