The mystery of the scary metallic sound

The Mystery of the Scary Metallic Sound

By Supriya Mavinkurve

Finally, we boarded the Udyan Express at Mumbai to attend a wedding ceremony in Bangalore. A quick survey of the co-passenger revealed that my journey would be peaceful, without the usual chaos caused by crying children or wailing infants through the night, as we did not catch sight of any kid around. None of the adults were chattering away excitedly, as one normally expects in a long-distance train journey. The train rattled away on its tracks, swaying merrily as it customarily does.

The lights went off, one after the other, and soon it was dark enough to sleep. It was a tiring day for me – waking up early to pack-up; trying to complete my college assignments at hand; sending those last minute emails; posting Orkut messages and of course, leaving well in time to reach the railway station. We had had an early dinner as the train leaves at 8 pm in the evening. My weary eyes closed, but my ears continued to listen to the rattling sound of the train. I tossed and turned, but my ears would not allow me to sleep peacefully.

Then, I heard this strange sound – of some electric saw drilling through solid metal! Was someone cutting open the window to get in? I looked out of the window. Nothing unusual, only darkness and some stray light reflecting on the dark silhouettes of trees, whizzing past. My ears may be playing a trick on me, I thought. I tried to catch up on my much-needed forty winks, but it was, this mysterious sound again, louder and sharper, this time around. Was there someone on the roof trying to cut it apart and get in? Was a terrorist at work here? Or a dacoit? We had not heard of dacoits in this region, but who knows, I wondered. Or was it just a technician trying to fix something in the toilet, which was only a couple of berths away?

Every one else seemed to have logged off for the day. Was it worth waking up someone, maybe my Mom? I couldn’t possibly go off to sleep, when there could be an attack any moment, could I? I peered into the darkness and waited to see if the ‘electric-saw-cutting-into-metal’ sound would be heard again. After all, it could just have been a figment of my imagination! Then it came again - louder and shriller, cutting deeper, from across the opposite berth. Was this large sized guy sleeping across me up to some mischief, pretending to sleep? I picked up my air-filled pillow up as a shield and shook my hands violently, as though staving off an offender. The offender took no notice of the waved pillow and the sound became shriller, reached the crescendo, and then punctured off like a gush of air escaping from a deflated tire.

Oh, he had just been snoring!!!

Blogger's Post-Script: Encouraged by the response to her first contribution to my blog, Supriya has written another one which i am sharing with you all. Thanks, Supriya!