Share your memorable train journey with us - May 2012

coming from a army family i have spent a lot of my life hopping on trains from one part of india to other.i specially love and get amazed by the change in landscape,right from mustard fields of punjab to coconut trees in south and paddy fields in east. even the accent of chai wala changes with place . the way he says chaya chaya to cha is enchanting. drinking nimbu chai in bengal,masala chai in south,namak chai in mp. umm train journeys r fun.:thumbsup
but i think the best train journey was when i was in class 6th, my dad was posted in a place called Faridkot in punjab and his unit was told to shift to small town called Along in Arunachal pradesh.we could not even locate the town on the map as only big city was itanagar!! his unit was given special train which had all the boggies just for unit luggage , officers and their families and jawans. officers had choice to go by other regular train but dad being commanding officer(co) had to go in that train so we also tagged along
and what fun it was,we started from ferozepur which was nearest station, as a CO dad was given a coupe which was our home for next few days. we were five officers family and few other families. we went to delhi first ,then in UP train halted at Rampur, Moradabad, Kanpur, Allahabad , Lucknow then went to Patna and saw bit of Bengal in Newjalpaigudi and finally came to station called New bogiagaon. it took us 16 days.Saw a lot of big and hundred's of small stations.
we had to halt at different stations and cooks would go n buy fresh veggies , milk and stuff while we saw the place.then train would be halted to wash clothes and dry them and then resume journey again. we stayed at patna station for 2 days as train had to give pass to imp trains. not that we complained, we saw patna city, gurudwara .
all the cooking was done on small stations with local veggies. people would stare at us and think what is this train?
we also got chance to see engine and see how driver drives the train and be in the guard room too. it was like a long picnic.
we spent 3 days at newBongaigaon and then everything was shifted to another train which was a meter gauge train. it was a lovely journey finally reached silapathar which was last station and from there things were shifted in trucks n gypsies and reached Along after 22 days starting from faridkot
before starting journey my dad brought me a new diary and told me to write name of all stations and what i saw on the journey.
now dad is no more but the diary is there and all the memories are etched in my heart for ever.it was in 1993 and now things have become better in terms of commuting to arunachal and along is called alo , but that was the most beautiful journey i took.

 

im sorry forgot to count words , hope did not exceed word limit as i got carried away in my memories.

 

Train is a wonder always and train journeys heaven. More so in those days. We were a big family and travelling was not in our budget. Even for a marriage in the extended family, one of the elders would attend.Cash was hard to come by and we lived in shoe string budgets.
In September 1984, my brother got married. The marriage took place in Chennai and we were from Trivandrum. We were a large family and many of our friends too joined us. My parents, my 4 siblings, 4 in my uncle's family, my maternal cousin and 10 of our friends travelled. We had a great time while coming to Chennai and enjoyed tremendously. On the return journey, the number increased by another 5.
The day after the marriage, we got ready to leave to the railway station from the hall where the marriage was held. Just then, it started to rain heavily. It rained for nearly 1 hour and the roads were flooded by then. We found it hard to get taxis, due to water logging taxis refused to ply. We managed somehow and reached in whatever vehicles we could get and reached the station. There was only 15 minutes for the train to leave. We had lots of luggage and we all found it very hard to reach our compartments. Just as we finished loading our luggage, the train started to pull out of the station.
Then we found, to our horror, that we were allotted seats in a scattered way in 3 compartments. The men in the group sorted this by requesting the other passengers to occupy our various seats. This was a Herculean task, convincing people to go to some other seat. At last, we had seats adjacently, We were all very tired and then we decided to have dinner. Just as we opened our food packets, the passengers who relocated to our seats started coming to us, claiming that the TTE is creating trouble. The men folk again went around the coaches and took some time to convince the TTE also about our plight. They had dinner after all this had been sorted out. By this time, nobody was sleepy and we spent the night chatting and drinking tea at the stations where the train stopped.
I joined the railway service after 2 years and had been travelling a lot on trains since but this incidence is a very memorable one for me and my family.

 

now that is what I call a unique experience. Envy you.

This usually happens when one hires a bus/car for their lonnnnnnng journey. :rotfl

You would have been damn excited about that.:thumbsup

trucks n gypsies:wowdouble envy you

 

I have always enjoyed my train journeys even as a kid and now too. This incident happened many many years ago. I think i was in class 4 & we had gone for a holiday with the family to Udaipur. Me and my brother were very excited. We boarded the train from Delhi. Like what my kids do today to fight for the window seat, me and my brother did the same and finally settled at sharing it for half hour each. As it happens in. most journeys we both werenjoying. eating and playing cards, ludo, chess etc. We had to change train at some station we got down and went to the other platform,the trainwas already there. Meanwhile my mom. Went to fill the earthen pot [surahi] . She took some time and the train started to move slowly all three of us were shouting and tellingher to run faster and catchthe train. She was trying hard and tears rolled on my cheeks, what would happen now. My mother threw the surahi and ran as fast as. she could and finally managed to board the train. I was relieved and happybut those few moments i can never forget.

 

Where are our berths?

[JUSTIFY]I had just finished masters degree in maths and had to take a trip to Chennai (then Madras) to attend the TNPSC interview. My dad was my escort. My uncle living in Coimbatore booked our tickets. After a couple of days he learn that his son also had to travel to Chennai on the same day. So his ticket was also booked, later! Those days, the tickets did not have all the details printed, as we have now. It was just a small card, like the platform ticket, with train number and date of journey, hand-written!

My uncle always brings us to the station at the last minute. That was his style! When we checked the list, only my cousin's name was in the printed list and both my dad's and my names were missing. My short tempered uncle went and SHOUTED at the ticket examiner. After glancing the tickets, the cool TTE told us that our berths are travelling to Chennai already! Yes! Our train was Quilon express and my cousin's was Nilagiri express!

The TTE turned a deaf ear to the repeated requests by my father. So, I was pushed into the ladies unreserved compartment, my dad got into the general unreserved compartment and my cousin got his berth. He took away my bag containing my dress and all my certificates for safe-keeping! I sat tight among unknown ladies, wondering whether I will get my bag the next day!

The train stopped at some place, for signal, well before some station, around midnight. My worried dad got down and came calling my name aloud, not knowing where my compartment was! On hearing my dad's voice, without a wink of the eyes, I ran and jumped out of the train onto the floor which was about 4 feet down! Now, my dad did NOT remember from where he got down!! Luckily, the co-passenger who advised my dad to bring me, waited near the door and pulled us into the train before it started moving! He also made me curl on the luggage rack to get some rest. There ARE nice humans everywhere around us! God's mercy!! But, my certificates in my cousin's custody made me sleepless.

On arrival at Chennai, we rushed to meet my cousin. I gave a sigh of relief on seeing my bag in his hand!

The lesson we learnt:
Never fight with the TTE, since you are at his mercy during the train journey!
[/JUSTIFY]

 

Train Journeys are something that I have enjoyed and always look forward to. We would travel a lot with my father because of his business. After marriage, I found out that my DH too loves train journeys as that is the only time we get when we have nothing to do and can just enjoy the passing views sipping endless cups of tea/coffee with a thought-free mind:coffee.

My train memories are many, but these two memories are very close to my heart...both actually around the same time when I got married.

Since our wedding was finalised within a week of our engagement, it was a hurried affair. We had to travel by train to Chennai for the wedding from Miraj. We were a group of about 20 family members. Had a wonderful journey to Chennai and the wedding also went well. But...but...on the way back to Miraj from Chennai after the wedding, my Dad realised on the train that he had hurriedly booked my return ticket as well...completely forgetting:confused2: the fact that his darling daughter would be married by then and will not be with them on the return journey!
This incident makes all of us share a good laugh even today, specially my DH who still keeps joking with me... "Oh! but your Dad wanted to take you back even after he married you off to me!"

The other unforgettable incident is when we were going for our honeymoon to KodaiKanal.

We boarded the 2nd AC train to Kodai Road. At around 8.00 pm, the train stopped at Katipara Junction and DH got down to pick up some food. But the train started moving and DH quickly boarded the moving train, but not in our coach. He jumped into the 3rd AC and unfortunately the coaches were not connected. Now, it so happened that since we were newly married, DH got very worried:|, not knowing what would be my state in the other coach as the next stop was only after two hours! Sensing his worry, the other passengers told him that everything would be ok, but those were the longest two hours in his life. Meanwhile, I was ok and had been mentally planning what to do if my DH misses the train. I calmly climbed up to my upper berth and prayed silently hoping against hope that my DH would be back soon with dinner. Soon enough, after two hours, he was back with idli-wadas and gave me a great hug:kiss. We had a wonderful honeymoon, but on the way back, we picked up food and then boarded the train.

This is a very nice contest and all the entries have been amusing to read. Wish everybody the best of luck with their entries for the lovely contest:thumbsup.

 

nice contest and i read the posts. each one is exiting to read and all the best to the participants.


andal

 

yes indeed it was a great experience

 

Dear Sister,

The above lines made my eyes wet, you are really blessed with your parents, :thankyou2: