Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by train journeys-thanks to my father's transferable job, I must have traveled in train atleast a hundred times. I love the journey so much that I almost pounced on my classmate who innocently asked (he was traveling for the first or second time in train) "Why are there only four berths while there are 6 people assigned to a cabin!!"
The first and foremost thing about these journeys is the peeking out thing...initially I used to be the good-boy resisting my temptations and peeking out only through the grilled window. That itself used to be so much fun. After I gained independence (!!!read started traveling alone), I started doing the "cooler" thing-standing on the doorstep with the wind blowing on your face gives you a really amazing feeling-one of the "freedoms" that we enjoy by being in India-in most advanced countries the door locks automatically.
Then there is the meeting of people, I have been guilty of not getting to know my neighbors in my building (everyday I meet new faces in my flat and move on uncaring), but in train, there is this joy of talking to strangers and not having to worry about seeing them the next day. The mix of people in my bay (cabin) has always been highly variegated, from cute children to ravishing girls to interesting youngsters to reminiscing elders...infact during college days, I had a friend from Madurai and we used to go in the same train to home and Though this fellow was reserved with outsiders, he (and I:)) harbored fancies of meeting the Miss.Gorgeous and striking up a (life-long::)) conversation with her. But every time, I repeat EVERY TIME (we did this almost 7 times) we used to have people over 60 in our compartment-not even youngsters of our age-it was always the same:). It was like Railways had a built-in rule to redirect people over sixty to our cabin!! We used to blame each other for our extraordinary luck. Still it was fun as we heard some of them talk about their children who lived in US (does every child live in US??), the antics of their grandchildren and so on..
Definitely trains in India, inspite of their delays and inconveniences is one awesome thing about this country and I love it:).
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First, lemme say it, in most of the trains, the "coolers" r occupied by guys. As they r first come, first serve basis, and as girls don't prefer to b there(as its not safer), we dunno how it feels like to b there. And moreover, its the place frequented by smokers too(despite the "No smoking" warnings), so that they can blow smoke, which can b inhaled by the ppl sitting near the window of the coach, depending upon which direction the train is moving. I sometimes, have an urge to push the smoking fellow off the train(Hey! I haven't done that so far!).
ReplyDeleteAnd travelling alone, I get a lot of enquiries from home, asking who is sitting nxt to me or who in the cabin I am."Family" is the only answer that can satisfy my parents. But unfortunately, thatz the situation I am not mostly in, and not mostly like to. Even these days, when they c a girl travelling alone, u shud c the look in most of their faces, as if I am a runaway or something.
I have come across a film troop (comprising of make-up men, side artists, light boys), a noisy family(the only thing that 7 yr old spoilt brat dint do was hanging upside down from the fan and his younger sister crying continuously as if not being able to stand her brother's pranks), a grp of North Indian ppl returning after a wedding(eating was their only pastime and primetime activity).
But most of the other times, it will b a bunch of college ppl returning/going to college after holidays or software engrs returning/going home. But these old people r really gud. They hardly mind, perhaps they know that its not uncommon for a girl to travel alone(as their children wud also have did), and they r the ones I wud very much like to have as my cabinmates, as far as they don't want to stike a conversation with me.
One more thing, I hate those ppl who think that they r the guards of ppl in train and keep watching every activity of the ppl in the cabin. These ppl also have a unique tendency of talking abt all the robberies that wud have/will happen in trains and laugh out aloud on them. Not only that, they keep anticipating it, and sometimes I feel their urge can only b satiated if something like that actually happens.
I still can remember the conversations we had during our journey...our first journey when we had some luck(beginner's luck??) of playing cards with our cabin-mates...the journey with no berth with two of us allocated to SL...
ReplyDeletewow...those thoughts will remain pleasant always..
train journeys are always awesome da... The day time journey i used to go in interesity express with atleast 4 or 5 of our friends is like one of the best thing I have expereinced... We used to move all around the train.. meet lots of ppl anf have fun... even the night journeys used to be wonderfull.. I can never forget my experiences in going back home in train during my undergrad years
ReplyDeleteNice write up
dude I already feel like I'm in a general compartment :P I always thought that I'm the most experienced in trains until now. fathi I accept girls don't have that complete freedom of doing what guys do out there on the trains. Its a great experience that has to be felt like hanging out from the doors against the winds.
ReplyDeletebtw arvi are you tamilian. I'm also a tamilian (madurai veeran to say exactly) brought up in vijayawada, did schooling near madurai, engineered from chennai, worked in chennai, coimbatore and presently in bangalore.
now you know why I thought I'm a pisst in train travelling