Can a long train journey be made sweeter with human company (or how the universe conspires to make a painful time pleasant when one decides it should be so?) Close friends wedding is unmissable. So off I go to be with my friend - the bride .. Am headed to Jabalpur from Bangalore by Sanghamitra Maal Gaadi Starts at 9 am, reaches Jpur post 6 pm the next day. Am recovering from a really bad back, arrive at station to find my relatively sidey train has got platform 1. Im grinning at the good start. Bangalore coolies usually drop one off in front of the bogey and disappear, if the train is not on the platform already. This one, Ram Babu gets me chai, sits and chats with me until the train is on the platform and walks slowly, seeing me limp a little. I give him the cash, he returns half of it says achcha lagaa baat karke. aap uttar bharatiya kaafi khule dil ho, I tell him chalo issi baat par ek aur chai ho jaaye, he laughs. I am pleasantly relieved because I was headed Northwards for a longish spell and did have LUGGAGE! I get onto my bogie in what I find is a train full of Biharis heading home for the new year, the trains final stop is Patna and choice of trains from Bengaluru a bit limited. There is a certain soft energy of going in the direction of home, which hostellers will vibe with. Two incredibly friendly men shyly say Namaste as I sit on my berth. As the journey progresses, we head from Blore to Chennai to Vijayawada and stop at every bloody village on the way also, it seems. I announce that - I think this is really a maal gaadi because we must be doing 40 km per hour or something, that gets everyone grinning and breaks the ice. Next joke - Har mitra ko sangh utthaate chalo, issi liye train ka naam Sanghamitra hain. I sieltnly continue to marvel at the historical lessons in Bharatiya Rail train names too ! The man in front of me is a soft spoken Pataniya who has spent one month loafing Kerala. Another man is a retired fauji Marathi who is doing some business with maal travelling by road. At Chennai our fourth berthman joins us, a railway protocol guy who runs away from North India, every time there is too much bossiness from his Danapur boss. He is feeling very good after a long-wait free Tirupathi darshan. It is so interesting to see so much travel going on between the North and South. We crack lete huey jokes, discuss our longest train journeys, I beat each of them in remaining horizontal. We are now going to make fun of the person who has slept the longest in one session. I get massage advice from Bihariji who suggests a Kerala place for my back. It is given so gently, that I receive it with regard and acceptance. Then begins the fun. Because we realise that the train is just stopping everywhere. They take turns and say one of us will keep getting something to khao piyo from each of these stations and like all good train companions, we all happily share. One nice difference I notice is they let me pay too, instead of cultural takalluf. When the journey is long, a bit of positive hearted fun lightens everyones load, so endless stories begin... how the fauji was returning from his first posting from Siachen and got looted and how he caught the thief ten days later, by staying back in a strange town at midnight.All of us observe, how the stations seem to getting cleaner and the trains less so. Then one of them says, Letey letey bore ho gaye, lekin kam se kam ek chhota bachcha dimaag nahin kharab kar raha, na khud ka na auron ka. It is difficult to say who is not the child here because ole man protocolji is very upset that his phone pe Facebook kahe nahin connect ho raha hain Help is solicited from young IT dude on the side berth. When he doesnt manage to get it either, Kerala returned Bihariji says Zaraa off karke on toh kariye ji I tell him yeh sabse timeless nonsense advice, which works often. More cracking up and everyone is quite candid about their phone addictions. The chai wala is a sweet chap who everyone ribs, saying After having coffee in South India, this feels like mithai( it is too sweet) At some point, Nagpur oranges surface and more folk switch to tea, from coffee. The irony of the location is not lost on me, in railway terms. When it is time to get off at Jabalpur, all of them look at me, a little wistfully and say abhi Patna ek aur raat door hain I understand their almost home but not quite feeling and share another pahaadi joke ( When on treks, no self respecting pahaadi tells you how far it is, they encourage you to keep walking with the distant peak saying bas, yeh aaya, chalte chaliye Am so grateful that such a long journey is made so mast timepass and all of us make up jokes on WHY INDIANS BY AND LARGE ARE SO UNFRIENDLY ON PLANES AND THE OPPOSITE ON TRAINS! One of them gets off at Jabalpur with me and as we turn to say bye outside the station, he says Train ka safar toh lamba thha, par pataa nahin chalaa. I thank him for all the help and hum that Aamir tune deliberately in drama mode Yunhi kat jayega safar saath chalne se He laughs and waves. As I reach venue of shaadi, I find that the brides familys flight got cancelled at the last minute and they flew to Nagpur from Mumbai and then reach Jabalpur by road at some unearthly hour. Many trains are also delayed due to fog and mine reaches only half an hour late. Perspective IS everything. Gratitude always makes the journey shorter I think, mixed with ridiculously stupid on the spot jokes. I used to once take journeys like these for granted. Now no longer. Look out for the sweet twist towards the end in this version of the song! Kaatiline: Im a man of means by no means Trailers for sale or rent Rooms to let...fifty cents. No phone, no pool, no pets I aint got no cigarettes Ah, but..two hours of pushin broom Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room Im a man of means by no means King of the road. Third boxcar, midnight train Destination...Bangor, Maine. Old worn out clothes and shoes, I dont pay no union dues, I smoke old stogies I have found Short, but not too big around Im a man of means by no means King of the road. I know every engineer on every train All of their children, and all of their names And every handout in every town And every lock that aint locked When no ones around. I sing, Trailers for sale or rent Rooms to let, fifty cents No phone, no pool, no pets I aint got no cigarettes Ah, but, two hours of pushin broom Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room Im a man of means by no means King of the road youtube/watch?v=CZWvi0MaIZs
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 03:56:06 +0000
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