Although there might be other trains from Bangalore to North Karnataka, but Rani Chennamma train is the most apt & famous, especially for Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum people commuting to state capital. Due to its daily availability, prompt & suitable timing of leaving at 9:15PM (which is not too late nor too early) & reaching early morning plus beginning from majestic(not yeshwanthpur) with affordable price makes it very attractive. Most of the people prefer this train but it's not easy to get a reservation unless it's booked 2 months ahead. During festival time, 4 months ahead(as soon as booking opens) tickets get sold out.
Post engineering, after moving to Bangalore, its really hard to keep in touch with old friends and meet them. Only few closed ones will be in touch, but still majority of them won't be meeting regularly. So every time, when I travel by Rani Chennamma train, I am bound to meet one of my old friend. Be it engineering friend, PU friend, School friend or even a colleague or ex-colleague residing from north Karnataka. So I call this train a "Reunion Train", as its very rare that I haven't met someone when I travel.
Since from engineering, I have this habit of forgetting people. I might have met them once or twice and would have forgot, but somehow they still recognise me and talk. I will be having absolutely no idea who the person is but still somehow try to converse. This use to happen a lot during engineering, but post engineering it reduced as I hardly meet most of them. Since I started to travel regularly by Rani Chennamma train, aka Reunion train, I always feared that this situation might happen again. Its so embarrassing. Generally, a friend of mine(whom I know) will be with me, when some person whom I don't recognise meets and talk. In between talks, somehow I manage to checkout with my friend about who is this unknown person talking to me. Once I remember, then the conversation goes smooth. This I call it as Type-I problem of mine.
The Type-II problem is that, I assume the person X with someone else as Y and start to converse. As the conversation proceeds, more confusion to both of us leading to a weird conversation. Once I realise that, I have mis-assumed this person to be someone else, then I try to quickly wrap up the conversation. The next immediate thing I do is, quickly run to a friend and ask him, who was I talking to till now ! LoL will be the usual response of my friend.
This is my weakness. Forgetting people. I don't forget every people like Ghazini but only those people whom I might have met once/twice or people whom I knew rarely and are not in contact for long time. Somehow they remember me, but I don't. It will be funny for the friend who listens to conversation of ours or when I tell about this situation later.
So last week, when I was travelling by Rani Chennamma alone, I was sitting minding my own business and suddenly a guy comes and sits in front of me saying "Hello", I recognise his face but I am not able to re-collect who is he, or what is his name. I got this feeling that, Type-I situation is about to happen. I said, "hey" and my brain became hyper active thinking, what could be the generic thing to ask/converse before I can remember who is he.
"Which coach are you in?", I asked casually. He told, the same coach with some berth number. I said, "ok" and was out of words and my brain fully trying to recollect who is he. My brain was running, face-matching algorithm in full clock speed without any luck :P
He asked, going to Dharwad? I was like, Ok, so he knows, I am from Dharwad. May be he is from Dharwad? Should I ask him or assume it. The look on my face might have quizzed him probably. He asked, "coming back on Monday?" I am still thinking hard and said, "yes, back by same train". Without knowing what to ask next, I came up with another generic question, "So you are also visiting native?", I was thinking, should I ask Dharwad or Hubli but fixed to make it generic and asked as "native". He said, "yes visiting to Belgaum!"
I was clean bold now. Not Hubli and not Dharwad but Belgaum. Thank God, I asked generically "native" and not assumed anything. I ruled out few eliminations making my face matching algorithm to match lesser known faces. But still not able to recollect who is he. So I took a chance and asked, where are you staying. He said Karthiknagar with some surprise. I could sense his surprise and immediately said, "near-by to office then?" I have no idea, where he works. What if he is from my old company or from my own office or old team, I was running full probability and sets. He said, "yes".
There was awkward silence. I wanted to ask, how he commutes to office. Now the tricky part was, how should I ask? Do you come by bike or Do you go by bike? Depends on where he works! I asked, "so you use bike to office". He was surprised, saying "yes". I was like, what time generally do you leave from home to office. I was running out of questions to ask. I think, he sensed my weird questions. I was fully in thinking mode. He asked couple of questions, I replied "yes" "no" answers thinking hard, who is this guy.
If any of my friend was with me, then he could have helped me recognise him, but I was alone. I conversed about 10mins not knowing who he is and somehow managed well. Lot of generic question/answers went on. Later, I don't know what he felt, or he realised that I don't recognise him or it was enough time, he said, "ok, I'll go back to my berth". I was still thinking hard, who he is and conversation ended abruptly and he left.
I felt ashamed and funny at same time. I started to rethink, what all we talked about. Whom can I ask about this person. I don't even click his pic. How to check, who is he. It had been really long time since this had happened with me.
Note: By any chance, If you are reading this, then I am sorry that I couldn't recognise you. Please let me know by messaging/emailing.
