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“Catch me if you can” says the Worcester express

-“Buddy, can you please pick me up at 6:45p.m today?” asked my friend, after running out of all other options.
-“Sure, I will take the 6:05 Worcester express from South station and reach Natick by 6:35p.m” - Only later will I curse myself for making this promise.

It was a quiet workday. Everything went as per plan, I left office ten minutes earlier than usual at 5:25p.m and reached the Red Line station situated across the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 5:30p.m. Satisfied that there is 35 minutes to spare for making the 15 minute trip to South station.

South station on Dec 27, 1898

Boston’s historic South station is more than a century old. The grandeur of the architecturally rich façade built in 1898 is there for all tourists to enjoy from the outside. While the outside reminds the 1890s the inside is in complete contrast, with modern reconstructions and hoardings of iPod Nanos all over the place, the Train names, the track information rolling all the time indicating the constant flow of trains in and out of Boston, it can easily pass off for the 2010s. In the lowest level, runs the ‘Red Line’ subway trains. The ‘Silver Line’ subway bus, which takes commuters to the Logan Airport, is on the middle level of the South station. The top level handles the Amtrak trains and the Commuter trains, which includes the ‘Worcester express’. If the South station takes a day off, the number of people in downtown Boston will be lesser than the number of people wandering on a hot summer day in the vast expanse of the Sahara desert.

As the crowd gathered at the MIT Red Line station, I was beginning to get uneasy. Usually, at least there is one Red Line train every four minutes, but none appeared for the last eight minutes. “Attention Please! Due to a switch problem, we are experience some delays in the Red Line service,” yelled the loud speaker. People were standing at the edge of the platform, bending as much forward as possible, and peeking into the dark rail track, hoping that this act will somehow get the train sooner. First, I saw few smiling faces that were confident that their ‘bend and peek’ was undoubtedly responsible for what is about to happen, and then the flashing red lights of a moving train marked its arrival.

Charles Darwin was proved right yet again as only few managed to board the already packed train. I was glad to be one of the "fitter" few. This poor train had to bear the brunt of four times the usual traffic at every station. Oblivious of my urgency to make the 6.05 Worcester express, the Red Line train inched into the South station at 6:04p.m.

Standing at the edge of the door, it took me no effort to get to the platform as the packed crowd ejected me out. I rushed to the empty escalator and climbed two steps at a time and reached the Silver line bus service area. The time was 6.05p.m as I climbed through the last set of staircases to reach the South station lounge. Then, I saw what I dreaded, the automated notice board rolled the letters from left to right as I saw ‘c e s t e r e x p r e s s’ fade away from the screen.

A commuter train on the move (with flashing red lights)

Failing to note the track number from where the Worcester express departs, I ran towards the first three tracks (usually it departs from 1,2 or 3) hoping that some miracle will keep it waiting. As I entered the boarding area, I saw at a distance on track 1, the flashing red lights of the moving train. It was all over! Being totally dejected I turned back to head towards the restroom. It invariably happens, when ‘u r in’ such a situation.

As I was about to reenter the lounge, I watched the flashing red lights coming nearer, which means it's an incoming train and not a departing one. I saw couple of people running towards a train on track 2 and I started running too. Don’t ask me ‘why I ran?’ I had no clue what Train that one is. At the entrance of the last car of that train, the Asian-American conductor yelled “Worcester Express” and pulled me into the train, closed the door and the train began to move. It was 6.07p.m. At this point, I got reminded of the little emoticon from the yahoo messenger, which raises the hand to the forehead and wipes the drop of sweat. I called my friend to inform him that things are on schedule.

Abel-Daughter

"Malai da, Annaamalai"

I read the Jeffrey ARCHER books 'The Prodigal Daughter' and 'Kane & Abel' in that order, but the former was written later. Only after reading the latter, was I told that 'Kane & Abel's (KA) sequel is 'The Prodigal Daughter' (PD). The story of a Mr.Kane and a Mr.Abel forms the story of KA, and the life story of Mr.Abel's daughter - Florentyna, is PD.

Well, PD is not literally a sequel to KA. The story of PD starts when KA is half complete. When PD is half way through, KA ends. If we take all the pages of KA and PD and sort them in a time line, i.e. the order in which the events occur, to be specific, if we divide KA into two halves say, 1 and 2, similarly PD into two say, 3 and 4, and plot them in the time line graph, it will look like this:
4
2 - 3
1
Since 2 and 3 occur at the same time, one would think that it will be boring to read 2, if you've already read 3,4 or vice versa. Ok, I am not talking any math here. In whichever order you read these two books, the pleasure derived while reading the second one can be .. hm.. how can I explain it?.. yeah! it can be compared to watching the replay of Sachin Tendulkar hitting a six off Shoiab Akthar from two different camera angles.

The same time period, same events, but we look at them using different eyes. Mani Rathnam handles this in Aayudha Ezhuthu and Kamal handles this, even better, in the movie Virumaandi. I am not commenting on the stories here, just the screenplay.

It might have been a simple task for Archer, as he wrote the second book, keeping in mind the events of the first one. But the narration was simply superb. It gives us the pleasure of discovering things which are not explicitly said in either of the books. After reading many crime stories, lawyer-solving-puzzles stories, doctor-inventing-medicines stories, this one, which plainly describes the life events of Kane, Abel and Florentyna, was a different experience. I think, in our 10th or 12th standard (grade) [Matriculation / Stateboard] English non detail section we read Thomas Hardy's 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'. If you liked that one, you will enjoy this one too.

When I started reading the 'Kane & Abel', my father told me that this is the same story used in the Rajni movie Annaamalai. Of course modifications were made to make it a single hero subject, but as I was reading the book, I was able to relate and appreciate how this one was adapted into Annaamalai. Now, don't ask me if Abel was a 'paalkaaran'.