Journey by Train
A journey by train is an interesting experience. Last Sunday I had an occasion, since I with my friend Satish had planned to visit Vaishnav Devi Mati at Jammu. We reached Delhi Railway Station well in advance and after staying in the queue for about half an hour we got the tickets. When we stood on the platform to wait for the train there were thousands of passengers with lot of luggage; children, women, youth and old were all eager to board the train for Jammu. It was really horrifying. How and where to get a seat. I asked a coolie for help. He demanded a hundred rupees to get proper seats for us. I agreed and the train stopped before us. It was a mad rush. Everyone tried to catch hold of a seat. The coolies know the knack of the job. All my efforts to board the train failed. It was impossible. My coolie managed to enter through a window and put our luggage on a seat. Anyhow we reached there and sat down. All around the passengers were standing. There was not any space to move around. The things started to settle down when the train moved. We had a breath of fresh air. The train moved at high speed and we were soon out of Delhi. It was much pleasing outside. The lush-green fields and trees seemed to welome everywhere. The train passed through many villages, towns and cities. It was very interesting to observe the rural life of India. It was very nice to see men, women and children working in the fields. The rural India seemed to be prosperous with all urban facilities available with them. Good houses, roads, schools and colleges, markets and bazars were seen everywhere. The people seemed happier than the urbanites probably because the life did not seem to be so complex as we experience.
The train stopped at many stations. We took many cups of tea and enjoyed some seasonal fruits sold there. We had an occasion to make friends with some boys in the cabin. They were also going to Vaishnav Devi Mata. We shared some eatables and it was good to converse with them. One of them was from Bangalore doing a course in Engineering and the other studying law in Delhi. We spent a good time and at last late in the evening the train reached Jammu. One of our friends there received us at the station and he took us to his home. Being very tired, we had a good meal and went to bed immediately.
