We were on our first ever
family trip to Europe! Though travelling along with a two year old and a six
year old poses its own challenges, we decided to take the plunge. After a few
days at Amsterdam and a short stop later at Cologne, we found ourselves on a
train to Stuttgart in Germany. The journey was to be an average of three hours.
We ensured to book seats for a section in the compartment designated for
families especially with the little ones with us.
Kids as usual were super
excited about every aspect of a vacation! They loved train rides especially and
could feel their excitement in every new sight that came their way. Soon after
the train left Cologne a pretty young lady came and sat near our area in the
compartment. She had a book in her hand and a headset on one of her ears. As
soon as she settled down, we could see her trying to catch-up with the reading.
After a while I felt that she was not able to concentrate on the book, with the
chatter of the kids. I could see her getting disturbed and I told our little
ones to remain quiet.
The calm lasted a few moments
as the excitement didn’t let them be seated for long. They were back in action
shortly. So was the annoyance of the young lady. She tried to communicate
through her glances and we tried without much luck to translate the message to
the kids as well. The drama went on for a while.
As the train crossed half the
distance we had to cover, the lady closed the book and looked at me. I could
see rage burning in those eyes. She blurted out all her irritation on me and
asked me to make the kids shut up.
Being a tourist in their
country, I tried my best to remain composed and reminded her that she chose to
sit at a designated family area and there is a limit to which you could keep
the mouths shut of little children. I guess the message was delivered well.
Shortly after that she moved to another area where she could bury her heads
deeper into the world of imagination with her book.
We thought for ourselves that
a trip that was to be full of beautiful memories might have been destined to
end up with a bitter experience like this. While we were still trying to pacify
ourselves, the train rolled on to the platform of Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, the
primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart. As I was taking out our
luggage from the other end of the cabin I could see a middle-aged man
approaching my wife and telling her something.
My wife and kids all got down
from the train along with our stuff. I could see a glow on her face which did a
wonderful job of removing the cloud of gloom that hung above her after the
unpleasant incident on the train.
The man earlier told her,
“Mam, I’m sorry for everything that happened between you and the young lady.
Let her say anything she wanted, please don’t bother. You are blessed with two beautiful angels and I enjoyed every little
sound made by your kids. They were music for my ears. The world cannot be
deprived of such sheer joy. God bless your family!”
The rest of our trip was one where we could only find positivity all around us!
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