When boundaries vanished....

I had always dreamt of such a place.. a place where there were no differences, based on caste, race or religion, and finally when I found one, I was reluctant to enter into it. You may find it strange, but yes, I found such a place and lived there for 14 hours. The place exists, on this very Earth, in this country...
This Sunday, I'd packed my bags and was heading to my hostel for a peaceful semester ahead, when a phone call broke the silence of my schedule and I had to make an unplanned trip to Varanasi. That evening I boarded a train to Varanasi. Fortunately, I(read my friends) could manage a reservation in the short time span. I don't want to go public with the details of what happened in Varanasi, but something that I observed on my way back is what I intend to share.
My friends tried to get me a reservation on a train back to Delhi so that I could reach Delhi on Tuesday morning in time for the classes. This time, I didn't have my share of luck and found my name in the waiting list at the station. Eager to reach Delhi, I had no choice but to board a passenger train to Anand Vihar. Now, I had never made such long journeys in general compartments before. For those who don't know, trains have coaches divided into- AC(I, II, III), Sleeper class(you get a berth to sleep). General( getting even a seat to sit depends on your luck). I hated the idea, but still I was on the Delhi-bound train in the general coach....
Initially, I was afraid for I couldn't forsee the lessons of life that I was to learn. I had heard of frequent train robberies in UP, Bihar. It was 10pm at night and I was feeling sleepy. I couldn't sleep, partially because there was no place for me to sleep and partially due to the fear. It was then that the learning began.
I saw people sleeping in the luggage slabs, unknown people sleeping on the same berth and those who didn't find a place just slept on the floor. I belonged to the third category...I had to sleep on floor. I used my towel as a bedsheet and the train floor as my bed. My bag became my pillow. The floor was stinking and mosquitos could be found in tons, yet fatigue took over me and I slept for two hours .. When I woke up, I could see another person sharing my bag(like a pillow of course) with his feet pointing opposite to mine... I slept again,this time I felt safer..
I woke up at one to find a few passengers boarding off and grabbed an upper birth that had only one person sleeping.. But then I saw something that I found hard to believe. On the berth opposite to mine( and the stranger's ), slept a man with a flowing beard and small moustaches and another man in saffron clothes. I slept again to wake up at 3 am in the morning, I saw the maulvi on the opposite berth carry out some rituals to read his Namaaz and then a little later, the pandit got up and spoke his prayers. As I made out later from their talks, they were total strangers.
Now, I was sure that the boundaries of caste and religion had vanished in this train, for total strangers were spread over the floor and space had become more important than the person sleeping next to you. But I am still not sure about the reasons.. Do people forget these boundaries in times of need or do common people never care for them? Then why do we find news of caste violence, religion riots? The train has often been evidence of the worst riots in Indian history, but today it had been instrumental in deleting those boundaries. Was it the train that was repenting for its sins? I had no idea...
As I walked out of the station, my mind was filled with these questions and then I saw the Pundit help the old Maulavi get into a bus and bid goodbye to him......