The platform bench
At the far end of an unusually deserted platform in Bangalore’s City railway station, I sat inhaling the heady mixture of diesel fumes and gas from unflushed and clogged toilets. As disgusting as that smell might seem to someone else, it was for me an affirmation in why I love travel and the railways in particular.
You see, I’ve always been an introvert. I’d like nothing better than slink away into the dark corner of my world and never come back. But travel doesn’t allow me to do that. In order to travel and search for better questions to ask, there is one truism - I must be out there. I have to face the world. I have to engage. I have to talk to strangers. I have to make temporary friends. And in doing so, I have to leave my world of abstraction and escapism.
This is catharsis.
