The Beloved Weekend

Even before the PA system announced, the daredevil guy with his half front foot outside the edge of the platform would proclaim his sightings of the horizon. The tea seller would hurriedly fill his cups with piping hot tea, the idyllic kid would gather all the latest versions of today's newspapers in his stack, the patriarchal dad would tighten his clasp on his suitcase after accounting for his two kids and the wife. Sitting on the edge of the wooden bench, you could feel the heartbeat returning to this attentively still body. The tremors beneath your foot would begin to grow in magnitude and the tall grass across the tracks beginning to bend as the strong gush of wind and the deafening blow of horn would blow across your face. In a matter of seconds, the train would whir across you from the other side of the platform and the grass would come to the same still. With an annoying screech, the PA system would announce the arrival of the next train in a few minutes as the attentive body still holds its breath amidst the growing heartbeat. As a child who was always fascinated by trains, a favorite excursion was to go to the train station to watch the trains pass by. Instead of the train halting at the station, a more treasured attraction was the trains that didn't stop at our non-metro station and just blazed past in lightning speed. I waved at them but they didn't slow down. And If I stayed long enough at the platform, many trains would blaze across the station, but the tall grass would come back to its original still position and the station would come to its original life as if nothing happened.

As a working professional, you often get to hear things like ' This week has been a grind, I just can't wait for the weekend to start'. And as an adult, you often hear things like 'time flies. This year just flew by'.