Wishful Thinking

Commuting by trains has its positive traits, though I find it far from charming, which long distance train travels most often are. Even the trains in Pakistan have a little charm.

There is a major station in Saitama where I change trains to go to work. There are points on the platform where the train doors open. I have my own spot (self declared of course and shared by half a dozen other commuters!) on the platform from where I get into the train from the same door everyday (Yes, I also suffer from this obsessive habit…) There is a man who stumbles out of that door everyday and stands on the spot where I wait for this train. I suppose he waits for the next train that is a direct train to the final station whereas this one stops at every station.

Some times, he looks very energetic and steps out briskly. Maybe he is well slept. On many days it’s visible that he fulfils his quota of sleep in the train and has to jostle himself to wake up. Those are the days when he stumbles out. But today was weird. As he stumbled out he had a smirk that did not leave his face for the 20 seconds it took for the doors to close and the train to move. And not just the smirk but he looked sleepy at the same time. Did he have pleasant dream while sleeping in the train. I wonder what he dreamt about…I was somehow a little creeped out. I find people smiling alone very strange. Talking alone in public is of course even stranger! Now this man…I began noticing him because, well, I see him everyday, stepping out of the same train door that I get in from. And normally he isn’t dressed in suits as most men are. He doesn’t even look like a blue-collared worker. Though he wears the same kind of clothes, they are stylish. He also seems to have an affinity for stylish shoes. May be he is a computer programmer or designer, you know one of those contemporary jobs where you don’t have to wear the tie. And as a Japanese man his features are quite sharp and is actually on the good-looking side. So there is another reason why I noticed him! Only, why was he smiling?

There is another man I notice on the station after the next one. He always, always, always looks tortured. He looks like he is suffering from the sleep deprivation method of torture. Most probably he some sleep disorder…How does he survive day after day?

He also stands on the same spot on the platform everyday, in the same posture; miserably sleepy head on sunken neck that rests between hunched shoulders, legs slightly apart as if to balance the tired body weight that he carried on his heels and his arms are always crossed with his briefcase held carelessly in one hand. All winter he wore the same olive green suit daily. Now its grey. Seasonal change maybe? And his briefcase the same as before, a darker shade of his winter suit.

After the almost weeklong Golden Week (GW) holidays, I was curious to see if he is looking refreshed and better. But no…he looked as tired as ever if not more. Maybe his GW was spent driving his family to various places, or to his in-law’s suburban home in another prefecture all together. A nagging wife who demanded what she deserved; holidays from the busy and hectic routine of cleaning the house, doing the laundry, doing grocery shopping, of preparing three regular meals for the family, having to wake really early morning to prepare breakfast and a lunch box for her husband who has to leave for work that takes two hours to reach, perhaps in the middle of Tokyo and then right after, listening and fulfilling the whims and demands of their two teenaged and preteen children respectively. And don’t forget that she has to regularly participate in the school PTA activities because most probably she volunteered to be one of the office bearers. And not to mention having to unwillingly be part of the Garbage Collecting Association of Neighborhood Wives that makes sure the raw garbage is placed in the right place on the right day and not plastic garbage, which is suppose to be put out the day after.

And so the children who don’t get to spend time with their father and a wife who needs a break is driven to her parents house for the holidays who equally needs a break but wont get any because, well…, he is going to the in-law’s house!

So why did I say that commuting by train has its plus points? Because I get to observe these people and make stories about them; a good way to pass my hour-long commute to work in the otherwise boring slumber land of sardine-packed (read human) trains. Can I fancy that someone is doing the same with me? Or probably that wishful thinking…