A strange incident during my travel to Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary

We had this program of going to Bharatpur and Udaipur for a long time so we managed to finalize it and reached Udaipur as first stoppage. Then I took next train to Bharatpur with my friend at Udaipur.  Five of our group was to take the next train as we did not get reservation in same train. In fact seven of us had taken 5 days off out of our schedule and we had plans to make this trip to the Bharatpur bird sanctuary in Rajasthan.

We were equipped with SLR digital cameras, sacks for squatting in the jungles and sands and all other sundry articles of use. In brief it was an exciting trip, or you could call it an exhilarating one. We grabbed at cameras to have a longer and better view of colorful storks, ducks. We swore and chatted about the species or name of some rare varieties. In fact the sanctuary in mid-winter was teeming with excellent breeds.

We two, Deepak and I, left for Bangalore after having a wonderful tour by the evening train, as it was urgent. The others had planned to go to Delhi. The train took us away after our hectic program. There was nothing fresh on which we could ruminate, as we had little left over to talk about after the four days of exciting roving. We finished our makeshift dinner of bread, snacks and banana by eight p.m. and clambered on our two upper berths.

Now I was left to myself. The rhythm and rattle of the compartment was my only companion. No, there was another I must add here, the memory of the thrill and excitement of the past four days. It was about 3 a.m. when I woke up with a start at the harsh call of a tea vendor at some station. I also felt that I should ease myself of the tense bladder. But no sooner did I get up than I was overtaken by a strange feeling. I felt that something was wrong.

 As I had lain for sleep I had rested my suitcase against the side wall of the compartment. I slept with my right knee touching the suitcase, confident that anyone tampering with it cannot but would wake me up. It was my usual practice and it never failed so far.

I had not yet seen the thing, but as I woke up I sensed that my knee rested against something else, not my suitcase. How the feeling dawned on me I cannot say, but it did. I shivered within and found it to be true as I turned to make sure. It was only a cardboard of the size of my suitcase that had been deftly placed to serve for the function of the suitcase.

I sat stunned for a while, did not even wake up my friend. It was my first experience and I felt totally robbed and ruined. The material loss was not accountable, for it had my camera and a couple of clothes only. But the experience and the feeling were totally different. I simply thought it to be a mystery, the way in which the whole operation of replacement was completed so smoothly. I felt cheated for the first time.

When I had discovered the mater the train had traveled a long way. However we got down at Howrah and lodged an FIR with the police. The only effort at recovery I could think of. I have no photographs of that tour so I will use an image from the net to give you an idea.