A train ride to remember

Remember the good old chug-chug? You ate, played cards and ludo, shared samosas - and arrived! People share train memories with TOI...

Jab we met!
Biddu, composer
It's been at least 40 years since I last went on a train. But I remember it almost as if it was yesterday. I was 17 at the time and my two friends and I, who were part of my pop group called The Trojans, were running away from our homes in Bangalore to big, bad Calcutta. At Hyderabad, two young ladies joined our compartment. The girls were fair and lovely like the advertisement, and soon the five of us were yapping away like old friends. They told us they were sisters and princesses at that, and we believed them, because they were dressed in finery that only royalty could afford. We failed to ask why the princesses were travelling second class. But did it matter? Not a jot, because by now the journey suddenly took on the excitement of a first date. The five of us played cards and told each other ribald stories as we laughed into the night. The girls shared their biryani with us while we offered them cold samosas and warm tea. When we finally arrived at Calcutta, we made promises to stay in touch. Now where did I write down their names and telephone number?

Memories of Partition
Gurcharan Das, author
I was four years old when Partition came and we had to flee for our lives. We took refuge initially at our guru's ashram in Beas, near Jullunder. From there we took a train to Simla, where my father had been posted. From the window of our compartment, I saw a tall Muslim police officer standing erect on the platform. Suddenly, there was movement. A train was coming from Delhi, going to Lahore. Two young Sikh boys emerged from nowhere - they could not have been more than 15. They thrust a dagger from behind into the policeman. He did not cry. He just fell and died. My mother pulled me back and tried to shut the window, but it would not close. Eventually we reached Ambala, where we changed for Kalka, and from there got on the hill train for Simla. The view from the tiny window of the miniature hill train was enough to refresh the most exhausted emotions. Northwards rose the confused Himalayan chains, range after range of the world's highest mountains. At Shogi, we glimpsed the first wondrous vision of Simla. From afar, it looked like a mythical green garden dotted with red-roofed houses.

Gold Spot, chips & a view!
Sarnath Banerjee, graphic novelist
Istill take trains whenever I can, but the occasions are getting fewer and further. As a child, I remember getting into the Delhi-bound Rajdhani from Howrah in the middle of the monsoons, under darkening skies and with the threat of thunder. Entire family settling down - cousins, uncles and aunts, hold-alls being unrolled on the floor, Gold Spots, Gems and chips being handed out to calm down the children, ghost stories to put them to sleep. Later at university, going back to Calcutta, how suddenly the terrain would change from the arid cow belt to the eye-piercing green of Bihar and Bengal. The excitement of going back to Calcutta, familiarity, the old Ambassador parked right outside platform 1. Then a detour through the maidan, everything unchanged except parents getting a few extra wrinkles. Recently, my parents along with my wife and a close friend travelled together. We saw a film on the laptop, while late evening UP rushed by. Mother played 'Civilisation' till midnight. Flasks of tea. When living in Paris, the train station wasn't very far. Once, I took a train to St Malo, one that was filled with Indian writers going to attend a literary festival and we broke all rules!

Simple meals & conversation!
Umesh Ramakrishnan, author & vice-chairman, CT Partners
In those days, the journey was almost better than the destination itself. My sister and I would leave Bangalore during the summer to spend our holidays in Kerala. Since we had to go all the way to Kannur, the only way to get there by train was to take the Island Express. Our compartment would be decoupled at Ottapalam and then attached to the Madras Mail the next morning. Our highlight was the meals served at night and the incredible appam and stew served as breakfast in Shornur. As we alighted in Kannur, all dark from the soot from the steam engine, we would be grinning with delight. The flat bed comfort of a first-class intercontinental flight pales in comparison to a long lazy summer day spent on a hard wooden seat watching the green paddy fields shimmering along the Malabar coast. On a train, you shared intimate thoughts with people who were strangers on a platform just before they sat next to you. You shared simple meals and delightful conversation. And we were richer for our experience.

'We chased them with hockey sticks'
Vinay Pathak, actor
My most memorable journey is the one I took as an NCC cadet to a military camp in Himachal Pradesh. From Ranchi, we first took the train to Delhi, from there to Amritsar, then on to Pathankot, where Army trucks took us ahead. There were 90 of us, with about four teachers as chaperones. We planned to play Ludo and the 'goonda' gang decided to sneak along cigarettes and beer. One of the guys wrote down the names of the 100-odd stations that we crossed in his diary. We used to tease him, saying, "The TT is at it again". At Saharanpur, around 10 pm, a woman with two men and holding a baby tried to come into our bogey and even as we stopped them, the train began to gather momentum. The men took out knives to threaten us but our hockey sticks were a match for them. At our first stop in Amritsar, we showered in our swimming trunks with a pipe on the tracks. We had the day off and watched two movies that day - Suhaag in a multiplex-in-the-making, where three cinema halls Suraj, Chanda and Tara graced a single compound and The Burning Train on a 70-mm screen in Gagan Talkies. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-&-style/people/A-ride-to-remember/articleshow/5852283.cms
 

A call for change!

Anna and his team may have won the first round against corruption, but there are several battles waiting to be fought in India. Anuradha Varma asks some eminent voices to tell us about the change they want to see.


Anna, broaden your battles!
Gurcharan Das, author & management expert

"Anna Hazare has been successful because he has focused single-mindedly on one issue — corruption. The Lokpal is only a beginning. It will catch crooks after the act. What you need is to prevent the disease. To make a real difference, you need to reform the bureaucracy, the police, the judiciary, and the electoral system. These reforms should be next on Anna Hazare's agenda. He should not get distracted by other problems, such as education, health, drinking water. Obviously, there is corruption in the delivery of these services — one in four teachers is absent in a state primary school; two in five doctors are absent in a primary health centre. But the answer is to make civil servants accountable — government teachers and doctors are civil servants, after all. The overhaul of the bureaucracy, for example, will entail reduction in administrative discretion; swiftness and certainty of punishment in disciplinary proceedings; reduction in rent seeking opportunities; penalisation for delays; elimination of the seniority system. These ideas are not new —every administrative reforms commission has recommended them ,but the bureaucracy has sabotaged them. So, we need Annaji to focus on them."

Let Kashmir be heard

Shobhaa De, writer

“The sudden cancellation of the much looked forward to Harud Literature Festival in the Kashmir Valley once again proves how divisive forces win over those advocating a peaceful dialogue via non-political platforms. Pressure groups are overactive these days, and free speech comes with inbuilt reservations about security issues and safety. This is ridiculous and a real threat to the democratic process which guarantees plurality and liberalism in all walks of life. That a handful of protestors could browbeat organisers to cancel what would have been an important exchange of vibrant ideas and voices, is an indication of growing intolerance, not just in Kashmir, but across the board. I am fundamentally against browbeating of any kind... no matter how ‘noble’ the intentions. There is no room for suppressing the freedom of expression through such bullying tactics. The more one gives in to such elements, the weaker we become as a nation.

What about healthcare & education?

Sohaila Kapur, theatreperson

"The country has focused on corruption, but there are several other issues that need to be addressed and speedily. For instance, health and education. A visit to any of the municipal hospitals confirms that. Pregnant women, wounded men, diseased children await attention and rooms. And why just government hospitals? The problem is not much better in private hospitals. You have to make a down payment before a patient is admitted. My father once experienced a heart attack while I was away from the city and our driver rushed him to the very hospital where he was once a senior and respected pediatrician. The receptionist refused to give him a room, even while the poor man was gasping and in great pain, until Rs 2 lakh was deposited there and then. Someone should move the RTI in hospitals. As far as our education is concerned, things have not changed much from our time when we learnt everything by rote. Instead of droning on and on about matter that is already in text books, teachers need to challenge young minds through relevant questions, quizzes, experiments and yes, even theatrical exercises. One could go on and on about what needs to be done, but it's time it all jumped out of the paperwork and worked itself into active agendas."

Stop sexual violence

Vidya Reddy, child rights activist

“The Bill to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse has been put up before the parliamentary standing committee, but it hasn’t even been introduced in the Parliament for passing. I recently recommended that the police in Chennai start a training module on handling such cases. We have decided to call it ‘Investigating Sexual violence’ — it needs to be said outright. We must stop using euphemisms when dealing with sexual abuse and stop clubbing them under crimes against children or women and trafficking. Nobody sees it as a standalone problem. When it comes to sexual violence of children, first of all, very few cases get reported. Nearly 88 per cent of the victims don’t talk about it. We lack an effective response mechanism in society or in the system. Forget sensitivity, at least put protocols in place that can be followed. According to a 1996 study, even judges, MPs and the police are uncomfortable around cases of sexual violence. We need a special prosecutor in court to address such cases. Doctors are also not trained in these issues. Recently, a boy who was sodomised was tossed around an entire day in the hospital from departments of neurology to paediatrics and finally psychiatry. Whether it’s men, women, children or the LGBT groups, everyone has to be protected from sexual violence.” 

Fight for the environment
Raaja Bhasin, author & historian

"Every time there is a problem, a Gandhi, a Jai Prakash Narayan and an Anna Hazare cannot be pulled out of the woodwork. Systems must be strengthened — systems of redress and systems of appraisal. Of all the issues that now face our country, the biggest fight is yet to come. This fight is for our environment that will decide how we will live, and if we will live. The interventions that have taken place have been too severe and too irreversible. This will have to stop, if we do not want to create two nations within the same geographical space (as happened in England during the Industrial Revolution), the rich and the poor."

Shelter land rights of poor
Usha Ramanathan, legal expert

"The vexed question of land is seeing a churning around the country. It is now at least 25 years since coercive acquisition, forced evictions and mass displacement reached national attention. It is local resistance, in multiple locations around the country, which has forced the state to rethink its strategy of how it will use its power to take over land. There is a draft Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 currently up for debate. It reveals a remarkable lack of understanding of why there are all these mutinies all around us, and that a new law will have to limit the powers of the state to acquire, not expand it like this Bill will do. In the meantime, the urban poor are having their shelters demolished ruthlessly, and the state is acting as if the poor are responsible for their poverty and must pay the price for being poor! The persistence of 'extraordinary' laws is a scandal. Chhattisgarh, Kashmir, the North-East see them in their rawness, to which the unmarked graves bear testimony. Irom Sharmila has become a symbol of a state that does not care either for its people or for the rule of law. These laws have to be systematically, and urgently, weeded out."