Karthik

this story is long but don't miss it plz...

The clock ticked 10pm when the mangalore express started from the egmore station. We were in joy of attending Godi-ophy marriage next day.
We includes me, gowtham, nasher, iman and aslam(my friends cum roommates).
When we felt there is no movement inside the coach and everyone are settled, we quickly finished our supper and the train reaches tambaram station by 10.35pm.
We settled in the individual berth we liked when the train crossed tambaram. I jumped up to the upper berth near the door, since light can reach me easily and it will help me for reading. We didn't talk much among us since we were busy with our own work. Nasher and Aslam were busy on call, Gowtham and Iman tried to catch up with sleep... and i was enjoying music...
Other 3 in our cabin were a boy of age around 10 and his parents...
In another 15min every lights in the coach were off except the lights in service area. I felt black and white effect with white light on my left and black cabins on my right.
I stopped the music for a while to hear the rythemic sound of the train... wow... i enjoy this sound always ... always with the rythemic shake of train that makes one to dance for the sound of train... in fact i enjoy this daily in local train, but this was different, no noise of public and its late night, cool breeze... i enjoyed the feel and i remember the lines from New radicals' someday we'll know...
"if i could ask God just one question...
y rn't u here with me, tonight..."

I tried to sleep but in couldn't and i started reading... thanks to lights in service area...
i didn't feel like reading after a while and so i took out my scribble pad to scribble something...
i checked my watch for time... it showed 11.20pm... i started scribbling.........

am not sure when did i sleep, voice of a tea boy woke me up... adjusting my spex, i checked the time, it showed few minutes passed mid night...
i moved the scribble pad with pen to the corner and came back to the position to sleep looking the door,
the train started moving... i didn't feel like knowing the station since i knew the train will reach my destination only after 4.30am.
i enjoyed the rythemic sound and dance of the train with my eyes staring at the door...

to my shock a boy of around 16yrs old jumped into the train... i raised my head with shock and gave a strange look at him... he was panting and sweating, he might be running to catch the train...
he saw me after a quick check in the lower half of the dark coach, he felt uncomfortable looking at me and his face showed his fear...
i started at him for a while... felt like asking what made him to take risk to jump into the moving train?
but he was panting... his face changed like he need help...
he checked the dark coach again, everyone were sleeping...
he showed his finger for water! i stretched the water bottle to him... he readily accepted and consumed half the bottle,
he thanked me stretching back the bottle, i sighed... he smiled...
i felt strange to see a young boy jumping into the coach without bag and panting, sweating also not getting into the cabin if his berth is reserved...
i guessed he don't have ticket... but he looked young and i thought i can pass sometime with him...
i jumped down to talk to him, also thinking i can help him if he need any...
i went near him, he moved to the corner near the door... he might be uncomfortable!
what's your berth number?, i will help you to find it out! i told him, later i felt why the damn should i ask him this when am not the TTR...
no sound from him in reply...
don't u have your ticket? i asked him...
rubbing out his sweat with his hand he said he forgot to bring...
really? i bugged him again...
i didn't reserve one really, he replied
don't u know this is punishable to travel without ticket? i told him searching for the notice board that explains about the fine amount.
he didn't reply and he peeped into the coach to check if someone is watching us...
i looked back and found everyone were sleeping...
why did u jump into the train? i bugged him again and again...
tears started rolling down his cheek...
i felt sorry about my attitude, also am not the right person to ask him the ticket.
I didn't know what to do...
don't cry, don't cry... i tried stop him crying.
he sighed and showed his finger for water, i gave him the water and he emptied the bottle...
no sound for sometime... i left him alone to relax and i searched my mobile to check if i got any sms...
no sms or buzz... i moved back to him...
i thought i should be more friendly to him, since no men make mistakes wantedly and he is young, also he may have good reason to travel without ticket.
i went to him and spoke friendly than before...
the overall hints from our conversation are...
his name is karthik,
he just got the results for his 12th exams and to his shock he is failed in a subject. He used to get good marks in his school and he really can't figure how he failed. His parents were broken badly than him. So he ran out from his home with an idea to get back to his home only after getting a degree in medicine.
Sad to hear these, I tried to console him...
this is not end of the road, this is just a speed breaker! i told him...
when we were talking, suddenly we felt the light from the other end of the coach..
oops TTR!!!
i want to hide this guy from TTR... and how???
i took him inside the cabin and asked him to hide below the lower berth, i moved all the bags outside...
he thanked hidding himself under the lower berth... i moved the bags again to hide him... i jumped up to the upper berth quickly...
thank god, no one saw us...

I raised my head to check the TTR... he was nearing to the next cabin...
i closed my eyes pretending to sleep...
after few minutes i felt like he was nearing our cabin and nearing me...
he started shaking my shoulder...
He sounded strange... Get up! Get up!...

his voice faded...
but i heard it again...
Get up! Get up! but it was Gowtham and not TTR...
Get up... we are nearing to Trichy, he said...
oops, is that a dream?!?! i questioned myself rubbing my eyes...
something flashed in my head and i jumped down to check Karthik under the lower berth...
he was not there... but the bags were not at place where we stuffed them before dinner below lower berth...
something inside my head told me to check the water bottle...
i did, quickly... but it was empty!!!
how?... so it was not dream... he was here, but he left without informing me...
and the train reached trichy...
i felt bad...
we took all our bags and stepped out of the train... i searched on either side of the platform to check if i can see karthik by chance...
but no... i didn't see him...
i walked to the main bus terminal near to catch the bus to manaparai.
We had coffee, grabbed couple of newspapers and got into the bus...
bus moved out of bus terminal exactly at 5.30am.
I started to check the results of IPL match. oops! KKR lost the match again... bad bad bad...
i flipped the newspaper from back...
i frozen when i flipped to 3rd page... shocked and i felt someone is tightening my neck...
i widen my eyes to get the clear view... ya... i saw the picture of karthik and the news said he commited suicide!!!
My head started spinning... is that him!!! i started to read the news...
the news said...
his name is karthik, he commited suicide the previous day night jumping from the moving mangalore express train(the one which i travelled yesterday) after knowing he failed in his 12th exams, but actually it was an error in printing the results. Later the authority confirmed he got school second rank.

My heart stopped. I felt like someone nailed my head...
if he commited sucide the previous day then who travelled with me yesterday night? Whom did i helped to hide? Who emptied my water bottle?
so many questions flowed out of my head... without answers...

and

the papers of my scribble pad that i forgot to take from the train started moving to the rythmic move of the train...
the last page showed...
"he thanked hidding himself under the lower berth... i moved the bags again to hide him... i jumped up to the upper berth quickly...
thank god, no one saw us... "

P.S. I dedicate this to my friend Karthik, who committed(reported as!) suicide before our 12th results, fearing of failure(again, reported as!). We missed the chance to wish you for getting School Second Rank... we missing u...

and so i named this post Karthik.