The time was running out and the train arrival was now just moments away. He was getting worried. He wasn't sure how he could go around with all the bags looking for her. The regular patrolling in the airport meant that if he left the bags there without being around most likely his next few hours would be with the Bundespolizei.
"Phew" is the english expression to describe the sense of relief. I think the word hardly does justice to the emotions that ran through him when he saw her walking towards him, bewildered by the enormity of the Frankfurt airport. Controlling his anger for her unworried us attitude and at the same time reminding himself that he was at fault by not informing her about the exact train departure time, he asked her to make hurry.
"ICE" stands for Inter-city express. These are the high speed trains that connect major cities in Germany. These includes not just the capital cities of different states also called Bundesland, but also many other large cities. These trains have separate sections for the first and second class passengers, most often separated by the pantry car. He referred to the chart on the notice board to position himself in a place so that he could easily get into a second class compartment. The sparse density in trains means that there is no mandatory reservation. One pays for this ticket and if he wants a reserved seat he would have to pay slightly more additionally. Back in his country, he wouldn't have a chance in hell to get a seat on one of the express trains if he hadn't chosen a ticket with reservation and even then there was the possibility that someone would encroach his seat.
Their share of problems hadn't been finished yet. Just a few minutes before the approach of the train, she observed that there was some text being displayed on the screen. He looked up and realized that the position they had chosen to stand would park them directly in front of the pantry car. The coaches in this particular train had been shuffled.
There are exceptions to every rule. It is not without reason that Murphy's law is such a famous one. On the train he noticed that there was hardly a single seat that was vacant. It was more difficult for him to squeeze his baggage between the seats and the compartment walls, but with the famous Jugaad technique he did manage to arrange them. The stood capriciously in the corner when she said "I am hungry. But i don't feel like eating anything". He knew that this meant, that she was hungry and because she was worried about spending money in euro's she wasn't willing to have anything. If you would expect that after paying more than forty grand per ticket, you would get a stomach full of meal on an 10 hour flight journey, you are quite mistaken. You do get a meal and a snack, the later of which could be easily mistaken for warm wet sponge. He knew this and had promised himself that he would try to resist his temptation to back calculate the costs from euros to his home currency while spending in Germany.
Eight euros and Fifty cents was the bill and he said "Nine please". If it were not for god's remarkable design with her eyes, they would have popped out in surprise. After the waiter made his way back with a nonchalant smirk, she blurted out "Nine? Why?". He smiled. She remembered what he had said, " New country New rules New us".
He just remembered that his train was running late by thirty minutes. He knew that in a country that was so finical about punctuality, this wouldn't be short of an embarrassment. This country is changing, it is not what it used to be....But wasn't the arrival of likes of him was the effect and cause of the situation.
Every change has two sides to it. You make the change if the side that you don't like has lesser influence that than the side that you like. They too had taken the decision after giving it a lot of thought. She had chosen to give up a lot for him. Her job, her freedom of speech since in Germany she could be hardly understood without her knowledge of the language, her friends, her family which constituted the better part of half of her home town. For him it was his parents whom he loved, his pampered life, his friends and office team, each member of whose had been hand-picked, supported and groomed in someway by him.
"I had to inform him. I hope he still waits for us. He has our keys!!", he said to her. He was mentioning about his friend who had collected the keys to his temporary accommodation in Germany. He was supposed to meet them in the Bahnhof. A delay in the arrival of the train would mean that he wouldn't wait or miss them or just assume that something was wrong. How humans behave is unexpected situations is a area under study for several years now. He by no means was an expert at this.
[To be continued]
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