This song by Ashok Kumar brings so much back to me about trains. During my childhood every other month I would be in a train visiting grandparents, dad, bua, mausi and mama. Every time that sleeper class journey would bring along new experiences. Every time I will pass by a field, a village, a river, a slum or a bridge, I would notice something new.
The Indian train is a city in itself. Being the 2nd largest commercial and utility employer, with a separate budget day allotted to it, it feels like a country in its own right. From the point of going to railway station, getting on a train, stopping in the mid journey and getting to your destination everything is drenched with so many new stories, that they can only be experienced by travelling on Indian Railways.
The beginning of the beginning of a journey
 |
| Which is the best spot to sit ? |
Now this group of people coming to leave you keeps getting bigger because now everyone wants to send you off (Good old indian values or people making sure that you dont come back to haunt them (probably this is just pessimistic me (I just love "inception" of brackets when I write something :P ))). It is like a small family picnic except everyone is going to the railway station instead of the river side.
So now you have the extra water bottles in case somebody feels thirsty on the ride to railway station, the cousin who is seeing you after a year is also hitching along and will get down at her/his place; your family for sure and the live-in maid, after all what will she do all alone in the house (true story: my friend could swear by it). Now that the whole family is coming, you need more than one vehicle or you don't (because you have learned to cram everyone in one). Just to justify our cramming capabilities, somebody holds a record of stuffing 42 people in Maruti 800 and driving some distance. These guys could have managed more but the other half of their family had gone to leave somebody at the station ;). Off to the station....
The Railway Station
You enter the station, check train timings and the platform and try to convince whoever is with you that you will manage and failing which you move to the platform where passengers like you are standing with their families. Ask the coolie where your bogie will come and find a place nearest to this place. Somehow this type of interaction with coolies is no more. Nowadays the digital boards tell you where the bogie will come.
As you are saying goodbyes and getting into the train, one of your friends/family is taking photos. Soon enough you will see yourself tagged in somebody's album on fb.
With that the train whistles out of the station and a new journey within a journey begins. If this doesn't sound familiar to you probably you can ask Raju Shrivastava to paint a better picture.
As you inch closer to the station, your way is blocked by rickshaws, buses, lal batti vali cars, huge ass military trucks, cows/pigs/camels/horses (depends on which part of India you are in), cart pullers, coolies and obviously passengers. So if you have managed to get to the station entrance and have found a parking spot for the vehicle (dont worry if you haven't, leave it on the road) or you were lucky to be travelling in an auto, well the fun has just begun.
As you are saying goodbyes and getting into the train, one of your friends/family is taking photos. Soon enough you will see yourself tagged in somebody's album on fb.
With that the train whistles out of the station and a new journey within a journey begins. If this doesn't sound familiar to you probably you can ask Raju Shrivastava to paint a better picture.
The Journey
Why is it so windy ? And I am still sweating in this wind. Oh it is probably because of the fact that I am running. Why am I running, towards something ? Away from something ? I hit a rod of iron and I fall. I wake up from a recurring dream. Guess that soft wobbles of the train and spurts of wind in my face had put me to sleep. And that ladder painted with dull blue colours, to climb to the upper berth woke me up. Seems like an instinct for me go to sleep when I wobble, must be a childhood cradle thing.
Well some describe train journeys as meditative. You look outside the window, look at the rails and hoping to see them meet (but love stories I tell you), just keep looking and that clears your mind. I clear my mind and go to sleep again.
Somehow we Indians have mastered the art of sleeping while sitting. I see people sleeping on benches in malls, police stations, government offices, college classrooms, around shaadi ke mandaps and DD-1 or that was just Atal (Bihari Vajpayee) being his oratory best (pause-nap-speak-pause-nap-speak......:P). I feel long Indian train journeys have something to do with it.
The train journey over the years have left behind so many quirky experiences. I feel the best place to have Dal chaat with those onions, tomatoes, chillies, sev, the special masala and a big fresh lemon squeezed on top is a train. The best place to watch a movie with a lot of unknown people (apart from a theater) is a train. Here you whip out your laptop plug it in and then the whole compartment is glued to that 15 inch screen. The best place to buy and read comics is a train. I have so many Chacha Chaudhary comics just because of this. The best place to taste new foods across India is a train. Journeys from Delhi to Indore wouldn't have been spicier hadn't those chilli pakodas and poha been there at Nagda. Dont believe me, get that circular ticket and start tasting. The best place to reflect about life is a train. Conversations with family, friends and strangers makes that limbo on a train more enjoyable. The best place to have food under a blanket is a train. The best place to smell that cold morning air and look at the yellow sarso ke khet is from a train. The best place to feel useful by helping people arrange their luggage is a train. The best place advertise is a train. Hardly anyone misses those kilometer long Gupt Rog ads by Dactar Raj on the walls along the tracks. Somehow this idea caught the fancy of a popular British Car show Top Gear, they did this. The best place to drop a mobile in a toilet and not be able to pick it up is a train (Happened to a friend twice). The best way to travel to a wedding with a huge family is a train. The best place to take a girl by her hand and help her on to a running train is in fact a train. I blame watching DDLJ to many times for this :P.
On a train the best person to ask for a extra rotis from pantry, a matchstick for cigarette and correct time to reach the station is the waiter. On a Shatabdi, these guys have the smoothest way to ask for asking a tip, they offer you a cup of mouth freshners as you are leaving the train. And below the cup are hundred rupee notes, of course you are not supposed to pick them up, you smartass but add to the pile. They probably just add the hundred rupee notes to guilty that miser in you into tipping but my mama has taught me well. Pointing to random uncles in the train and tell the waiter "papa se poocho".
Among other interesting things I have heard is that every compartment has the seat number 7 booked for train officials. Which left vacant can be given to a passenger travelling with waiting ticket. Forgot to tell you but you can always buy a waiting ticket for sleeper class and travel with helpful fellow passengers. These seats are usually up for grabs if you have the wallet to support it and a TC to hold it. I couldn't find a better euphemism for prevalent bribery in Indian Rail but this a only small black speck in otherwise white linen. With other things like dirty toilets, shitty tracks, lack of security on trains etc some might say that the number of specks are growing but I like to see it as a polka dotted cloth where the pattern of dots has gone disarray :P.
Well some describe train journeys as meditative. You look outside the window, look at the rails and hoping to see them meet (but love stories I tell you), just keep looking and that clears your mind. I clear my mind and go to sleep again.
Somehow we Indians have mastered the art of sleeping while sitting. I see people sleeping on benches in malls, police stations, government offices, college classrooms, around shaadi ke mandaps and DD-1 or that was just Atal (Bihari Vajpayee) being his oratory best (pause-nap-speak-pause-nap-speak......:P). I feel long Indian train journeys have something to do with it.
 |
| Nagda Junction: the poha shop on the left |
On a train the best person to ask for a extra rotis from pantry, a matchstick for cigarette and correct time to reach the station is the waiter. On a Shatabdi, these guys have the smoothest way to ask for asking a tip, they offer you a cup of mouth freshners as you are leaving the train. And below the cup are hundred rupee notes, of course you are not supposed to pick them up, you smartass but add to the pile. They probably just add the hundred rupee notes to guilty that miser in you into tipping but my mama has taught me well. Pointing to random uncles in the train and tell the waiter "papa se poocho".
Among other interesting things I have heard is that every compartment has the seat number 7 booked for train officials. Which left vacant can be given to a passenger travelling with waiting ticket. Forgot to tell you but you can always buy a waiting ticket for sleeper class and travel with helpful fellow passengers. These seats are usually up for grabs if you have the wallet to support it and a TC to hold it. I couldn't find a better euphemism for prevalent bribery in Indian Rail but this a only small black speck in otherwise white linen. With other things like dirty toilets, shitty tracks, lack of security on trains etc some might say that the number of specks are growing but I like to see it as a polka dotted cloth where the pattern of dots has gone disarray :P.
The Destination
As the destination nears you check if there is something to be packed. Clean your seat and throw stuff on the floor. Take that last sip of water from the bottle and leave it there. Move with your bag towards the door. Of course there are ten more passengers on the way to the door. After five mins you get down and the life comes to a familiar still.
You look around for an auto or you are visiting a relative, so you have somebody to take you home. You take a final look at the train. At this point I like to imagine it as the Sheshnag, leaving behind a truck load of passengers, goods and an etched intellect. The Sheshnag which holds the train tracks together, the life of people together ... the India together.
