Cattle class to world class

I am one of those who used to enjoy a train journey; for both short and long trips, especially since the introduction of A/C coaches. In the pre-mobile days, it was the best way to get cut off from your regular, stressful world with enough time to relax, ruminate, read, and sleep a lot!!

It is a far cry from the kind of train journeys my family used to undertake when I was young and living in Bombay, visiting relatives in Madras, every few years. Unlike the instant-reservation facility on the net that you have today, I remember the trouble my dad had to undergo to get reserved train tickets. He would reach VT station in Bombay the night before (with a flask of coffee and some snacks that my mother would pack for him) so that he could be first in the queue only to find that many others thought like him. He was invariably at the end of the queue, facing a “tickets-sold” board, by the time he reached the counter! He would have to invade the station several times to get reservations for some train or the other going to Madras. If getting reservations was an ordeal, the actual journey was much worse!

In spite of having reserved seats (no sleeping berths then), the journey was nightmarish. All kinds of people would get into the reserved compartment, in mid-stations, and occupy every inch of space in the passage, making it difficult for anyone to even reach the toilet without walking over people.

If anyone questioned such “unreserved” passengers, the instant retort would be “You have only reserved the seat and not the passage, so shut up!” The T.C., whose palms must have been adequately greased, would be conspicuous by his absence.

The compartment would be noisy, filthy, and with an unbearable stench emanating from the toilet. As there was no A/C, the compartment would be hot, humid, and dusty and when you reached your destination you would be like a “fried ladies finger!”And there was no question of hawkers entering the compartment. You had to carry your own food for the entire train journey. The Minister who referred to travel by Economy class in Airlines as “Cattle Class” had obviously not traveled by such trains in his lifetime! It was worse than cattle class!!

We surely have come a long way since those days; with Railways making every effort to make train journeys comfortable. Providing you value for money. The more you are willing to pay, the better the facilities. Three-Tier, Two-Tier, or First Class A/C, and if it is a day train you have the A/C Chair Car! Traveling by Brindavan in the A/C chair car between Chennai and Bangalore, was always a special experience for me! I used to sleep, read, and occasionally also wrote articles. I am yet to travel by  Vande Bharath trains which are considered to be world class.

 
One enduring memory I have of the train as a foody, is the parade of vendors from the pantry car, selling a variety of mouth-watering snacks, which I used to find hard to resist! While in the Shatabdi, where the caterers mechanically serve you fixed items at appointed times with clockwork efficiency; the vendors in Brindavan were more human, friendly, and very hard working. Imagine having to walk up and down the aisles of the coaches hundreds of times in a day, holding the tray of snacks in one hand and balancing themselves, by holding on to seat tops with the other hand. That too in an undulating train, running at high speed.And doing this day after day, for a living. Great guys! Hats Off to them.

I also admired the guys who go around selling tea or coffee in the train. The way they balance the hot steel containers between their legs, leaning on the side of the seat, adding a spoon of Nescafe and sugar into the cup, and then filling it up with the watery milk from the container to give you a hot cup of a concoction called Coffee! No wonder the term “train coffee” or “train tea” has become synonymous with bad coffee or tea!

While I enjoyed train journeys while I was still in my sixties, today as an Octogenarian I shudder at the thought of traveling by train because of the insecurities associated with age. I find a long walk to the reserved compartment, climbing the staircases in stations, and even getting on to the train with senior citizens' unfriendly steps and the use of ever-shaky toilets causing me anxiety and stress. These days I prefer traveling by flight if it is a distant city and by car if it is a town involving five to six hours of driving. Thanks to the excellent conditions of the National Highways, it is a pleasure traveling by road, provided you don`t have any health issues preventing such travel.