The disturbance in the speaker returned. " The next station is Ajmer. The train will stop there for 2 minutes." A woman's voice announced these words first in English, then in Gujarati and then finally in Hindi. Rajdhani Express was rushing towards its ultimate destination - Ahmedabad and with every mile it moved forward I got closer to my destination - Gujarat National Law University. GNLU. 4 letters I had been repeating in my head over and over again for the past 2 months.
I was travelling in the sleeper 3 tier train. My mother and my brother had spent that Sunday afternoon trying to explain to me what this coach was supposed to look like. "The middle tier unfolds like this and the hooks go over here." My brother explained pointing towards his left hand, which at this moment was acting like the middle tier while my phone was the bottom tier. My mother nodded in agreement. After about 30 minutes of this lesson I must admit I was still quite surprised to see how the mechanism actually works when I boarded my train 5 hours later on New Delhi Railway Station. The wonders the human minds can create!
My father was accompanying me on this journey. He was to stay in Gandhinagar with me for a few days to make sure I settle in properly in the University where I was supposed to be spending the next five years. With us in the coach were a man and a woman. My father, the charismatic man that he is, was trying to make a conversation with both of them. The woman, we learned, was a Punjabi from Delhi and was returning home to her Gujarati husband. The man, with whom my dad was at the moment in a deep discussion, was a businessman from Delhi travelling to Ahmedabad in hopes of expanding his business territory. He had an exhausted air around him. The kind that can easily be associated with someone who was surrounded by the struggles of life with no escape route in sight. Everything he said revolved around some aspect of his work and I was starting to wonder how his wife and kids could possibly tolerate his company. The discussion was going on about the success a small man had gained due to his community ties and how it was all just wrong. I shared a smile with the nameless woman. I could see she was as bored as me.
After having my dinner in the train, which was as surprising as the extremely cordial man who served it, I climbed onto the middle tier, amazed at how the small mattress supported by just two chains could possibly take my weight without giving in. As the lights were turned off my mind began to ponder once again on the dilemma which had seized me from 2 days ago. Was I doing the right thing? Was leaving Delhi, with all the opportunities it offers to thousands of students (even though there are lacks that gaze on with hopeful eyes), for studying law right? I mean if it was just a degree that i wanted I could have stayed on in IP University in Delhi couldn't I? What difference does a college make?
But the answer to all this soon came to me. Staying in Delhi for IP wouldn't have been a wrong choice. Nor would it have been the right one. The question now wasn't which University I choose. It was about what I do in the University I choose. I decided IP University would have given me a nice B.A. LLB degree. But GNLU would have given me the much needed knowledge and exposure provided I am willing to take it (To be fair IP would have given me its fair amount of exposure too but it would have been of a different kind). It was up to me to make the most of what I was getting and make it worth the costs my family and friends were going to have to pay.
Comforted a little by these thoughts I finally finally fell prey to the rhythmic lullaby of the train and its swinging motion. That night I dreamt about my faceless roommate and the shapeless campus.
