Travelling in an Indian Train: Some Impressions

Last week I traveled in a train from Howrah railway station in Kolkata to Jajpur Keonjhar Road railway station to visit my parents. It happened that I was in Kolkata to participate in a conference on Protests at Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, a well known institute under India’s Ministry of Culture. After the conference I took a taxi to the station. I missed the East Coast Express, and boarded the Jan Shatabdi Express at 1:25 PM. Throughout the journey, which took sharp five hours I interacted with Odia co-passengers non-stop. We reflected on many issues, ranging from politics to economics to philosophy. Modi was a hot subject. We also focused on Indian economy, how salaries are going up, but with little significance as inflation is high. 

While chatting I was also looking through the windows. The vast landscape of Bengal and Odisha captivated me, and made me nostalgic. To be nostalgic is perhaps one of my few weaknesses, which I do not dislike much. At Kharagpur, vendors with tea, local-made chocolates with big offers, and groundnuts came in. Some of the passengers made business with them, while I was continuing chatting with a co-passenger. What disheartened me was the sight of two children, perhaps brother and sister, entering the train and stopping in the middle of the coach to perform before the passengers so that they can get some money. The girl must be around 3 or 4 years, and the boy 7 or 8 years. I lamented that I could not do much except offering some money or indulging in pity that the world is so harsh. The train crossed Kharagpur, then Subarnarekha and Budhabalanga rivers, and local towns Jaleswar and Balasore.

The passengers were also interested in my experience in America, the lifestyle there, and what the people and the leaders there think about India. I was not interested to go deep into these subjects as I was more interested to know more about Odisha, the current developments in the state and in India. After brief engagement on these issues, we again came back to our usual chat. 

As I was turning my gaze around, I found litter under seats. There were banana skins, chocolate and biscuit rappers, polythene bags and used tea cups. I raised the issue of cleanliness and hygiene while referring to the prime minister’s Swachh Bharat (clean India) campaign. We had a long and winding discussion. We also expressed our commitment to a clean India. I talked about America and Europe and how the cities there are clean. We also discussed how the educated Indians indulge in littering in the public places. We agreed that we Indians are selfish and while keeping our houses clean, we do not mind throwing garbage outside our houses. This reflected the lack of citizenship, lack of civic culture and social engagement. One of my co-passengers mentioned the saying ‘sarkar ka maal, dariya mein daal’. It implies lack of concern for public goods. It also implies a cavalier attitude towards public places.

As the train was chugging ahead and our discussion on clean India was getting momentum, I finished my tea. As I was looking for trash can to throw the used cup, one co-passenger pointed his finger down at a garbage heap and suggested I should throw the cup there. I felt tempted. He said, ‘you are in India, and in India behave as an Indian.’ It implied that I may follow rules of cleanliness and hygiene while abroad, but it does not make a big issue if I put a small cup under the seat. I was hesitant. I did not argue. I took the cup and searched for trash can which I found at the entrance, and threw the cup inside after sliding its cover open. The co-passenger did not say anything, but understood my message that I am determined to follow the principles of cleanliness whether abroad or in India.

As we were continuing our discussion loudly, I noticed many missing trays behinds the seats. There were few trays. One can notice that there are holes in the back of the seats as markers of places for knots and bolts for the trays. I asked the reason to one of my co-passengers, who claimed to travel on the same route for 26 years. He does a job of supplier, based in Bhubaneswar, but regularly travels to Kolkata in relation to his job. He is a regular traveler in this train since it started running. To my almost naïve question whether the train was like this since the beginning, he replied with a cool demeanor that the train was one of the best trains on the route. Everything was in perfect shape. Gradually people started sitting their kids on these trays. Satire filled his voice when he said, “the rich kids started sitting on these trays first. When the rich parents started sitting their babies on these trays, people started clapping, laughing in support saying, O’ look at the baby, how cute! How he is smiling, playing! But, nobody looked at those crying trays, which creaked and cracked.” 

He further said, “But, when poor parents started sitting their children, people cautioned that the fragile trays will crack.” His anger at the rich, and sympathy for the poor, notwithstanding, his reasoning appeared sound. The trays were misused. Another co-passenger said, the trays served really well, we could eat on them, could keep small stuff on them, could keep tea and coffee on them. But now there are no trays. To my query, what happened to those broken trays, the old passenger said, the people took away the broken trays to their homes. Another passenger commented, people would love to loosen a knot further instead of tightening it. Most of the trays vanished, and the few remaining seem following the same path. The fragile trays gave a message: the Indian train, carrier of millions of people every day, is in shambles and crying for help. 

I had very nice exchanges with some other co-passengers. I thought about a picture of life and world. I knew that I will perhaps never meet these people in life, but I also knew I had some of the finest exchanges with the people in the train. The exchanges were open, straight from heart. Five hours passed. I felt jealous of time as my journey ended. I reached the destination. As I came out of the station, my younger brother was there to welcome me.

Air Travel vs. Train Travel

While coming back from New Delhi to Mumbai few days back by air, a sudden idea crept into my mind: how travel by air affects the sense of space in a person, I mean how it aids in reducing the sense of space in the mind of the traveler. Let me elaborate in detail.

I was in New Delhi at 10.30am, but by the time 12.30pm I was in Mumbai. I could not realize actually how I much I traveled. Perhaps the travel in train to cover the distance from Delhi to Mumbai (about 12-1300 km) could have given a different experience. You see places around, you pass through various geographical areas, various kinds of spaces, various kinds of people you see through the windows of train – all these make an imprint in your mind so that you can have something in mind to rethink, to analyze or to regurgitate.

The train stops at various stations, and you will see various people when you step out of the train, even you come across different types of food, very special to the locality, and sometimes you relish that food. For instance, when you go from Mumbai to Delhi you pass through states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. What I am trying to point out is that at various stations, you will have special dishes which will give you not only taste of the food, but also the taste of the place and the people there, which will further imprint in your mind the developments, which you can analyze later, this richness of experience is unavailable in a flight journey, however long it may be. In flight the food is monotonous, almost it is decided by flight operators, and you have very little chance to have food of your choice, or the kind of verities, that you come across in train stations.

One more thing I am trying to emphasize is the length of the journey. While Delhi to Mumbai journey takes only 2hrs in a flight, by train it takes about 18 hours, depending on the train. For instance, while travelling for a long time, and through vast geographical spaces, you tend to remember the things, in short flight journey, or even long flight journey, which are mostly monotonous, you do not feel much like to stay there, or remember or cherish the monotonous things.

One more thing. And it is from my own experience. While traveling in train, I make it a habit to read a book of my interest. In fact, most of the interesting books I finished, I read in trains while traveling to various places such as my home town, or to other places. I really finished some of most interesting books while travelling. But this opportunity you miss in flights. Besides long queue for check in, and baggage and security check, the engine sound in flights is too sharp for the ear. You miss so many things; I mean you almost lose interest in study. The beginning is full of chaos, as people are helter-skelter to occupy their seats, and plus the sound of flight engine, make you uncomfortable to study. And even if you are determined to study, after one, two or three hours, you have to get down from the flight. In train journeys you have enough time for reading, or for doing some other things like preparing a paper, or writing some report and so on. My purpose in describing all this is that in the process, in the train, you remember that you did this finished this, etc. I think that further aids your process of lengthening space in memory, but which may not be possible in short flight journey. In fact flight journeys are usually short, unless until you are traveling abroad, or you are a trained pilot destined to fly aero planes.

By writing all these, please do not misunderstand me that I am discouraging travel by air. In fact aero planes (the invention) are one of the most wonderful inventions in the twentieth century. And this tremendous success what Roser Bacon visualized centuries ago, and started by great engineers and architects like Da Vinci, makes science almost equivalent to God, I believe so. It has made communication, travel easy, and reduced the time of travel tremendously. In that sense it is a wonder, and also it reflects the tremendous creative potential of human mind. As I sometimes think, how can such a huge machine (the aero plane) carrying hundreds of people fly faster than fastest bird, and fly across countries, continents, seas and oceans, that itself is a wonder, which makes me a devotee of science.

But equally importantly that travel too has reduced the sense of space, the sense of variety, as experiencing diverse aspects of life in a journey. I consider it a fact. I am not entering into the debate, polemics of which travel is better, whether one should travel by train or air, I admit every person has his or her likes and dislikes, but I argue that the journey in flight reduces the sense of space.

As in a story one took 80 days to circle the earth, in flight it is possible within a day or a two. But there is a difference. Crossing continents by road or sea is an altogether different experience, which air travel cannot provide. The flight journey makes life faster and quicker, but how far it aids the human process of creativity by reducing sense of space is altogether another subject of investigation.