On 7 May 2016, I was travelling with my mom and brother for a four day vacation to Udaipur city by train . We were pretty excited about the trip and were making various plans of boasting to others about the fun and grand time we would be having . Thankfully , our seat was booked in the AC coach. We caught the train at 11:25 pm from Bandra terminus .While waiting for the train , my eyes caught sight of a lady tourist who seemed to be a Korean , a Singapore national , or maybe Chinese or Japanese . But she was alone having a handbag and two other suitcases . She too boarded our train and by coincidence got the seat just next to us!
She was fair, extremely good looking . She wore a simple top and a frock. I was learning Japanese language at that time and tried to find out if she was a Japanese by any chance. Yes, she was . I identified that when she started watching Anime. And later she began talking on her phone in Japanese . Gathering enough courage , I greeted her 'Konnichiwa' meaning hello in Japanese. She gave me a pleasant smile and told me 'Namaste'. Her gesture was super friendly as if she knew me well before . Her name was 'Kaori', sounds really cute .I thought this was a great chance to experiment all that knowledge I had learnt about this language . I told her , 'Vatashiva Nihon tsuki des' (I admire Japan a lot) .She was very pleased hearing this this . Japanese people will love and favour ones showing interest to know about their culture , lifestyle and tradition .It shows that their nation is being given priority like the western nations. I asked her about the stay in India ,the people and her plans. She told that she left her job for a break and had come to India for a month to do sight -seeing in different places . That's some great news for us Indians that foreigners feel the need to visit India and spend their time knowing about our history and take thrills of the diversity here. That lady had visited Mumbai and was travelling to Udaipur . Later she replied that she would be travelling to Leh , Ladakh , Shimla and all the way to Nepal. And can you believe it ; she was going to do this all alone . That was the first time I was hearing a person travelling so long all by herself . She was happy with the behaviour of people in India. We kept on talking various stuff and later I started speaking with her only in Japanese . She admitted that Japanese is a tough language with many grammar rules , patterns and greetings compared to Spanish, French and others. According to her , Japanese individuals showed lot of eagerness in knowing about India . The Indian food , music , cinema , festivals were well recognised there .
It was the first time she was travelling by a long distance train in India. I reminded her of surely having Indian tea and coffee as it is a delicacy . And also the food , of course!!! May it be chaat , fish curry , paneer , chinese! Only factor was that instead of chopsticks ,as per the Japanese tradition ,she would have to eat with spoon and folk here . The train journey became worth enjoyable ! So many new ideas ,knowledge and facts entered my brain. It was really hot that time with temperatures soaring upto 40 degrees. Everyone's faces were getting horribly tanned . But this Japanese woman still glowed and looked pretty. We generally take time to get adapted to a new place , new surrounding , habitat and style . This woman talked freely without any insecurity or prejudice inspite of coming to an unknown place , seeing unknown faces. It was totally a new experience for me!! I learnt many simple values from her . Interacting with a foreigner seemed less like a stranger , more of a friend. Wish that there will be many such moments like these. A memorable journey indeed..
