Rashmi was getting too tired of the long waits for her husband Rakesh. There were a lot of changes going on in the world, the name of the city they lived in changed, they changed their residence, they had a kid now..

"He will never change," she murmured to herself.

Soonu was fast asleep after doing his long homework. She wondered how much work her son had to do, just in lower K.G. He had to write, draw and read, but Soonu seemed to enjoy it. The only thing he complained was about the copy writing. He had come to know about the new Disney world amusement park from his friends and every now and then asked

"Mummy when are we going to the park"
"When your dad takes us"
"When will dad take us?"
"When he gets a break from his job"
"Mummy why can't he come back home when you come"
"Soonu his job is like that"
"Why can't he do another job?"

Soonu won't stop asking questions. Rashmi answered his questions patiently but did make him to stop if she was irritated.

"Soonu tang mat karo beta!"

That day Soonu slept listening to the story of Alice in wonderland. Rakesh worked in a new e-commerce company in what was once Bombay. For the last five years nothing had changed about him. There were footsteps in the corridor and a knock on the door. She got up and as she walked towards the door noticed that the time was 11:30PM. She opened the door, did not say anything. She herself being a working mother knew how it felt when you came back home after a long day of work. After that journey in the local train trying to just get your foot on the train, the pollution in the air and the stress from the job you just want a break. After all these years, she adjusted to it. Rakesh always came home freshen up, ate and slept. It was very rare to have a decent conversation after he returns from work. She tried to reason with him to reduce the number of projects he was working on. They were doing pretty well in life. But Rakesh always felt that he had to do a little more. She tried to convince him many times but nothing changed. Rakesh wanted more money, more luxury, more of more. Rashmi was of the attitude to be happy with what they had.

She was serving him dinner and pitched the talk

"Soonu is asking a lot about the park"
"We will go this Sunday"
"You have been saying this for the past four weeks"
"What can I do Rashmi, can't you understand I have lot of work to do?"
"It is you who is taking more projects and.." she was angry and irritated and was about to raise her voice," O.K I will not say it again" she snapped

"I assure you this Sunday we will go. How is Soonu spending his time during the day"
"He is fine having fun, may be you should spend more time with him and me"
"I am doing this for you people. Rashmi!"

Rakesh was a good person at heart, he did not want to hurt any one, esp. his wife. He took more projects at his office because it just paid him more. Having decided not to move to the USA, it was the only way he could make more money. All his friends were making fast money and he felt left behind, he just wanted to catch up with what was going on in the world of business. He wanted to be able to provide with whatever Rashmi and Soonu wanted in their life. But by trying to do whatever he was doing he did not realize that he was neglecting them, the very people for whom he was taking all the pains. He promised himself after every project that he would spend more time with his son and wife, but then the end of a project was always the beginning of the next.

He watched Soonu sleep and promised himself to take him to the park on Sunday. But on Friday of that week there was more work to do than that can be done before Saturday. He had to postpone the trip to Tuesday, as the project he was working on was going to be released on Monday. After a lot of arguing and some strife between him and Rahsmi, it was decided that they would go to the park on Tuesday. Soonu just did not care whether it was Sunday or Tuesday he was just happy to be going to the park. On Monday Soonu was very happy that they would be going to the park tomorrow. Rakesh also returned home early that day. The first in many days-months. For a change Soonu was read his bedtime story by his father rather than his mother.

The next day they all started very early to reach the park in time and early enough to avoid the long queues, but they were at the mercy of the morning rush hour traffic. They reached Dadar station and quickly moved to the platform to catch a local train to Borivali. Soonu was all excited to be going to the park and also watching the trains pass by. They choose a platform that they believed would have fewer commuters than the others. The platform was empty when they reached there, but it started to fill up with people going to work and soon it was like any other platform at the station, a buzzing beehive of people. Adding to the confusion a fast express train going towards Borivali was delayed at the previous station and would not be able to make it in its scheduled time.

People in Bombay lived a timed life, if they missed their scheduled train at the scheduled time they were sure to reach late at their destination, which they wanted to avoid at any costs. The next train going towards Borivali was from the same platform Rashimi, Rakesh and Soonu were standing. The platform was a total chaos now. Rashmi and Rakesh had a tight grip on Soonu who was very irritated and wanted his parents to free his hands so that he could move his hands around and feel them free. He thought of the holding hands as handcuffing. But Rashimi and Rakesh knew very well not to leave his hand even for a second in this sea of humanity. You never know when a wave is going to crash on you. They decided that they better take the next train, as there will not be enough space to get all the three of them on to the same compartment. They started to move back away from the platform.

It was difficult to even move back, people were just not willing to move from their positions, they had jobs to keep and families to feed. Rakesh and Rashimi were thinking that it was not easy to move back all there of them simultaneously so one of them had to let go of Soonu's hand so that they can make it to the back of the platform. As they were planning their moves the platform suddenly came alive with the train approaching the station, one horn two horn and there it was the Andheri local. Everybody rushed in to get on the train with no concern for who is stepping on what or whom, for right now the war was to get on the train, It was as if a question of life and death. It was like a station in the northern provinces of India during the time of the partition when every body was trying to save their lives, and getting on to the train was the only way they could feel safe. No body wanted to be late and get shouted at by the boss who was traveling by an air-conditioned car to his office. They had no concern for the fellow passengers they were behaving like barbarians; their only aim was to get on to that train. Rakesh and Rashimi tried to be together and move back but the flow of the people trying to make it to the train would not make way for them; for them missing the train was not an option.

They could not move back and they were pushed into the train by the inflowing flux of the commuters. Sometime in this process they lost the grip on Soonu, Rashmi realizing this was hoping that the hand she slipped was being hold on to by Rakesh. Rakesh and Rashimi were panicked and were shouting, "Soonu! Soonu!" In the hustle and bustle of the commotion they could not even hear each other. In the chaos of the situation no body was listening to the cries of Rakesh and Rashimi. There were arguments going on between people about foot space on the train many people were just hanging on to the train poles when it started to pull away from the station. The commotion calmed down a bit and Rakesh and Rashimi were still calling for Soonu and they could hear each other now. They were in the middle of the compartment by the time the train started to move and no body was noticing what they were shouting.

"Where is Soonu?" "I thought you had him" "No I thought you had him", they both realized that Soonu slipped from their grip some time on the platform. Horror set on Rakesh and Rashimi, they were suddenly imagining all the possibly horrors Soonu might go through. What if some body abducts him? Make him a handicap and make him a beggar to beg on the city streets? What if some body makes him a eunuch? There were just to many horrors to think of right now. They were shouting at their full strength to stop the train they were pleading with the people of the compartment to pull the chain and stop the train.

"Please pull the chain our son is left behind on the platform?" No body seemed to be giving a damn about what was going on. The commuters just did not care, it was not their son who was left behind on the platform. They kept asking and urging the commuters to stop the train as they had lost their kid. No body was paying any particular attention to them. After some commotion from Rakesh and Rashimi somebody from the crowd told them, that it was no use stopping the train in the middle of the tracks they were better of getting down at the next station and take a train back. Rashimi was hysterical and started to cry. Rakesh made a great effort and moved to her side and took her in his arms. They already reached the next station, Matunga road in about 5 minutes but what seemed like an eternity to Rakesh and Rashimi.

At the Matunga road station Rashimi and Rakesh were now fighting to get on the next train to Dadar, they had to push and pull to make sure they had their foot on the train. With great effort they did make it on to the train. It was another eternity before they reached Dadar station again. They immediately got out of the train and started to run towards the platform where they lost Soonu. From the top of the over bridge crossing the railway lines they could see that there was a crowd gathered around something or someone. Their hearts started to race and ran faster. The next train going towards Borivali was approaching the station. They were running towards where they stood sometime back with Soonu, shouting "Soonu! Soonu!.." The train to Borivali had arrived and people again started to rush into the train. The group of people which was gathered there immediately dispersed and went on to catch the train. Rashimi and Rakesh at the same time saw Soonu standing there at the back of the platform against the wall. They were happy with relief and ran towards him and hugged him and started to cry. By this time Soonu had stopped crying out of exhaustion and persuasion from the people around him. They found Soonu surprisingly calm and happy and unschoked. When the commotion of their shock came down. Soonu asked them only one question, "Where is my Ice Cream?"

Rashimi and Rakesh were bewildered and they looked around the platform to thank the people who took care of their son. The local to Borivali was already gone and the platform was starting to fill up with more commuters for the next train.

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