Four months in college
seems like a lifetime and two months at home seems to pass in an instant. Just
yesterday I was crossing days off my calendar, counting down, and waiting for
the day when I would be home again. Today,
2 months later, I am on the train and heading back towards the land of extreme
temperatures, Jodhpur.
Jodhpur is 2500
kilometres away from Coimbatore. A journey that can be covered in either 12 hours
or 48 hours depending on the mode of transport. My preferred mode of transport
is the aeroplane. I love flying and life is so much easier when you do not have
to spend time cooped up in a steel container with screaming children. Don’t get
me wrong, I love children, but I prefer peace and quiet to an orchestra of bawling
babies and yelling toddlers. Also, you reach your destination the same day you
leave. But, unfortunately, I have not started earning yet and since my dad pays
for my ticket I have to go by his preferred mode of transport, the cheaper
one.
I am not complaining, not
much anyway, because the experience of travelling half way across India in a
train is an adventure unto itself. You can sit glued to the window, staring
outside for the entire journey, and still not get bored. I’ve always found it
fascinating, how the gentle hills, and the smooth, undulating plains of the
South flow seamlessly into the rugged, tough and craggy landscape of the North
West, each beautiful in its own right. I
can sit for hours by the window and watch the world go by me.
Even if you aren’t the
kind the kind that finds poetry in the passing scenery, but are more of a
people person, you needn’t worry. You’ll find a myriad of fascinating people
around you. A train journey from one region of India to another is the perfect
place to find a cross-section of people from different cultures, with different
identities, and who speak different languages. It is a psychologist’s heaven
and his worst nightmare. One coach has approximately 72 people, and one train
can have anywhere from 10 to 24 coaches. You do the maths. That many people,
each with his, or her, own quirk, all travelling together. Imagine each person
as a unique sound. Together, they can create either the world’s most beautiful
melody or they can sound like nails tearing across a blackboard. You’ll either
get off the train with a splitting headache or a smug satisfied expression on
your face. Either way you would have had the adventure of a lifetime.
You’re probably agreeing
with me right now, or are wondering how on Earth I can know this. When you have
spent half your life travelling, you tend to pick up and recognize certain
things. For example, my years of waiting at the railway platform have made
realize that a train is a bit like a diva. It doesn’t care about you and will
follow its own rules. Sometimes it will be late, very late and will
successfully mess up your entire, carefully made out, schedule. But when it
finally does chug into the station, unapologetic and remorseless, you are only
thankful that it has arrived and that the show can go on, albeit not completely
as planned.
beautiful piece... i love it!
ReplyDeletePeevee, I loved the part about the train journey. it is even more interesting when the landscape outside keeps changing as you travel from one part of India to another. The diversity is mindboggling
ReplyDeleteApart from the very friendly and conversational writing, I think the best part of the piece was, "Imagine each person as a unique sound. Together, they can create either the world’s most beautiful melody or they can sound like nails tearing across a blackboard." Very well written and taut. Simple and beautiful.
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