During my summer vacation while I was at my school and college in India, I would go to Bangalore to visit my cousins. I lived in Chennai all my life and I would go to Bangalore to visit my relatives on a train. Going for vacation is exciting enough but having to go on a train added that flavor for excitement. Average time to get to Bangalore would take 6 hours and that time was filled with fun. Why so much fun going on a train? The train was a means to see the country side that we passed in the interim. We would see people, their houses, their ways of living, farming, and more so, whenever the train stopped at the stations, road side vendors would bring in their local fresh produce to sell like fresh fruits, vegetables and sometimes home cooked snacks.
One would say it is not good to eat snacks from roadside vendors. But there is nothing like trying out such items. People from India would vouch on eating Bhel and Pani Puri on roadside, especially tea and coffee served in plastics cups. They do serve meals and snacks on the train itself. There is one car that is allocated for pantry where fresh food is prepared and train crew would come to sell them to us. Whenever the train stopped at stations, we could get out stretching or buying eatables or magazines from vendor stalls. Average train stop would be 10 minutes and in that time, I would get out to make a phone call to my friends or pick up snacks. There have been times when the train would start moving while I was in the middle of buying something or making a call to my friends. I would rush from what I was doing and hop on the moving train in whichever car I could. Since the cars were all connected to each other, it was easy to go from one car to the other and eventually to my car where I had left my belongings.
These are the memories that I would add during my train travel. But with the fast moving phase of travel, I don’t know what adventures I might be able to gather. Recently, the French set a train speed record of 357.2 mph or 574.8 kph on train V150. It was like going on a plane but on ground. People in that train were saying that the French countryside outside was just a green blur. Going at such a great speed is indeed a marvel and an achievement for the human race and will surely cut down on the time between destinations but not at the verge of losing little experiences that you would gather on a regular trip.
As it is life is moving at a fast pace in this day and age and all we needed was a fast train to minimize the distance between two places. The distance between Chennai and Bangalore is about 300 km and if I am on this train, it would take me about half hour to reach my destination but will I be able to enjoy my countryside site see or have my snacks and food from local vendors? Will I be able to hop on a moving train? It is those little experiences that make my trip a lot better and fill it with fun and pleasure. Even today, I can sit around and recollect those moments and smile and I am not going to give away such pleasures sitting on a fast train. I want to slow down and enjoy life while it lasts.
3 comments:
I think in India it's too dangerous to have a train this fast going around simply because there are too many people living right beside the tracks and crossing them all the time that there is a greater chance of an accident.
First let us have a decent non-stop train between two major cities. We can then worry about speed trains later on. :)
Well written article.
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