Blog Post
| 21 Oct, 2014 | Author: RARE - destinations and experiences
Of stations and
express trains
Bhim Singh, the
agile and wiry porter literally swam through the sea of humanity that was Old
Delhi Railway station on this pleasant October afternoon. His red shirt was to me like the Matador’s
flag to a bull, not provoking me to anger but directing me behind him, as I
clutched my handbag on one hand and my camera case in the other to make my
determined path behind him. Now, I am not new to train travel or railways, the
proud daughter of a Railway Engineer, I have travelled through most parts of
South and East largely on trains and on every class. For years we lived in Railway residences
called quarters just a wall over from platform no 1. The sounds and smells of
the station and the trains an unconscious memory, stirred now and then by a
vague tinny smell or startling boom of an oncoming train.
Today I am besieged
by nostalgia… there is something about stations and trains that brings me back
to earth and my beginnings. I have also been on some trains outside of India, but
the kind of mass movement that is a part of train journey here - the long blue
box like coaches, the iron bars on the windows which in turn have a pale yellow
frame look curiously like the prison bars puzzle we used to make as
children. These windows always have children peering out….one bar and hair, second bar and
forehead, third bar has a nose jutting out the fourth bar mouth, and fingers in
a fist over the bar. I too remember looking out of my coach, to an animated world on similar looking stations named differently. Women sitting in a circle around sundry
luggage, I could weave stories about their lives looking at their animated
discussions, it was my favorite pastime as a child, one i haven't given up till date. I still dream up stories from the people I see at Railway stations.
And
the huge platform clocks with red LED lights forming the number and telling
time….. it is my favorite relic from a railway station and I have one ( hand
made by my father ) gracing my office….. urging you to hurry up, slow down or
get to work. Trains are my thing and I can travels hours on them, jump out of one and board another.