“Hey are you single ?” - she said

24, side upper, PUNE-HYD EXPRESS. Okay, I boarded the train, shifted my luggage bag underneath the seat and made myself comfortable with earphones and charger for a movie which would start in 30 minutes.

As soon as my wrist watch ticked 4:30pm the train started to locomote, neighbouring family of four were still figuring out the solution to squeeze in more luggage in the small space below the seat. Twenty minutes into it and they were free and easy.

“Ok, yes, ok, ok, ok, yes, yes, ok, ok I'll have dinner on time, I'll take care of mobile, luggages….”, I said to my mom before I hung up the call.

Everything was smooth, movie was doing well, family of four were done with their snacks, and a middle aged man below me was happily engrossed in multiple newspapers.

One thing I observed during all train journeys is that if any middle aged man is carrying newspaper he will definitely carry 3-4 newspapers no matter if the journey is for 30 minutes or 30 hours. They will definitely have multiple newspapers. So coming back to the story:


Time - 7:00pm.

Train halted at a station, two girls pretty pretty of about my age came into view as they had two upper berths reserved next to mine.

As they were verifying their seats I briskly took a novel from my bag and acted to read the bookmarked page, this was done in a stretch of 5 seconds (because the first impression is the best impression).

The duo entrenched in their respective places and from their conversation I could figure out that the two were cousins.

How to start a conversation?? How to introduce?? What's their destination city?? Their course of study?? All imaginary questions running in my head.


The best way to start a conversation during train journeys is to ask your co-passenger just one question- “where are you heading ?” yes just start with this question and conversation will continue for decades.

Study, job, sports, politics, relatives, friends, hobbies, rupees, dollars etc.. believe me all this topics will come up after that one question during Indian train journeys.

So I gathered all the courage I had, to ask that one question to the two girls, “To which city are you heading ?”

No sooner did I turn my head to start a conversation than I noticed she was already staring at me. I was completely blank for a second and I forgot the lines, I mean I forgot the question which I was about to ask….

Within no time she said- “Are you single?”. Yes, she said exactly those words loud and clear.

I was totally dumbstruck, shocked, flabbergasted, stunned, frozen, everything…

This question was out of syllabus I wasn't prepared for it, I mean I wasn't prepared to answer this directly.

You could have started with hii, hello, good morning… ooh sorry its 7pm so good evening, or start with nice journey nice weather nice novel nice shoes…sorry I wasn't wearing shoes… thousands of irrelevant unnecessary thoughts running in my head


Surprisingly I could see the other girl (her cousin maybe) waiting for my response and also the boy who was with family of four paused his game and was eagerly awaiting for my reply.

Myself carrying phone in one hand and novel on other was still figuring out the way to hide my face and avoid the question but I was already frozen with mouth wide open from which words were trotting out but couldn't!!

“ooh I meant are you travelling alone or with someone else" -she said finally.

A sight of relief ran down my spine and I finally answered “yes I'm travelling alone"

“ok; it would really be helpful if you could exchange your seat with my uncle whose seat is three blocks away, seat no. 56”-she asked with cute smile on her face.

With that smile she can even melt rock, so those imaginary conversations which I planned with her after asking about destination, slowely started fading away making me glum and tearful.


“yes, sure I'll exchange the seat, not a problem”- I said painfully.

Next step, I took my belongings and shifted to her uncle's seat.

Finally uncle was satisfied, two girls were happy and I was………….well you know the answer.

Thank you.