TrainED to Fly
I used to be a regular train traveller till third year of architecture school. At that time I used to make frequent trips between Delhi & Calcutta (not Kolkata yet). Of course, frequent for me and frequent for my apartment mates in NICMAR mean completely different things. Those journeys would be in the Howrah Rajdhani. Most of the other train journeys have been with family with food for the road and other miscellaneous things that happen during family train trips. After that, flying has always been the preferred mode of transport – get in, get out mode. Who had the time to sit through a long train journey, endure (or ignore) co-passengers and eat what was served in the name of food? Student concessions on Indian Airlines (not Air India yet) were a nice bonus that had to be used too.
Once I moved to Bangalore (not Bengaluru yet) there was no way I could take a train to and fro Calcutta. It was a journey of over 36 hours! During those years, I rarely took a train. I can only recall taking a train to Hyderabad because it was an overnight journey – get in, sleep, wake up and get out. I must admit though, the first few trips to Hyderabad were bus journeys which seemed comfortable for the first few times.
After a really long time I took a train ride that was almost 40 hours long; criss-crossing across the width of the country. I was going to join NICMAR and took the train from Kolkata to Pune on Dad’s suggestion. It was a long journey and would have been quite terrible since I was alone. A power point and some digital entertainment saved me from certain death which would have been caused by boredom. I did make another long journey from Kolkata to Hyderabad but that was a large group and there was a lot to look forward to. One more trip by Howrah Rajdhani came along but was swift as we had interesting company and the journey was overnight.
The fall of Kingfisher and general mismanagement at Air India has put us back into a train and this time it is the Bangalore Rajdhani. We’re headed to Hyderabad, the land of Biryani (I don’t care about pearls). From my memories of earlier Rajdhani journeys, I was pleasantly surprised. During our last trip in the Howrah Rajdhani, I was impressed with the quality improvement overall although they were older coaches. I am in one of the new Rajdhani coaches and it is a great improvement over yesteryears. Newly furbished interiors, major upgrade of the toilets, greatly improved catering and a more committed staff bring back the joy of travelling by Rajdhani. The one issue (though minor) that nagged me was that there were only two electrical points to be shared amongst eight people. The fact that there are electrical points is now a norm. It’s time to take the next step and augment the numbers.
In any case, this has been quite a comfortable trip and the last time I travelled in a normal sleeper, I was almost frozen to death. I have to agree, I’m quite spoilt and do look forward to moving to a 2nd AC coach next time around. I’ll have more space and don’t we all want just a little bit more space?
Wait! In all this time I haven’t said anything about the landscape that we passed through. Since we started late in the night, there was nothing to see outside but I woke up after passing Itarsi and was greeted by the fabulously lush green mountainside. We passed small hills and flew over gorges, slid in and out dark tunnels cut into the hills and it was the site of the dense green that was most striking. There was vegetation everywhere. Even the largest of boulders were covered by green. From then on, as we got closer to Nagpur and thereafter, the sun has been bright and kept reminding us mortals of the havoc it can wreak on us during the peak of summers.
I guess, we have all become so involved in our fast lives that taking time off is a luxury. Spending a large portion of precious vacation time in a train is something that most of us can’t bring ourselves to do. This feeling has a lot to do with our inability to enjoy the journey rather than just the destination. This is also because most of the time, the journey is spent in discomfort or because we don’t have appropriate company. I should mention here that if you are in a coach with lot of kids around, they can (and will) have a strong bearing on the quality of your trip.
I still need to figure out how to make train journeys enjoyable so that I can make them a part of my itinerary rather than a compromise decision.
Once I moved to Bangalore (not Bengaluru yet) there was no way I could take a train to and fro Calcutta. It was a journey of over 36 hours! During those years, I rarely took a train. I can only recall taking a train to Hyderabad because it was an overnight journey – get in, sleep, wake up and get out. I must admit though, the first few trips to Hyderabad were bus journeys which seemed comfortable for the first few times.
After a really long time I took a train ride that was almost 40 hours long; criss-crossing across the width of the country. I was going to join NICMAR and took the train from Kolkata to Pune on Dad’s suggestion. It was a long journey and would have been quite terrible since I was alone. A power point and some digital entertainment saved me from certain death which would have been caused by boredom. I did make another long journey from Kolkata to Hyderabad but that was a large group and there was a lot to look forward to. One more trip by Howrah Rajdhani came along but was swift as we had interesting company and the journey was overnight.
The fall of Kingfisher and general mismanagement at Air India has put us back into a train and this time it is the Bangalore Rajdhani. We’re headed to Hyderabad, the land of Biryani (I don’t care about pearls). From my memories of earlier Rajdhani journeys, I was pleasantly surprised. During our last trip in the Howrah Rajdhani, I was impressed with the quality improvement overall although they were older coaches. I am in one of the new Rajdhani coaches and it is a great improvement over yesteryears. Newly furbished interiors, major upgrade of the toilets, greatly improved catering and a more committed staff bring back the joy of travelling by Rajdhani. The one issue (though minor) that nagged me was that there were only two electrical points to be shared amongst eight people. The fact that there are electrical points is now a norm. It’s time to take the next step and augment the numbers.
In any case, this has been quite a comfortable trip and the last time I travelled in a normal sleeper, I was almost frozen to death. I have to agree, I’m quite spoilt and do look forward to moving to a 2nd AC coach next time around. I’ll have more space and don’t we all want just a little bit more space?
Wait! In all this time I haven’t said anything about the landscape that we passed through. Since we started late in the night, there was nothing to see outside but I woke up after passing Itarsi and was greeted by the fabulously lush green mountainside. We passed small hills and flew over gorges, slid in and out dark tunnels cut into the hills and it was the site of the dense green that was most striking. There was vegetation everywhere. Even the largest of boulders were covered by green. From then on, as we got closer to Nagpur and thereafter, the sun has been bright and kept reminding us mortals of the havoc it can wreak on us during the peak of summers.
I guess, we have all become so involved in our fast lives that taking time off is a luxury. Spending a large portion of precious vacation time in a train is something that most of us can’t bring ourselves to do. This feeling has a lot to do with our inability to enjoy the journey rather than just the destination. This is also because most of the time, the journey is spent in discomfort or because we don’t have appropriate company. I should mention here that if you are in a coach with lot of kids around, they can (and will) have a strong bearing on the quality of your trip.
I still need to figure out how to make train journeys enjoyable so that I can make them a part of my itinerary rather than a compromise decision.
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