A Benefactor

Karim tried to shake him off.

“I don’t have food, go away.” He snapped.

The kid got up, sobbing, and stood there silently. Staring at him from underneath, bleary eyes. Karim had an inkling the kid had no idea what he was saying.

“Go AWAY!” he said, pushing him gently away. The kid only started sobbing harder.

“Fine, come along then, but mum won’t have you.” He said. He was sure he was making the biggest mistake of his small life. But there was something about those round black eyes, that face, and the kid’s total innocence that he couldn’t ward off. This was going to mean trouble and a lot of problems. But Boontoo would stay with him, and Karim was no stranger to trouble.

A New Name

It had been 8 years now, since that horrible day. Karim recalled. Exactly eight year ago, when he'd been a small kid, two people had tried to jump out of the train leaving the platform, sadly enough they had jumped into the distribution post, the long metallic pole that carried the over head power cables for the trains. The trains velocity, combined with the impact upon the collision of the pole on the man's skull hadn't left much for the doctor to do. The lady had been better off, well relatively; her dead body had a head. This was the first time Karim had seen death, and it had shaken him. The violence of it, the gory images till this day had stayed in his mind.

Prologue

"May I have your attention please. Train No. 2130 Howrah Pune Azad Hind Express is arriving on platform no. 23...."

Mr. Shashinarayan Singh woke up with a start, just in time to hear the announcement repeated in hindi. "Finally" he thought. Having reached on an hour before the scheduled departure of the train, he had been waiting for over six hours on the platform for the delayed train. That with Mrs. Singh and their one year old son Krishna constantly pestering him about the train timing and other stuff on the platform had left him worn out.

Usually he would have made this trip alone. But this time, Mrs. Singh had insisted on seeing her parents. He had to relent. Based at Jamshedpur, Mr.Singh worked with a local telecom company. And this was an "official" trip. But even the thought of having talking his wife out of her plans seemed daunting. Plus he didn't hate his in-laws. He only "disliked" them.