Educational Tour -a handful of memories
11.01.2011.
The display board in the station showed that train is running late by 4 hours. The estimated time of arrival is now 12. 15 am on 12 Jan. The night is entering its deep embrace with chilling cold wave. Veerubaba and Ranju found a place that is suitable to keep ourselves settled down in the MCO area in the first floor. The chitchat of the youngis invited the attention of the MCO offcer, and he didn’t forget us to warn that we would be kicked out of the place if we wont shut our mouth
The new day welcomed at 12 am by the arrival of Kammu. As usual his confused looks puzzled him where to keep his luggage and what to do next. Slowly heavy eyelids and tired bodies pushed everyone to sleep faster.
Slow by slow, station after station crossing Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, now it is the entrance of Kerala. Every one including me was excited to see the new land as it is also my home state. Long stretch of coconut trees, narrow strip of paddy fields, well designed small houses, people with thick moustache and oily hairs, banana fries, and long red coloured banana fruits all caused lot of surprises to the young people.
A normal day in the cold winter of January. The day was exciting for us as the educational tour of MTA was to take place from this day. The scheduled departure of the train was at 9.15 pm from Varanasi Cant. Railway station. Every one was asked to assemble at 8 pm at the entrance of the station. One after another everyone turned up. Devendra, the tour coordinator was actively running around to check all students have turned up, esp. to find the defaulters who didn’t make complete payment.
The display board in the station showed that train is running late by 4 hours. The estimated time of arrival is now 12. 15 am on 12 Jan. The night is entering its deep embrace with chilling cold wave. Veerubaba and Ranju found a place that is suitable to keep ourselves settled down in the MCO area in the first floor. The chitchat of the youngis invited the attention of the MCO offcer, and he didn’t forget us to warn that we would be kicked out of the place if we wont shut our mouthAnxious waiting only resulted in the much delay as Deepak came up with the breaking news of the train started from Patna at 10 pm and it will reach Banaras only at 5 am next day. Hopeless waiting in the chilling winter night. I asked Devendra to purchase some sheets, which can be used to spread in the floor as a mat. As the cold grew up, the distance of space came down and every one narrowed down to the circle. Fatima (Appy) came with her brother at 11 p.m. (along with Chily Chicken and rotty, but the hungr devils of our student friends snatched the tiffin box from her and didnt even bother that I am there.
Waiting ended at 6 am when the train reached station after a delay of 9 hours. Running to settle luggage and seat ended quickly as every one located their seats easily. The sleeper coach of our train Patna –Ernakulam Superfast seems to be one of the antique model of 1853 when train was introduced in India. Mosquitos flying in the corridors and upper berths, Rats racing in the ground floor, stinking toilets, completely dirt spilled over everywhere. The seats lost its softness as it carried thousands of people over a period of time. If there is a term for sleeper class coaches in Indian railway, it can be nothing other than garibi class.
We all fall in to deep sleep as every one was tired and the wakeup call came when the call of the stomach forced us to rise our heads. 11 am the train left Allahabad. Every student was carrying lot of home made stuff other than me. Chana, puffed rice, peanuts, pooris and subji, the dishes are literally uncountable. The panty car person who take order seems to be literally disappointed as none of us didn’t order anything. It was shocking to know that the train is running late by 13 hours then. Our prayer was to reach Ernakulam atleast by 10 am so we wont lose the day sight seeing.
Slow by slow, station after station crossing Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, now it is the entrance of Kerala. Every one including me was excited to see the new land as it is also my home state. Long stretch of coconut trees, narrow strip of paddy fields, well designed small houses, people with thick moustache and oily hairs, banana fries, and long red coloured banana fruits all caused lot of surprises to the young people. (to be continued....)