Storyline

I was on a vacation, travelling in a train with my kids. There was this woman who sat on the opposite berth apparantly travelling alone. My older son sat quietly by the window. His younger brother struck up a conversation with an old man who seemed to be enjoying it. I looked at the dark rolling countryside and turned to the woman saying, 'do you hail from this region?' because she had got into the train at the previous station. She said yes, she belonged to this place. 'Isn't this a naxalite area?' She said yes it is. I asked 'how do you live here? Are you not scared?' she said no. Born and raised here. she found nothing to fear. 'Have you seen any naxalite?' I asked her. She said yes of course. 'What do they look like?' I asked again. Like any one here, she replied. Nothing marks them out as anything special. I have never met any one who belonged to the naxal infested area, so this woman was my only chance to know firsthand something about the members of this deadly outfit. 'Have you spoken to any one of them?' I continued. Yes she said, they speak like any other person you have met. 'But they are known to be violent and cruel.' I persisted. They are feared by people who don't want them to live and agitate for their cause. For the rest of us they are harmless and even friendly, she said with a smile. After a while the train stopped suddenly in the middle of nowhere. The woman got up to leave. 'Are you getting off here?' I asked a little alarmed. My house is close by, she said. It is my good luck that the train stopped here. And she was gone. A few minutes later some policemen stormed into the compartment and enquired about a woman fugutive who they claimed was a naxalite. My heart beat fast. Was I chatting amicably with a member of one of the dreaded Maoist gangs? A naxal woman who appeared to be quite plain and simple like me had me so completely that i did not for a moment suspect who she was!
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