I traveled in a long distance (or for that matter any distance) train after 7 long years. My friend and I, both train lovers, booked ourselves in a first class coupe at Udayan Express that runs between Bangalore and Mumbai December 2019.
I was rather impressed. The main stations,Bangalore Majestic and VT, Mumbai and subsequently a lot of smaller towns where the train stopped had spotless stations. The staff was diligently segregating waste at the bigger stations.
Dogs who always zero in on me at did the same at the B’lore station and were well mannered and sterlized!
The bathrooms were cleaned periodically and sprayed with fresheners. The staff did clean the coupe twice during the journey. There are also boards inside each coupe to inform which bathrooms are occupied.
Since we crib about most things managed and run by Indians, I felt appreciating the Railways for doing there job well is a must.
Here are few words I penned as I looked out of the huge windows :
The sun rays reach out to warm the darkest corners of your heart
As you watch the vivid, vast land that is India
Wide eyed just like the look you had on your face when you first saw
A double decker bus, ate candy floss, felt lost amidst swarming mass at a slightly dusty book fair
All that had seemed magical
Magic now touches you only in rarest of rare moments.
The wide windows that chuk-chuk gadi offers
Are they the window to the world?
Vast fields – some tended, some wild, some partially cared for
Animals co existing with nature – like it was meant to be
Rolling hills that seem to have some mysterious stories hidden in their crevices
Flock of birds gliding towards their chosen destination
Children whom you will never see again waving with gusto as the train passes
Fleeting moments of human conditions in a so- called civilized world.
The chai-coffee wallahs
The pakoda sellers
The small kids rushing from one window to another, selling wares; childhood will pass them by
The hurried feet of the co passengers in this journey called life
The goodbyes with moist eyes, the hugs, the smiles when one meets loved ones.
The wheeler stalls that still offers you a dose of Mills&Boon and crime thrillers
Untouched by the lit fests and woke, radical poetry
The smiling attendants who address you Didi and not Ma’am
So much more personal certain words always are
Helps you smile back at strangers.
How to understand what India offers unless you criss-cross the country ground level?
There is so much more that the all-pervasive news about urban Indian crisis?
There are still pockets of magic as you sway rhythmically looking out of the huge windows
As it assimilates with the childhood that you always carry with you
The magic of train rides to faraway places
Which you once looked forward to during school holidays
The vacation days are now numbered, but the wish remains.
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