The tale of the name!

“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”

Richard Feynman

Here’s what I’m currently doing: travelling, on a train! And, since I am actually a chirpy, chatty girl who’s got problems making the first little conversation, I can’t remember a time I travelled on a train without really talking and listening! So, here I am! On the train! Again! I like how these two lines sound! They kind of rhyme, you see! Um, the last time, I remember a train trip had greeted me when I was in eleventh grade! It’s been four years! And, of course, I feel a wee different this time! So, here’s the chain of events that have occurred till now! I and Baba got home, mostly wet, obviously it was raining outside, that’s the trend if you’re in a district like Koraput! We rush into our humble abode and get a change of clothes and then help Mama assemble our bags, which I and my sister, Mol, put inside in the car that’s waiting outside for us! We’re halfway through the stairs and the lights are out! Again, something that happens when you see the charges painting Harry Potter’s scar on the dark, cloudy sky! We get into the car. We reach the station, it’s a thirty minutes drive from my place, but we reach in fifty, and thankfully, it’s not raining there! The train’s already on the platform, the first, we’re fortunate! We run with our bags to find our compartment. We find it, oh but wait, my eyes catch a glimpse of a familiar face! That’s my school friend! Well, what next, we find our seats, place our luggage in its place and start updating each other on our lives! And we’re done, the train’s starting now, my friend who’d come to drop her brother on the train’s leaving and I come to my seat!

And then a stranger asks me, “MKCG, which batch?!”
I say, “Um, 2020” not sure, how to respond, still not able to make any deductions!
“Oh, you good there? I’m from MKCG too, 2014 batch!”
And here we go again! The world is such a small place! The MKCGian in me takes over and I reply, “Ohh, agyan Bhai” with a smile! Truly, finding a person from your own college, on a train trip, is something!
We keep talking, till my Mom asks me his name and I being a good MKCGian know, one should not ask a senior his or her name, that’s disrespectful! So, I keep quiet and let my parents do it for me!

And the mind asks a question, if the name is the person herself or himself!
This very evening, on this train itself, I came to know a woman, who maybe needed an ear today, who needed to be listened to, who maybe was carrying and is still carrying a storm of sufferings within herself, and I think I do know a bit of her, but I don’t know her name!
I came to meet two young boys, one aspiring to be an advocate and the other a fine engineer and got to know a wee bit about what’s going on, got to know a little about the judiciary and stuff, but nope, I do not know their names, either!
But, um, I kind of know these people, but if I describe them to you, you’ll remember them by their characters, but people who maybe know them will recognise them by their names!
But, um, the question is, how often are we tricked into believing we know someone because we know their name?!

P.S: Sorry, but I truly have a habit of describing the tiniest of details! And sometimes, maybe you find it annoying, but that’s how I’m wired, folks!

Carpe Diem!