The Great Indian Train Journey

Sunshine's posts about her experiences with the buses and some conversations on cricforum with my friends made me reminisce about my favorite mode of travel. The train.

Most of my journeys on the train were made as a kid. Before our travel time became too precious to waste on a train journey, the train was my family's modus travellandi. :). Be it Delhi, or Agartala, no place was too far for a train journey. Happening to be a kid that loved to travel and see new places, I used to adore our journeys on the train. The majority of my travels used to be with my mom, or patti as I escorted them on their journeys from Madras to Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Mysore and all over the south.

What is it about the train journeys that seemed so magical to me?

Was it the food, the bunk beds in the 3rd tier and 2nd class AC, the chai and coffee wallas who served up this nectar that had you smacking your lips, the other travelers who hailed from all parts of India and spoke with strange accents or languages? Or could it be the joy of being able to wander about the train compartments knowing that you were ambling towards your destination? The possibility of being able to observe people from all walks of life on the train getting from pt A to B?

The poor bachelors used to be at the beck and call of all, old and young to get the most menial tasks done. Whether it was getting suitcases out of the storage places, or running out onto the platform to get everybody's water bottles filled.

Was it being able to watch other people at work in the paddy fields or on their way to and from office as you were on holiday? Perhaps it was the feeling of being so fast that you could outrun any car or bus on the road, the telephone and power poles rushing past you as the train rocked you to sleep.

Then again maybe it was those wondrous Western Ghat tunnels that peppered the tracks and interrupted the breathtaking views afforded to a nature starved city boy.

Or could it be the hawkers that went up and down the trains selling everything from masal-wadais to spinning tops. On the other hand, nothing could beat the feeling of achievement that I felt when I made it across those spooky joints that connected the train compartments from one corner of the train to another.

How about the feeling of awe and fear that I felt when the train made those huge booming sounds as it passed over the rushing waters of the Godavris, the Narmada, Krishna and other rivers that stretched as far as the eye could see!

Train trips were also a time to read new books and get away from the grind of doing homework or other mundane things that seemed to become so tedious to a small kid. It was a time to see the scripts of the posters on the walls change from Tamil, to Telugu, to Kannada, Devanagri and many others that I could not name. A time when your ticket collector would start off speaking Hindi and before you knew it would ask you for your ticket in Bhojpuri.

Did I mention the food? Why did everything taste so much better on the train? The Frootis tasted fruitier, the bondas and bhajjis tasted more delicious, the masal-wadas spicier, the pongal warmer, the chutney - well chutnier than any food at home or hotel ever could aspire to. I remember waiting desperately for our home-cooked food to run out, so I could could gorge on the greasy train food served in those aluminum foil tiffin boxes. I felt so important when I got to order the kind of food that I wanted.

However nothing could beat the feeling of getting to your destination often greeted by the people you love as they come to collect you from the belly of the metal beast that brought you to them.

Why did I love train journeys so much? Maybe it's time I found out again.