Trains

Right from my childhood days, I have had a fascination for trains. Even today I love train journeys and prepare for them with gusto. My family sometimes finds my obsession annoying.

 This obsession started when I was a small child and my father was posted in Madras – we used to make overnight journeys to Kerala three or four times a year. The obsession was cemented when I was in college and my parents posted in Delhi. I used to travel at least four or five times a year. My friends used to tease me that I was doing a correspondence degree course from Calicut University!

 In those days (late eighties & early nineties) there used to be only one train to Delhi – the Kerala Mangala express. Two trains used to start from Trivandrum and Mangalore, merge in Palakkad and from there it was one long train with 22 bogies. We (me and my friends) used to know the time when the train would reach each station, what to buy from there (food / snacks / juice / gifts for friends / family).

 The most fascinating thing about these journeys was the interesting people we would get to meet, their stories and the bonding we would achieve in those 48 hours. Of course it is another matter that though we exchanged addresses (no emails back then) and promise to keep in touch, one rarely used to do so.

 I want to recount a few interesting incidents from those journeys that I can never forget:

 Smart alec paper boy at Nagpur

 Besides a handful of us students, most of the occupants of the reservation second class compartment used to be jawans returning to Kerala for their annual leave of two months or so. The scheduled arrival time at Nagpur was around 4 AM in the morning. One summer morning, at 4 AM, when the train was pulling into Nagpur, the usual shouts for ‘Chai’ were heard.

 

Along with the din the chai wallah was making, a paper wallah was hollering: ‘Taja khabhar - Kerala Mukya Mantri Karunakaran ki Dehant’ – translated – ‘Hot News – Kerala Chief Minister Karunakaran is no more’. Now Karunakaran was the CM at the time. By now half awake and in shock, many of the occupants rubbed their eyes, took out a rupee and purchased the ‘Hitvada’ paper. The smart chap sold around 20-25 newspapers in five minutes and made off in a jiffy. The Hitvada is a local newspaper from Nagpur. As expected there was not a single news item about Kerala – let alone Karunakaran.

 18 years later, the patriarch Karunakaran is still alive and well!!

 Basket of Oranges

 Nagpur is known for its oranges, in peak season, vendors used to sell oranges in baskets. A basket of oranges (around 15-20 in number) used to cost around Rs. 10/-. Again we used to get ripped off. Most of the baskets used to have 3-4 plump sweet oranges at the top and the rest used to be squashed decaying ones!

 Specialities

 If Nagpur is known for oranges, Agra was synonymous with Agra pedahs. Agra pedahs are essentially a variety of cucumbers (‘velarikya’) dipped in sugar solution. They were mouth watering and we used to gorge on packets after packets of pedahs during our train journeys.

 The first time I set foot in Jhansi en-route to Delhi at around 8 AM in the morning, I had a taste of the tea served in matkas and small puris with aloo curry – I don’t know why – it tasted heavenly. Maybe it was a relief from the drab train food. This became a habit and without fail, during every train journey, we used to alight at Jhansi and have this cheap but tasty combo.

 Good Samaritan (well … sometimes yes!)

 Reading above, you might mistakenly think the journeys were all about food and nothing else. Well, we also did our bit at helping others in need. One hot summer, I boarded from Trivandrum. When the train reached Chengannur, a lady with a one year old son boarded. The kid was unwell and was crying continuously. She informed me that her son had indigestion and probably had tummy ache as a result. I approached the TT and asked if there was a doctor in his list of passengers. There was one passenger but he was travelling in the AC compartment 10-11 bogies away. I accompanied the lady to the AC compartment. The ‘doctor’ was a house surgeon barely a year or two elder to us kids. He quickly prescribed some medicines. The next big halt with a medical shop was Ernakulam Junction and I got her the medicines at Ernakulam.

 The mother-son duo was to alight at Bhopal. Throughout the rest of the journey the child gave everyone around a continuous display of his lung power. As a teenager, I did not know how to pacify him; however an army uncle took charge and thankfully took him to the door whenever he bawled.

 Bina and Babina

 Let me make up a story about trains now J

 As newly weds, when I first bored my wife with stories of these journeys, she was miffed to hear about Bina and Babina. She thought that these were the names of my girl friends! I informed her that these were 2 stations in the middle of nowhere where only army personnel alighted / boarded.

  The above story about my spouse is a half truth – however the bit about boring her with these tales is absolutely true. The first few months she was enthralled to hear these stories (or so I think !), the second year she suffered in silence…since then she rolls her eyes in disgust and walks away when I mention the word train!