A Stranger is not a Stranger

It was 14^th October 2012. I was travelling from Germany in a train. I could not speak German well since it is not my mother tongue. Very few suffer like me.  But many today speak in many languages as though using the ‘shift’ key in a computer. I find it difficult to switch between three languages. I wonder how people do that between five and six. 

I was hesitant to start a conversation with a stranger who was sitting next to me because he was speaking in German with some of his friends. Another wonder with the system of the railways, when you book the ticket together you do not get adjacent seats. You find always a stranger inside. You have to personally and verbally request the stranger to change the place. In India they ask you to even change coaches. Here they are very hesitant even to request to sit in the next seat. What is given is given – but it also means that they do not want to intrude in what is given to them. More, one does not know how the other would react.

I was already a stranger in the train, and still a remote stranger between the companions who traveled together. Even with a stranger who is doubly alienated, a conversation could be initiated. It starts from silence. who said  one needs language to communicate? A peaceful silence that has a smile normally kicks off with a common, agreeing note like mamma mia – che caldo! Or what a bright and sunny day? Well if there is no smile, then there is no conversation. Even if there were to be one it will be cold, hard, and strict NO.

I had already smiled and he reciprocated it. After entering Austrian the border we started speaking about the rivers that flow, the climate, and the European Union. He and I shared the same feeling that this union could be a model for other continents in living together irrespective of different languages. I told him that India too has a model - which house different languages and culture. He thought that India has a single language. It was a revelation for him to know that the north Indians do not understand the south Indians and vice versa.  

India is a country but European Union is not.

... To be continued ...