The Great Indian Railways

If at all I wanted to write something amazing in my life, it had to be about my journeys on Indian Railways. It brings into me a sense of belongingness and excitement that is incomparable with anything else.

Traveling on the Indian railways is not just a travel in itself. The amount of people you interact with is extremely high especially if you take the second class option, which on most time may not be the best option, specially in summers. Traveling in the Indian railways is always a mind blowing affair.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I write about the railways is the typical slang used by the hawkers specially the coffee and chai walas. Traveling in Indian trains is always a mind broadening affair. The number of people you meet, the friendships you make, the food, the sights, the songs, the vendors who run around the train, the filth, the smell. You feel as if it is after all a very small world, with a plethora of cultures under the same roof. Readers who have traveled on the Indian railways often in the past at least will be able to relate to what I just said above.

Indian Railways has a total state monopoly on India's rail transport. It is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting sixteen million passengers and more than one million tonnes of freight daily. Indian Railways is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse a total length of 63,140 km (39,233 miles). As of 2002, IR owned a total of 216,717 wagons, 39,263 coaches and 7,739 locomotives and ran a total of 14,444 trains daily, including about 8,702 passenger trains. This information courtesy wikipedia.

Now these are huge numbers and a good reason to understand why they are called the lifeline of the nation. They travel across the length and breadth of the country bridging boundaries and cultures with consummate ease. They make dreams come true carrying people from far flung places in India to the big cities.

I have travelled in the best berths in the second AC, where the only people you find when you get in are either elderly couples who if you start talking, will praise their sons to death or young newly married couples who stare at you if you turn your head to them, specially the male among them. In short, try it if you are elderly or have married just recently :-).

I have also traveled on the third AC coaches, which are much better than the second AC one. Most commonly used travel mode used over the years has been the second class sleeper. I also had the opportunity to travel sitting for over 24 hrs to my hometown from Hyderabad. I also remember the day where we had to sleep on the corridor near toilet :-) as our train had been canceled and we had to jump on to another one as we had no other option.

It kind of brings a sense of dejavu when I travel on the underground metro trains here in Montreal about the kind of times I have had in India. You get into a metro here and look at the faces of people and you feel as if they are the ones who run this world, they look to be carrying the whole worlds worries on their shoulders. No one laughs, no one looks at each other.

I have traveled on the local trains in Mumbai too. An experience that one dare forget soon. The only thing you find on a platform is people. As you enter into a platform you are engulfed by a sea of people that follow you. As with a sea, there is not much of a choice you have here, the only way out is to give it to the sea, and hope or pray that you will manage to get into the next coming train. You do not have to do much about that too, just allow the sea to guide you. Once inside the agony does not end, you would end up standing on one feet for about 10 minutes before the next big station comes. You would also have to acknowledge the friendly pan chewing smile that the uncle standing beside you gives you. The whole time you are under the mental trauma thinking what would happen if this person opens his mouth, but somehow it remains pretty fixed during the travel and unloads only at the place where he intends to get down.

When I was a kid, traveling on train used to bring the kind of excitement that was just amazing. The preparation to board a train would start at least 2 months before the travel itself. My dad would ensure that we have the tickets in the holiday season and book the tickets 2 months in advance to avoid the last minute rush. I remember my mom telling me once seeing the excitement in me. "Don't come to the village if you are coming just to travel in the train".

Dad being the kind of planner he is would ensure that we are well in advance at the station. Once inside the train, its a jostle between me and my sister for the window seat, particularly if we have got only one of the two window seats reserved. I must say that I used to win the battle most of the time with the kind muscle power I had. Being the nice guy I am, I used to give it to her once in while. When the train used to stop at the station me and my sister would hit the train outside through the window and if it were to start at that would elate thinking that it was us who signaled the start of the train. Idli vada used to be a favorite with my sister and even though I liked it too, I never used to ask dad to buy those. I would always use my sisters love for it to my advantage he heh..I am sure she would agree.

The love I had for train journeys has remained in me. The prospect of a train travel still brings the childish excitement in me. Off late I had been traveling from chennai to hyderabad quite often, which have not been the best because the train usually starts late in the day and by the time you are awake you are at your destination. The journey used to be good only if you could find a girl on your opposite seat ;-) he he he...One can never miss on a opportunity to impress girls and I had this other charm of knowing multiple languages that I used very leathaly, somehow some girls found it very amusing to find a mallu, speaking telugu ha ha ha. I have seen during these travels that the people traveling are all software engineers from hyderabad who work in Chennai like me.

As I said in one of the earlier posts, times do change but they change for the good too. I wish I can go a long journey across the length of my country experiencing the sights, smell, color and diversity. Hopefully the day is not far.

Railways can create long lasting relationships overnight. I remember getting close to a family while traveling back from mavelikara to Hyderabad that they invited us over to their house and we did meet them again.

I will try to get some in depth travelogue of some of my journey's in particular in the upcoming posts.

Enjoy the Videos.