Abandoned under the baking sun.

I was on the train again last weekend to Kerala to spend the weekend with my kid. The train
left Chennai as scheduled at 4PM and the weather being what it is like in Chennai during the summer, it was sweltering hot inside the train. The fans whirred above, but doing nothing to
cool the passengers as it was just fanning the hot air all around.

I am seated at the window, just looking out at the drab Tamilnadu countryside, wishing it
would just change to the cool greenery of Kerala. The next station is 2 hours away. In between there would be many suburban stations of which a couple (Thiruvallur and Arakkonam) are relatively bigger.

Even though it will not stop here, the train slows down as it approaches Thiruvallur. It slowly runs the length of the platform, and as it leaves the station it again picks up speed. A little after the platform ends, I see a kind of rectangular board lying along the tracks. It is 6 feet by 3 feet, with handles on the four corners and draped in black polythene sheet.

As the train approaches this contraption, I think it would be some kind of a makeshift carrier
for labourers to carry stuff. Then the train passes it and I see a pair of human legs jutting out
at the other end. Only the legs from the ankles down is visible, the rest is just black plastic.

I am shocked. This obviously is a human body, left along the tracks (not even on the platform), under the hot baking sun. And there is no one nearby. I think it must be someone who got hit
by a train. Today's newspaper says that on an average 2 people are killed by trains while crossing the tracks carelessly. And that is just the figures for Chennai.

Still, why would you leave a human body abandoned like that ? Given that we have stray dogs roaming all around, how safe would be that body if left lying there ? Is his/her identity known ? Do his/her people know what happened to their loved one ?

It left me so depressed and down. Human life seems to be getting devalued by the day, as we
all run around to make more money, buy stuff, indulge ourselves in material pleasures etc.