Train to Tambaram.

After putting up a post with the picture of a rather bloody railway station I decided to write something positive about my train experiences. The other trigger was my qucik trip to kerala. It was really quick, imagine spending 36 hours in travel and 5 hours in cochin. My back is still sore after the trip and given a choice I would have watched the latest Mike Myers movie thrice a day....

The most vivid and recent memories of train travel is the one I used to have to my previous company. It was a daily train travel to Tambaram [the first time I saw the board I read it as Tam-Bram as in tamil brahmin,too much influence of matrimonial sites you see :P], which lies in the outskirts of Chennai city.

Train travel has always been an enthralling experience for me, right from my days in kinder garden. You are advised not to go as far as the Jurassic age for this. I am quite young, just 5 years and a few months, the value of few being 275.

As a kid, traveling by train was a special occasion akin to a travel in a time machine. It came once a year during the summer vacation trip to my grandma's place. Innumerable sights and scenes fill me up - the noise of the screaming vendors, the hustle bustle of railway station, suitcases that come in different dimension, potpourri of unique co-passengers and much more.

Once inside the train the moving landscapes and the excitement to climb onto the top most berths were added incentives. The other memories which strike me are the innocence and trust while hearing wide eyed to my sister's stories about fifty men pushing and pulling the train from the platform for its move and halt, the greedy wish to buy everything selling on the platform and of course the earful I get from my mom after failed attempts to climb to the top berth. As I recall these, a nostalgic cloud surrounds me and makes me feel as old as a tortoise. Obviously while the journey up to my grandma's place was full of fun like a bullish investor, the return one was as sad as that of an investor run over by the bears and waiting for a bail out.

From an eight-hour journey in a 15 bogey express train to a thirty minutes journey in a nine compartment electric train, the differences do remain. But the soul is the same, be it the rattling ku-chiku sound, the smell of iron in my palms or the interesting characters I come across.

There had been occasions, which give bad experiences. Like this guy who dropped a huge sack- which many guessed had Mike Tyson in it- right on my leg and gave a reaction as though I had hurt his parcel. The girl who gave this bewildered here-is-the-most-wanted-serial-rapist look when I had just enquired for the name of the station which passed by or the obnoxious old man who was shocked to know I can read tamil while all along he was thinking I am an alien from a different galaxy. He started to correct each and every syllable I pronounced. It is a weird package indeed.

Yes accepted, the good things do come along in this package. Be it the cute and pretty girl who got onto the 8:12 AM train at my station and gives a small chuckle or the hot girl from who comes in the 8:00 train. It made my time schedule go as crazy as a tom cruise on the Oprah winfrey show.

Rarely, I did get a chance to travel with a bunch of pals from my training batch. The whole journey turns lively and is full of fun and banter, after the end of the party we used to take a resolution about group trip once a week. Ten days later a mail would peep out and remind us of our resolution. Life just went on like the train with joy and sorrow being the two tracks’. Oh! Am I getting philosophical here?

The funniest things in the trains are the stick-on ads. Paper ads stuck for sexual potency and to increase the size of manhood or to stay erect. Good lord!! Aren’t we folks obsessed with it? Yet we say no to sex education of kids. Hope they don’t learn that from these so called therapy quacks.

The train gets its primetime obviously when the students step in. With their group songs, meaningless jokes followed by loud hearty laughs and the graffiti on train walls...we can see some wonderful couplets like "unnai kandein ennai marandhein...un thangayai kandein unneya marandhein". A literal translation would be … I saw you and forgot myself...saw your sister and oh I forgot you! These couplets would be decorated with hearts and piercing arrows rented from Cupid and of course the couples’ name in the middle. It should be sheer coincidence that many times the guy’s name remains the same while the girl’s keep changing in every heart.

The atmosphere is radically opposite during the night times when none but the breeze keeps me company and sometimes a beat constable gets into the compartment to catch a small nap up to the next station. His loud, reverberating snores give the confidence to travel the distance alone. The station would have become the bedroom for the beggars and street urchins who owned it during the day. The otherwise old n weak lady who stands in the steps and pleads for mercy costing Rs.1 a pinch can be seen shouting and acting as the boss of the place, commanding folks and demarcating the borders for other legions. It’s a puzzle as to what kind of disease strikes her in the mornings to make her so weak and frail.

The street urchins who plead for something to be given can be seen smoking pot or some cheap drug with an air of supremacy about it. They do try out different styles and mannerisms to leave the smoke out of their lungs via the mouth, I am sure movie super stars can get some style lessons here.

The daily travel offered so many things to view, enjoy and relish yet I used to see folks immersing themselves in a book or their gizmos in a train...weird world.... I hope to continue my train travel saga with lots of interesting things for years to come.

A poem I came across

The rain streams across the window panes;
the hills loom sombre though the failing light;
the carriages sing steel along the rails;
the brooks rush brown and fierce through the fields;
autumn is torn to pieces by the storm;
night falls, and I am homeward bound.