The love for travel is a much experienced one. As Indians, we love to travel the length and breadth of our country and one of the most romantic travel modes is the Indian railway. The railway has a magic that is hard to explain. Those winding long serpentine trains and the crazy mix of people who use them – they almost represent India as it truly is!

Now, I am a romantic at heart and like most people who are my age, I grew up on a healthy dose of train romances – Alaipayuthey, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Vaaranam Aayiram – we’ve all loved these romances that blossom on a train journey. Little did I ever know that I would once experience something equally exhilarating!

My love story on a train began on a trip back from Kerala, my homeland. The train, bound to Chennai, was pretty empty. It was quite boring till two stations after mine, when something straight out of a film happened. A very pretty looking Muslim girl entered my compartment with her family. What struck me first was her beauty and then of course, how beautifully her headscarf accentuated her face.

We were pretty cordial with each other, and in no time the evening became night and like luck was on our side, we were both sleeping opposite each other on the upper berths. Suddenly she showed me her phone and I noticed that she had clicked a picture of me. I was shocked and frankly kind of excited and embarrassed too. We shared numbers without speaking a word to each other and began texting each other immediately.

It was love at first sight for her and my first experience of something so filmy. Needless to say it was a night of no sleep and lots of conversation. We both departed the train the next morning, smiling furtively at each other. The conversations got more intense over the next few days. And after a few days we knew it was not meant to be. Sad, no?

We’re not in touch anymore. But I always look back fondly at this filmy experience. Sometimes, our most memorable experiences are the ones we just allow to happen to ourselves. This time around, I wasn’t lucky, but who knows, next time maybe?