Imagine a trip of a lifetime — a train journey from Chennai to Jammu on the “Jammu-Tawi Janata Express”, during one’s impressionable years.
With a EE seat at REC Srinagar, this Bengaluru-bred chap set out on an amazing, transformative journey — seeing India in all its expanse and diversity, playing out in a 4-day solo journey, viewed through the sharp, inquisitive eyes of a teenager in the early 1980s.
The Janata “Express” was actually a passenger train, hauled by steam engines all the way, with obligatory stops for just about every railway crossing, small and major station. The 2800 km journey took a total of 4 and 1/2 days (delayed by 12 hours), with an average speed of 26 kmph!
Every now and then the scenery would change completely. So did the dress styles of people, the languages they spoke, the foods sold on the platforms — every sight led to new appreciation for the huge expanse, richness and diversity of the country. Every meal purchased from vendors (during the good days of having an iron-belly) on platforms was different — no such thing as catering cars onboard.
And the co-passengers — a sadhu on his way to the Himalayas speaking in English, a recent EE graduate on his way to an interview in Bhopal, a Malayalee soldier on his way to battle in Poonch, farmers who loaded their produce (and cattle) on board at rural stations, a Malaysian-Indian sailor on holiday in India visiting New Delhi and smoking interesting things, Sikh farmers wearing swords — nothing could have prepared this Bangalore-lad for a trip of this nature and the brilliant conversations! On reaching Jammu, my luggage was coated with soot.
The bus journey to Srinagar was even more enchanting with high-altitude stops for tea and snacks, and made memorable with my getting into a verbal fight with a foreigner over the status of Kashmir, and the conductor re-seating me!
My Srinagar days were cut-short and I soon found myself back in Karnataka at a local engineering college (with a luxurious return trip by air from Srinagar to Delhi, GT Express to Chennai, and a bus trip to Bangalore!)
Out of sheer nostalgia I looked this train up, and discovered that it is renamed as Andaman Express, and now takes 2 days to complete, drawn by an Electric-Diesel engine, has AC coaches and a catering car onboard, and makes 79 stops — now that’s luxury compared to a steam-engine that stopped at almost all stations.
With today’s vast network of domestic flights one can crisscross the country in hours. But then one loses touch with an unbelievable, unimaginable India — the opportunity to be utterly enchanted, educated and transformed on such an incredible 4-day train journey thru the heartland of India.
Caveat: Today’s comfort-laden and sheltered train experiences might not transform one the way I was in the rough, early ‘80s.