Train to Love ☑

Prologue

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem.

Ding-Ding Dong

Passengers' kind attention, please.
The Next train to Chennai Central from Bangalore will arrive at platform No. 3 in a few minutes.

The microphone spoke out loud.

"Shabna, I feel sweaty," Shabna's mother said anxiously rubbing her both hands together.

"Mom. It's alright. Allah is with us and we would reach home safe and sound without any trouble, In shaa Allah," Shabna tried to console.

Shabna and her Mom had come to Bangalore for a family function along with her father. He left them early due to some emergency in his office. That moment, they were returning home, all alone and by themselves.

Bangalore to Chennai is quite a long journey and it requires a minimum of six hours to reach the destination via train.

"Shabna, pick up your luggage, the Train is about to come," said her cousin brother who came to drop them at the Railways station. They boarded the train. "Aunty! Don't you worry? In shaa Allah, you both will be fine," he added as he gave them a bag of fresh cookies and potato chips to munch on the way, after they had boarded the train and settled in their respective seats.

"Jazakallahu Khairan, Bhai," thanked Shabna wholeheartedly.

"Wa Antum fa jazakumullahu khairan, beta. Have a wonderful journey. May Allah bless you. The Dua you make on the occasion of travel is surely answered, so make lots of dua's and don't forget to add me on them," her cousin beamed.

Nodding her head, Shabna made herself comfortable. As they booked the ticket in an instance, they got seats on the normal cabinet instead of a sleeper. They were seated each on the window side. Shabna could see the door of the train ahead and so, she passed the rest of the time until the train whistled to a start by watching the passengers board in.

After a few minutes of waiting, the train finally started.

Shabna was the only child to her parents and she had just graduated from her university. Her parents were middle class and back-minded people. She was a beautiful soul, who strived each day to please her Creator in this modern and mundane world.

A guy who was seated on the same couch as they were sitting was continuously singing strange songs and that made her Mother panic more, worsening the control she had over the situation.

Shabna was wearing a nose piece and her face was thank God! secured from the guy's protruding gaze. She stiffly blinked her eyes a couple of times to let her Mom know that nothing would go wrong and tried to ensure that it was just her anxiety which was making her feel alarmed.

Many stations passed, trees were going in a blur when the Xpress train took speed. Shabna got annoyed more and more with each passing minute, due to the ridiculous songs the guy was singing. She personally hated Men like his kind. She always wished a knight in shining armor to sweep her away with his love. She wished her story with her soul mate would be fairytale-like. She wished so much happiness and love but at the same time, she knew about the reality of life. She knew that marriage would not be a bed of roses. It would be filled with thorns and bricks, one would need so much strength and patience to cross all the boundaries and still feel love for their spouse. She was just thinking about her future husband and she wished he should not be like the annoying guy who was sitting in front of her when suddenly, she remembered her cousin asking her to do dua, for the dua made during the time of travel is accepted so she quickly started praying for having a good spouse who would love and cherish her in the future.