Fascination with trains

Kishore

(May 2002)

Every day when I go to drop my daughter at school, a train goes by the track next to the school. I see a couple of parents wait to show the train to their children before going into school. This incident brought back some memories and I wanted to share the same.

I am sure most of us had a fascination with train when we were kids. Even my father used to tell me that when he was a child he used to dream of a day he will get to travel by train.

When we watch train they amaze us because they are massive machinery hauling people. Traveling in a train is a pleasure. When you are zooming fast in a train watching things go by it is an amazing thing to watch. Such a train journey is very relaxing. Constantly changing view makes us forget our worries and refreshes our mind. 

Playing the train game is also an amazing game. I remember playing with toy train and I also brought a toy train with tracks that can be assembled for my daughter. Not only I enjoyed watching her play with them, I also played for a little while. 

Watching nature

When I used to stay in Madras I used to take Circar express to go to Rajahmundry. This train passes through villages of West Godavari and it is a pleasure to watch the green fields and calm villages compared to busy life in the city. I used to enjoy the early morning nature and cherish those beautiful experiences in my mind till now. 

Long Journeys

In India making long train journeys through train is common as traveling by aeroplane is not always possible because lack of access. Though most of the journeys are overnight journeys we do get to travel by train for longer durations. Traveling to cities like Bombay, Delhi from South India are longest journeys. When I used to study at Kanpur I used to take a train which will take me more than 1.5 days to reach destination. Such long journeys are not always enjoyable and sleeping is one way of passing the time on trains. 

A collection of experiences

With so many experiences in travel by train there are a few which remain in mind because of their uniqueness. These experiences come to my mind often. 

• Once I had to travel from Vijayawada to Kanpur by train and it was summer. The day was very hot and every one was desperate for water. In summers water becomes critical as water bottles also get hot during the journey. I remember one occasion very clearly where we had to get down at a station and there was lot of scramble at the water pumps as the train stops for very little time. Ice was being sold on the platform which were bought desperately by passengers. Much to the relief there are 'voluntary organizations' which supply water on the station. They are blessings on such occasions to the parched people. If the train made an unscheduled stop at a signal people used to take risks to go nearby houses and ask for water. Traveling long distances during summer is really an ordeal. 

• Trains are usually crowded after Pongal vacation. On one particular occasion we left immediately after pongal from Rajahmundry to Visakhapatnam by train as our college vacation ended. On that particular day the train was so crowded that we had to stand at the coach entrance throughout the 5 hour journey. Fortunately couple of classmates were there along with me and journey was enjoyable despite the inconvenience. 

• There was another time when I traveled back from Kanpur to Rajahmundry. I tried to reserve a ticket from Jhansi station but I got only waitlisted ticket. I could not get it confirmed and I had no option to get into any available compartment and hope for a seat from the ticket collector. But the train comes to Jhansi station around midnight and I could not find any one who can allot a berth for me. I was standing in the compartment and fortunately I found an unoccupied berth and went to sleep. I had to vacate the berth in the morning as it belonged to someone else. For rest of day from 12 noon to night 10 pm I had to stand or rest on my suitcase. 

• During marriage seasons train get crowded a lot. On one occasion I went to attend a marriage and took the train at 2 AM to return back to my place. We got into unreserved compartment which was so crowded that we had to stand through 4 hour journey. It was really tough to travel those four hours when we were very sleepy. It was an ordeal I cannot forget so easily. 

• There was another occasion where I had to travel from Rajahmundry to Madras by unreserved compartment. I could not get reservation despite my efforts and I had no option but to get into unreserved compartments. Unreserved compartments contain wooden seats compared to the cushion seats in reserved compartments. This was first time I had to endure such a hard journey. I was squeezed in my site along with 5 others and I could hardly move and imagine sitting on a wooden seat for more than 14 hours. I had body pains by the time the journey ended. 

• When we were kids we used to visit my grand parents for summer vacation. If we get on to the roof of our grandparents house we can see train tracks that are around 1 km away. Whenever we hear horn of a train we used to run upstairs and watch the train pass. This was a game and once we were watching a freight train and suddenly it stopped and all the bogies of the train stood in random manner. Then we took permission of our elders and went near the tracks and we found that the train had an accident and most of the compartments fell off the track. 

There are so many other experiences which come to my mind. I have shared some of the tough experiences. But there are lot of times the journey was a pleasure. 

Railway Stations: Hub of activity

One thing that always amazes me at a railyway station or bus station or airport.  These places are always a hub of activity. There are so many things that go on, I wonder watching so much life in one instant. Compared to the lone self-centered daily routine, when I watch the activities going on in any of the places it is amazing to watch. 

Taking a railway station as example: There were lot of occasions where I had to wait for more than a few hours in a railway station. As we wait we see so many other people going to their various destination. You see a variety of people. You watch how so many lives revolve around a railway station: the porters, employees of the railway, travelers, hawkers on the the platform, stalls on the platform, taxi drivers outside the station, hotels around the station and so on. Lot of life and activity surrounds such places. And as you also watch each train come and go and watch the operations of signal operations, time table, we feel rhythm of life. A constant stream of 'activity' is what we watch. We also watch a variety of people. People who are happy, people who are sad, kids, people with disabilities and so on. Watching such a variety of people with various emotions makes us forget our own life and in such moments I wonder why do I take myself so seriously as if I am the only person on earth. It brings a philosophical view of life to my mind: "Life is a journey and there are so many things that happen in life."

Same emotions come to my mind when I watch airports or bus stations which symbolize 'travel and hub of activity'

Summary

Did you enjoy watching trains or aeroplanes as a kid and dreamed of traveling in them forever. Traveling symbolizes freedom. Freedom from everything and that is why we want to do it.