The long-distance train journey is like a movie to me. Lots of people, lots of characters, lots of places, lots of small incidents & crazy sounds in a journey make a train journey very memorable. Once upon a time, people used to travel the country on foot or in bullock carts. At that time travel meant a pilgrimage or to a relative’s house. With the invention of the train, travel gets its speed and people get their frequency. The train is an affordable medium for people to travel all around. The biggest advantage of a train journey is the space which gives added comfort to the journey. As the train crosses different stations, and different places travelers get to experience different cultures.
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Window Seat
Train windows are pieces of the open world. If you want to go far away by train, the train window is the only big thing to pass the time. Through that window, every moment the scene in front of your eyes is changing. The best thing is that you get to see different people and their mundane life. To me, this window of the train is an open book. Every moment we have to learn something new as the train leaves the city, village, river, and moves towards its destination.
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People Of The Train
This is the most interesting part of a train journey to see different kinds of people. The different attitudes and actions of different people are very much seen in the train journey. Sometimes when family members travel together, they make the train cube their own home. Then you find one person for sure who roam around and see others for their entertainment. It’s their favorite time pass. Different vendors from different stations get on the train from time to time and each has a different style of selling their items. The interesting thing for me is the tea sellers of different stations. Their call, pronunciation change at different stations.
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Without Ticket
Gone – without a ticket. You can’t dare to go without a ticket. However, one of my friend’s fathers used to work for railways. He used to get passes for his two sons. I used to use one of those passes while traveling. There was always a throbbing feeling in my chest. And I used to fear if get to inquire about my father’s name. Their surname is Goswami, mine Ghosh. People may lie about their own name, but there is a dilemma in their mind to lie about their father’s name. Of course, I never caught traveling like that. But once or twice my friends were caught by the ticket checker. They used to make them wait on the platform for long hours. Lastly, make them pay a sum of 100\200 Rs. I don’t know what is the punishment now, or how much the bribe rate has gone up.
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My Story
There was an intense desire to travel at an early age. I wish I could get out of the house and go somewhere but I didn’t have money then. Going abroad was unimaginable. I used to go around with twenty rupees and twenty-five rupees. Because of my friend and the train pass I got an added wing to my desire.
The advantage of that pass was that the cost of the ticket got saved, and as far as the pass was concerned, one can get off at any station beforehand. I used to drop off my luggage at a station and deposit it in the locker. Then I used to wander around freely, and come to the station at night and sleep in waiting rooms. The hotel cost used to be saved. That’s how I used to roam when I was in college.
But now when I think about it, it seems much better than today’s planned and luxurious travel. Then maybe there was trouble and a friend who would get on the train and say, I forgot to bring my wallet. Everything was done on purpose to save the little pocket money. As a result, two people had to travel on one person’s money. And in the end, it was cool.
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