Different Categories of Commuters

12 November 2019

There are a few categories of people that travel on trains (according to me.. I'll detail some more in later blogs). Some travel short distances and some long. I sometimes play this guessing game in my head by having a quick glance down the carriage and guessing how many will get off at the next two stops and believe me I'm getting better at this game. It could be because I've seen a few faces regularly traveling and I've remembered where they get on and get off. Or their body language shows they'll get off soon as they start picking their stuff and start leaning forward in their seats as their stations approach. Which is what the man sitting opposite me and the one sitting on my right did before getting off.

I've mastered the skill of not dropping any crumbs while eating a fresh baked crisp and a very flaky pain au chocolat. It only took me a few months to learn this skill but that's another thing on the list of my achievements. I've started to think what Roy T Bennett ( chairman of the Ohio Republican Party) said was very profound but how did he know that about me? , "Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine." I want to say the same to all of you reading this.

There's this middle aged white lady (dressed in a grey long jumper with black framed glasses and curly brown hair.. Looks like she could be a lecturer in a college) who has got on the train now and she is certainly in a very good mood this morning. She first advanced towards a seat opposite me but after a careful survey of the space she looked at me (I think she thought the man sitting opposite me has a bigger and more wider body than me so she has decided to sit next to me.. I take it as a non verbal compliment) and then very politely asked me to allow her to get in the seat on my right. To which I obliged with a smile while the regular train shops announcement was made which said after the details of the menu, "we accept all types of payments".

I wasn't expecting this but she started talking to me (this does not happen on trains here, there's been over a year since I've been travelling in trains and at most I must have had only 2 to 3 percent people talk to me or even each other and that will be just a comment on something not a conversation with eye contact), but this rebel of a woman made eye contact from the top of her slightly lowered glasses with me and said the funniest thing in her posh accent "she said they accept all types of payments, they must accept barter trade". Lol.. That made me laugh.

I responded, "I might be able to exchange my slightly warm coffee with a hot one". She said, "I wonder if they'd sell something in exchange of a massage".(in her posh voice quitely enough so that remains between only us 2).Whaaaat, where is this going? (the voice in my head) . I replied with a slightly dismissive tone, "I don't think I could offer that being a man to a lady serving in the shop, they may just call the BTP". To which she smiled and I started looking at my phone to put an end to this controversial conversation. She got busy working on her 13 inch black dell laptop.

On my extreme right there's these pro sleepers (a man wearing a grey casual top with dark blue jeans, wearing a Samsung smart watch and a lady on his left wearing a green parka coat with straightened black hair) who have almost slept through the journey. So have the two men in the seat behind us and a lady accompanying a man in the row behind them, as I looked at them when I first allowed the posh lady to sit and then later when I got up because she wanted to use the toilet. Going back to my point, we can learn to do anything even things like sleeping on the train. 

Have a great day everyone and thanks for all your comments and feedback.

Adeel