They came carrying the wind in the tails of
their dresses. Claps of thunder announced their arrival and the threat of
assault assuaged and permeated the beings of almost everyone but the strongest
of will as the wheels of the train turned once more. We knew that we were
helpless against them at least till the train came to a stop again and that
wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
Trapped!
They moved from coach to coach, seat to
seat, identifying their targets, sizing them up. Shifting uncomfortably under
their gaze, travellers tried to hold their composure. Only a few succeeded. A
few regulars along this route had faced this threat before; many hadn’t. They
hardly knew how to react. They had only heard stories of them doing unimaginable
“things” to those who didn’t acquiesce to their demands. To face this threat in
reality was a completely different ball game. They were living the horror they
had smirked at in the confines of their homes. They weren’t finding it so funny
now.
As the dreaded ones came upon this shifty
bunch of travellers, they saw just the back of some heads and the petrified
faces of others through their kohl-smeared eyes that bored through everyone as
if in disgust; or was it anger?
The travellers knew what they wanted and
few who wished to avoid confrontation just paid them what they could. Others
didn’t. Whatever reasons they might have had, they never revealed, instead just
turning their faces to look out the window or at each other in supposedly
knowing anticipation of what was to follow.
The invaders didn’t take rejection quite
well.
Shouts and screams emanated from the coach,
punctuated with sobs and claps and o someone eavesdropping, the clamour would
have probably sounded like a massacre in progress.
They had taken what they had come for. They
always did.
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| Image Courtesy: www.desertusa.com |
This is what usually happens on almost all
trains that pass through Maharashtra from Gujarat. People get terrorized by
these violent groups of eunuchs who literally demand money from passengers as
if it were their right to get paid – just for asking. And if they are not paid,
they start screaming, hitting people and in worst case scenarios, even expose
their genitals before those who don’t pay up.
They mostly harass men and especially
behave very badly with labourers who hardly earn enough for their own bread,
much less pay them. It is my personal experience where I’ve seen gangs of these
thugs climb aboard and beat up innocent travellers who don’t wish to pay these
ruffians.
There’s even more.
There are a number of groups of these thugs
who climb aboard a rain at different stations and leave before the next gang
climbs aboard. I’ve actually witnessed five gangs come through the train I was
travelling in at one point of time. It was the most harrowing experience I’ve
had in a train.
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| Image Courtesy: www.mid-day.com |
Now I know that eunuchs are discriminated
against and that they don’t get jobs and then this is what happens. But this
does not mean that innocents have to suffer for the failure of the system and that the all of them should be blamed for the actions of a few rotten eggs. When
asked to comment on this situation, the Public Relations Officer of the Western
Railways said that this problem was bound to remain till the government doesn’t
resolve whose jurisdiction it is to deal with these miscreants.
And so, even the Indian Railways believes
that this problem is not going to be solved anytime soon.
Bon voyage!
