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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Train Rides...

Britishers marauded our India for long long time but one thing I personally am grateful for them is the Indian Railway . Am always child like and fully enthusiastic in a train trip. The best memories of a train trip is the early morning arrival at palakkad with slight rain in background and that seducing mystic smell of soil mixed with the 'tadak-tadak' noise of train track. It has been always in my nature to head up to a stranger and start up a friendly conversation . The sound of " chaai chaai kappi kaappi " ringing in my ears like a church bell. Little kids passing a cute smile for no such reason at all, Ohh sometimes they do give a loud cry to wake me up from my divine slumber. There is a specific joy in those second class compartments (must be the Britishers who coined this term) but second class is the one where you are far away from luxury like those in AC compartments. Travellers in second class I feel are more adjusting and friendly than those novel clad laptop laden honchos in AC. The hygiene part is still debatable when you travel via train given the conditions of toilets and the railway stations but conditions have far improved from per say 10 years ago. The other interesting facet in a train journey is to listen to the common man. The hardships, politics, sports, movies one can get to the core common mans understanding in a native literature. In my opinion every minister or social reformist must himself or via proxy persona should make a travel across india in trains and that too in second class. Easier said than done but the data one can collect from these uncles are enormous , They seem to know about everything.

3 comments:

Monalisa said...

Railway is one mode of transport i just loved. I used to go back and forth to tcr during my college by train. And trust me, you got more to learn at railway stations and moving trains than in schools and colleges. In fact if i were to recall the milestones of my life, i would mark them with horning sound of trains, because almost all of them got railways somewhere or the other.

You talk about cleanliness as an issue of railways. Yeah.. but i never tend to care about that, its allwhere in India. I would say the greatest issue regarding railways is ladies' safety. Shall i remind you what happened few months back with a girl who was going home for her engagement, she died after a cruel man raped her. This is not a remote incident. Only that this got popular attention. Such incidents are many. Railways should do something about this i believe, and that should be very soon.

Mister D said...

Entertaining comments :-)

benito said...

My best trips where in a train. I remember my first trip at El Chepe, an amazing experience. The town, the food and the natural landscapes are still in my memory.

A link to remember the trip https://www.facebook.com/ChepeOficial

Love to hear what you think!
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