Long rail journeys are generally very boring. They tend to get all the more abominable when you are travelling in a second class with each seat packed with 5 people, 4 of which are travelling without reservation. Needless to say, you are the one with the reservation.

Recently, while undertaking one such journey, I came across a person travelling without a ticket sitting diagonally opposite me along with a couple of his other friends. For the first 15 minutes, I simply thought of getting up and swinging a roundhouse kick across their respective heads just like Chuck Norris. But then, I just decided to bear them. They seemed to be very well informed about the happenings around the world.

One of them sparked off a discussion on the Baba Ram Rahim row, wherein one of the Baba's bodyguards shot dead a man in a shopping mall. The guy, who was gonna be the target of my kick, came up with a fantastic point. He said and I quote - "In my opinion, when someone has decided to spend his life meditating day-in-day-out and preaching his followers and dons the regard of a BABA, it implies that he has decided to spend his life serving God and His people. The word BABA makes people believe that this man is so close to God that maybe by following him they too can serve God and wash away their sins.".

Till this point, I felt that he was saying something I may have thought about at some time or the other. But then came a barrage of questions that were worth quite more -
"If this guy has decided to be called a BABA and he claims being close to God, why the hell does he need 2 cars full of bodyguards ? "
"Why does he stop people from entering the shopping mall when he is shopping ? Why is he afraid that someone might hurt him ?"
"Why did he have to take refuge in Mysore when he knew one of his bodyguards had made a mistake ? Why is he trying to protect a criminal ?"

No one had an answer to these rhetorical questions and the man had proven his point.

The questions are worth a thought though.......