‘Ramesh” was male, Kannada-speaking, Hindu, who hailed from the so-called backward community and was a vegetarian

‘ Vijay’ was male, Marathi-speaking, Hindu of forward community and a vegetarian

‘ Zena’ was female, Bengali-speaking Muslim (minority community) and a non-vegetarian

‘ Mary’ was female, Hindi-speaking, Catholic (minority community) and a non-vegetarian

‘Rashid’ was male, Hindi-speaking, Muslim (minority community) and a non-vegetarian

As the train started to move, there was must jostling and shoving, but eventually the passengers settled down in their respective seats, after packing every square inch of space with an assortment of luggage.

When dinner was served at Sulurpet, Ramesh whispered to Vijay, a fellow vegetarian, that he found the smell of non-veg food quite overpowering and wished that the Railways would serve only vegetarian food, at least in closed cubicles. Hearing which, Siva, Zena, Rashid and Mary exchanged glances that clearly indicated that Ramesh and Vijayshould keep their abnormal preferences to themselves and not try to pass judgement on the dietary habits of the majority.

When it was time to sleep, Zena who had been allotted an upper berth requested Ramesh if she could take his lower berth, obviously appealing to the latter's sense of chivalry. Ramesh gave in reluctantly but commented that when women these days sought equality in all other fields, why did they seek special treatment when it came to queues, lower berths, etc?  Siva,  Rashid and Vijay nodded in approval. But Mary, the other female in the group, came to the support of Zena and rebuked the men for lack of elementary consideration to a person who belonged to the same gender as their mothers and sisters.

When the train reached Ballarshah, Siva who knew no Hindi wanted to buy something from a vendor who knew no Tamil or English. This irked Siva who commented aloud that Hindi zealots were shoving Hindi down the throats of South Indians and wondered what had  happened to Nehru’s assurance in Parliament . Ramesh and Zena supported this view, but Mary, Vijay and Rashid felt that this was ridiculous and that anybody who called himself an Indian should be proud of the national language which was Hindi and must make an effort to understand and learn the language.

Near Nagpur, the conversation turned to the over-crowding of Mumbai and Rashid ventured the suggestion that Nagpur should be promoted as an alternative commercial centre.  Vijay who was a Shiv Sena supporter, observed that the only practical solution was to ask all non-Marathi people who came in after 1990, to leave Mumbai. Siva, Ramesh, Mary, Zena and Rashid pounced on him for his parochial views and reminded him that Mumbai belonged to the whole nation and was not the private property of the Shiv Sena party.

At Bhopal, while buying a bottle of mineral water, Siva accused Ramesh of belonging to a state that unreasonably withheld Tamilnadu’s rightful share of the Cauvery water. Vijayintervened and asked both to hold fire, stating that the whole issue was overblown by the politicians and enlightened citizens shouldn’t get carried away. Mary, Rashid and Zena nodded approvingly. Ramesh supported by Siva, then trained his gun on Vijay and asked him to lay off, as the latter came from a state that was making a completely illegitimate demand on a territory (Belgaum) that had been an integral part of Karnataka for ages. Mary, Zena and Rashid nodded approvingly, while Vijay argued vehemently that Marathi being the dominant language in Belgaum, it was foolish to keep it in Karnataka.

At Gwalior, the discussions turned to some controversial comments made by the Pope on Muslims. Zena and Rashid felt that this hurt Muslim sentiments and  expressed their displeasure to Mary. Butting in, Siva, Ramesh and Vijay observed that both the Pope and the Muslims should apologise to each other and take a few lessons in tolerance from Hinduism. This drew derisive sniggers from Zena, Rashid and Mary united in their faiths of Abrahamic origin.

At Agra, Siva was heard talking on his mobile phone to his son studying at Pilani. He kept down the phone and explained that because of the shameful policy of reservation in Tamilnadu, people belonging to the forward community were forced to admit their sons/daughters in institutions in far-off places. Vijay was quite empathetic but Ramesh, Zena, Mary and Rashid took umbrage at this statement and argued that unless affirmative action was taken, the minority would remain suppressed for ever.

So many different issues had been dissected during the journey. Each of them, Siva, Ramesh, Vijay, Zena, Rashid and Mary had taken strong positions on each issue and found himself/herself forming part of or pitted against different groups comprising different individuals at different times.

Siva, Ramesh, Vijay, Zena, Rashid and Mary- all six were finally united and unanimous in their criticism of the Indian Railways, the Indian Govt and the Indian bureaucrats. “Will things never change?” they cried in unison.