The Evening 6.10 L.P

 By evening, these women had tired faces though the sari’s were in place. Again a repeat marathon from offices through heavy traffic,  through all the shortcuts possible to catch the return local passenger again which is at 6.10 p.m. 

Most of the people got seats because a lucky many were working in Govt offices. They could leave office early as there was an adjustment between supervisors and staff. They would board the intercity superfast with limited stops and reach earlier.

was in the relaxed evening ride there would be some space to lie down and take a power nap by turns for an hour or so to be fresh once again for the chores to be finished before sleep kissed the eyes at home.

Some cut vegetables so that they could cook straight away, some corrected papers, some studied balance sheets, some studied to upgrade their education to get that increment, while some stared out aimlessly at one more day gone by into the pitch dark outside.

 For the remaining few, it was reaching the station by eight at night  where husbands would be waiting in lungis for the select few. The remaining others running to catch a bus to reach home by nine.

The private buses, with their daily last ride of commuters, were a lot more understanding than the people at home. They understood the daily grind of these hard working women, who had no one to offer a cup of coffee or a word of appreciation after a hard day’s work. 

The  daily commuters climbed on to the buses whether it was  Bobby, Sweety, Lovely, Killichundan, Aiswarya, Aswathi,Unnikrishnan or so. The drivers drove like no man’s business and reached these women to their designated stops on time ,for them to cook and teach and do other chores.

The steady evening passengers were a close knit lot ,always anxious of everyone having got in, since this was the last local. If  you missed this ,then it was only the midnight express train.The ladies compartment was next to the guards who frequently checked at every station. The women were friendly with him , because the train would not move without his whistle. They cajoled him to a five minutes when friends were late and thanked him profusely at the end of the day.