An embarrassing experience during a travel.

Bangalore to Chennai - 6 hours to Central, 1 hour from Central to Avadi Airforce station.

This was one of the spontaneous trips that I had taken. Set out with my sister in a call taxi on that nice misty morning to the railway station. Advantage in this trip to others was indeed the minimum luggage aspect. One small microlite travel bag on the shoulder. Reached the station, paid the taxi driver. Checked for the platform to board the train and was glad to know it was the 1st platform. Advantage over advantage, less luggage and need not have to have to climb the stairs to cross the bridge. We went and checked the chart and saw our names in the list. Boarded the train and noticed the three seaters. I took my seat which was the window seat 97 and my sister took the seat 86 which is the middle seat in a different 3 seater. I checked with the boy who was in seat 98 if he can swap for 86 so that my sister can be seated with me. His father suddenly stood up before the boy could respond and disagreed stating the whole family wants to be together. I thought in my mind if he had a helping mentality he would have agreed and consoled my mind by thinking "what if I or she was travelling alone?"

Train started moving and all the passengers had come in except the 2 people in the seat taken by my sister. I moved to that seat and bought a newspaper from the vendor who passed by. Peacefully, both of us bought Dosa for breakfast. By then, we reached the next station, Cantonment. One old man got in. He came to our seat and told the window seat is his. I requseted him to take seat 97 as it is mine. He agreed to that and went and sat there. Train started moving. We were happy that nobody else had come and looked like this seat would be for the two of us for the entire stretch. I bought one cup of coffee for each of us and we took few sips. Both of us started eating the dosa that we had bought. Just then one middle aged man came and asked me what is my seat number. I told him it is 97. He asked me if Iam sure and I defiantly informed him indeed Iam confident about it. My sister intervened and told that our names are on the chart outside. He informed us that his name is there on the chart as well. The old man who obliged to take my seat also joined us now. I retaliated by saying that he might have seen his name but for a different seat. Middle aged man asked me to show him my ticket. I was offended and asked him to show his ticket to us. He obliged and I noticed that his ticket was not confirmed as it showed as Waiting list. Now, I am all the more confident and all three of us, me, my sister and the old man, pounced on him stating one need to have a confirmed ticket to enter the reservation compartment. This man is absolutely patient and is trying to reason out to us by informing that he is aware the ticket should be confirmed for him to be seated in the reservation compartment and he has a confirmed ticket. The three of us were not ready to listen to him and just continued arguing with him. He looked immovable and with absolute patience he requested to see my ticket. I took out the ticket while still telling him it is a waste of time and doesn't make a difference because he anyways has a waiting list ticket. He did not respond to any of my allegations and comments. I took a glance at my ticket while shoving it in front of that patient man's face. I paused for a moment and had a good look at it once again before showing it to him. My sister is wondering why I took the ticket away from the man's face and why I am not showing it to anyone after that. I looked at her and gave a blank look and she returned a confused expresion. Now, I don't know what to say and how to react. I felt a sudden rush in my brain and felt most embarrassed in my life. Guess why?
I realised my seat is 96 and not 97. I had been fighting for a seat which is not mine but had already exchanged with another man. This had inconvenienced two men. The old man was wondering what had gone wrong all of a sudden. All this happened in a fraction of a second. I felt a pinch of reality and let my mind recluse a bit before I could handle this situation that only I am aware of. I suddenly sensed a whiff of presence of mind take a good grab of me and I apologised to the patient man with, a quick intentional change in my approach, as much modesty and humbleness possible. I recognised a clueless expression on all three of them and other passengers who were watching us. I showed my ticket to the middle aged man and slowly told him my seat is 96 and not 97. He did not say a word but went to his seat. I was amazed by the man's patience and composed nature.
Suddenly there was a total chaos in there. The man who took my actual seat 96 stood up and the one whose seat is the 3rd seat where me and my sister had shared stood up as well. All the culprits were exposed in a jiffy. I took this as an opportunity and asked those 2 guys to sit where they were seated and asked the old man to come and sit in our seat. All gave a smile to each other and settled ourselves. We sat down and both of us burst out laughing while the old man went to collect his luggage from seat 97.
That precise moment, I decided never to jump to conclusions and never to assume but check the facts before speaking and acting. Lend ears to others version to avoid such embarrassing moments in future.
What say? Haven't my experience taught u all a good two lessons?