My third train was the longest on this trip. Lasting 26 hours, it took me from the west coast all the way to Vizianagaram on the east coast. This was my gateway to Vizag and then to Arakku. This was also the journey that I did not have a confirmed ticket for. My 2nd AC ticket was waitlisted at ‘PWL1’. For over a month! The mysteries of the Indian railway ticket. I got to the station early and bought a ticket that enables unreserved travel in the general compartment. The train arrived at the station. I got into one of the second class compartments. I zeroed in on compartment S7 for my unauthorized travel. A young Australian couple going to Hampi for the cultural festival; a shopkeeper originally from Hampi with a nuts & fruits shop in Goa, going back home; a man travelling all the way to Howrah in what he cited as dire circumstances; these were my fellow travelers. In the next ten minutes, it was clear that all of them had only general tickets. Not one of them had a confirmed ticket. I began to feel at home. I wheeled in my suitcase that was so far hesitantly positioned in the aisle, and confidently shoved it under the seat. I was not too worried. I romanticised about getting down at some random station like Dharwad and finding inner peace, or at the very least good peda. The travelling ticket examiner [TTE] came in. He had no berths to offer in this class and suggested I check in the AC compartments. I went in search of the AC compartment TTE. He shooed me away and asked me to check with the new TTE at Hubli. I got back to S7 to the sympathy and ‘I told you so’s of my friends (Yes, we were thick by then). In the meantime, while I was going from compartment to compartment trying to get a seat, I had clean forgotten why I was on the train in the first place. I was to enjoy the breathtaking view of the Dudhsagar falls between Madgaon and Londa. The Dudhsagar falls are amongst India’s tallest falls and this train offered the best view of them. I asked the Hampi shopkeeper [HS] if he knew when the falls would make an appearance. He confidently told me it was half an hour later and I was to lean onto the right side. As he said this, I noticed everyone making their way to the door and leaning onto the left side. I decided to follow HS’s advice (friendship is nothing if there is no trust). Ten minutes later, amidst the excited cries of everyone around, I caught a glimpse of the falls from the left side. Apparently I missed the full view. So much for the long trip for the sake of the falls. Although, the fresh air, that lasted for almost 2 hours, was totally worth it. I returned to my seat, HS asked me if I got a good view, I replied in the negative, he opined I must be quite daft to miss such a huge thing, especially when the train stopped there for a few minutes. The Australian couple, on the other hand, saw the full thing. When they boarded the train, they did not even know of these falls. I am sure there’s a lesson in there for me. I am just not sure what. It turned out HS was a great conversationalist. He told the Australian couple that they were going to Hampi at the right time, marked out the places they could stay at and visit. All sweetness. After he was done with them, he turned to me and said “I don’t trust these Christians. They are always trying to convert people to their religion. So are Muslims for that matter. I don’t know what religion you belong to, but you can see that I am right.” “These Australian Christians did not try to convert you, did they?” “Oh you just wait, they will, by the end of the journey. Which is why, I say Hindus are the only good people left. For that matter, not even all Hindus. Only those who pray to Shiva, he is the only God worth anything. He grants your wishes. The rest of them are fake.” “I see. What did you wish for?” “I wanted a rich girlfriend and I got one. She is not very pretty but I am seeing her because of the money. I am going to the festival so I can take her around. During this season, you can get lost in the crowd, and the town people don’t talk about you afterwards. If everything goes well, I’ll marry her later this year” “You are dating her for the money. Why is she seeing you?” “Oh, I have a way with women. Btw, you know what, if you don’t get your berth, you should get down at Hospet and come to Hampi. I’ll show you around.” Stranded as I was, the offer was tempting. I called my husband to ask if I should just go to Hampi instead of Arakku. He suggested, in his usual helpful manner, that I should do what I really want to do. I got him to book a hotel room for me in Hampi, just in case, and went back to making a mental pros and cons list of Hampi vs Arakku. Before I made up my mind, the train arrived at Hubli. The new TTE was a congenial man with a fatherly attitude towards life. He was checking our tickets, when a young girl, about 20 years old, got into our compartment. She literally lifted me off my seat, asked everyone to scooch over, and put me down a few inches away. Given how none of us had a confirmed ticket, we meekly accepted the situation. The TTE asked to see her ticket. She took out a general ticket, similar to ours and gave it to him. One look at it, he rolled his eyes, and asked her where she needed to go. “Perambur.” “Please get off in the next station, go back and find the right train.” After much theatrics and hysteria, he got the girl to leave the compartment. He assured me he would find me a berth at Hospet. I told him it was alright if he did not, I would get off at Hospet and go to Hampi. This gave him a headache. He did not understand what I wanted and just asked me to talk to him at Hospet and until then I should know that I was travelling illegally in the train. I offered to pay the required fine to convert my ticket. He said he did not know how to calculate the fine for someone who had a general ticket till Vizianagaram, had travelled till Hubli and may or may not get off at Hospet. I realised it did not really matter whether I got to Vizianagaram or not. I was quite enjoying myself. The girl who boarded the wrong train. The two guys who shared a home meal and friendly banter, while peeling an onion in the compartment. The travel agent’s assistant who took the train just so he could sell hotel rooms in Hospet, to foreigners for 1000 rupees a night. The foreigners who thought that was too much. The TTE who cracked jokes with a couple, until he gave up in the face of their stoic refusal to laugh. This then, was what it was about. It was about catching up with life. Seeing what people had been up to. People I didn’t normally meet in my day to day life. People that I recognized from an earlier life. Thoughts that I remembered having long ago. When you travel in a train, you realise what a narrow circle of people you mingle with. It’s easy to believe that’s all there is to the world out there. With these thoughts in my mind, we came upon Hospet. The TTE told me he found a berth for me. So, I was to continue my journey after all. I moved to the AC compartment. The compartment with the closed curtains suddenly seemed lifeless. The elderly couple who were already there were quite snobbish and got cross with me for sitting on their white bedding. So, I decided to retire to the upper berth that was mine. Looking forward to nothing interesting for the rest of the evening, I went to bed. The next morning, the lady from the lower berth wished me good morning, said she wanted to take a chance. I did not quite get what she meant. She said that she had wished me earlier and I did not respond. She did not know if it was because I was a snob or if I did not hear her. Sometimes people think the exact same thing of you, as you think of them. Talk about irony. With this newly attained wisdom, I got off the train at Vizianagaram. I wanted to visit the Vizianagaram fort but the taxi drivers told me there was no fort around. I showed them the Wikipedia page but they categorically denied its existence. No point in arguing if they were that embarrassed by it, so I gave up, got into an ambassador taxi, wore my blue shades and set out for Vishakapatnam.
2 Comments
hayko
1/5/2015 09:33:29 am
Reading your experiences itself is an enjoyable experience! Hope you get to see the full Dudhsagar waterfalls one day. There are some pretty lively videos on youtube. Hence, the lesson may be: It was not meant for this day, it was meant for another day. :-)
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Aishwarya
6/5/2015 07:33:34 am
Haha, yes, another day, another train. Now I know where to look!
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Aishwarya KalakataThe loss of and search for individualism has never been felt more acutely. Everything changed after I had a kid. But this blog is not about me being a mom. It’s about the things I do when I want to stop being a mom. It’s about telling myself that it is possible and that it is ok. It’s about my little escapades. Mostly travel - sometimes physical, sometimes mental. A desperate bid to stop my identity from being rolled into a single word. CategoriesArchives
March 2021
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