I usually don’t travel much by train and even when I do, it’s rarely at night. But once, I had no choice. I was returning from my sister’s birthday party, travelling from Mumbai Central to Andheri.

At Elphinstone Road, a man entered the compartment, clearly drunk. He struggled to find a seat and kept singing loudly. It was both funny and strange to hear an elderly man singing popular Hindi film songs. He finally sat at the far end of the compartment, where no one else was sitting.

At Dadar, another man came in and he looked quite threatening. Somehow, he seemed drawn to the drunk man and sat right beside him. At first, we couldn’t hear their conversation properly, but soon the drunk shouted angrily, “What? Why should I give you my watch? Are you a thief? Stop staring at me, you nasty thief!”

His loud shouting sent chills down my spine. I looked around at the other passengers, realizing we might have a thief in our compartment. If he could try robbing the drunk, he could try it with us too. At the next stop, Matunga Road, a passenger sitting near me quickly ran out.

A gentleman in front of me signalled and moved towards the drunk man. He called others from our side of the compartment to join him. I followed, though a little behind.

The thief suddenly pulled out a knife, his face full of rage. There were about five or six people blocking his path in the narrow passageway.

“Let me go,” he threatened roughly, “or I will knife all of you and this man too!” He waved the knife at the drunk man.

As the train slowed near Mahim, the gentleman said calmly, “Go. Quickly.” We stepped aside and the thief rushed out at the next opportunity. Luckily, more passengers had entered the train by then. As we returned to our seats, we explained the incident to them. The drunk man didn’t sing again; the whole episode had sobered him up.

For me, this was truly a journey I will never forget a night full of fear, courage and unexpected lessons about bravery.