Nostalgic Train Journey

“Railgadi……. Railgadi,

Beechwale station bole ruk ruk ruk,

Jaye yahan se , jaye Wahan se,

Dhadak Bhadak, Lohe ki sadak”

Remember this classic song on train sung by veteran actor Ashok Kumar in a Hindi film called ‘Aashirwad’?

Trains have always fascinated me from childhood. I remember them as far as in 1957 when I used to watch the trains called ‘railgadi’ from the windows of my house. The trains were driven by coal engines. ‘Janata express’ and ‘Grant trunk express’ were the trains connecting the then Madras (Chennai) with Delhi. Later on first superfast train was introduced called “Deluxe express”. It was cream in color and we used to watch its speed with amazement.

 People with their baggage just used to walk in the train but used to get berth as well as seat without any hassles of prior reservation. Those days people used to carry number of luggage consisting of heavy trunks made of zinc sheet, a ‘Holdal’ for keeping rugs, bed sheets, pillow etc all rolled in to one, big size Tiffin carriers for food & snacks and water in brass vessel (called ‘Kuje Chombu’ in Tamil) as well as in insulated water jug (normally carried by army jawans) and earthen pot called ‘Surahi’ covered with jute mat from outside to keep the inside temperature cool. . All stations had ‘Coolie’ to carry this luggage for a sum. Now, with the ‘travel light’ concept, the breed of ‘coolie’ is slowly vanishing

Water used to be supplied at the station in earthen pots carried on a wooden hand cart and through water taps for which passengers had to run as soon as train stops at a station. The pushy and mighty type of people used to fill all their utensils with water leaving the meeker one to try their luck at the next station. Few trains had the facility of attached ‘Dinning Car’ (A full fledged restaurant on wheel) wherein people used to hop in /hop out for lunch/dinner at each station.  Other trains used to stop at a junction during lunch/dinner time for all the passengers to embark, take their meals in restaurant meant for this purpose and the train used to wait till everybody finishes!

During night times, the train guard used carry a lantern in hand with green and red filters over the glass through which he used to signal the driver of the engine to stop or proceed by shaking the lantern left and right. During night times, smaller stations would be lit with kerosene lamp posts and a railway employee would be announcing the name of the station loudly for the traveler’s information.

Being driven by coal engines, those sitting near the windows had to bear the onslaught of coal dust and pieces coming out from the engine furnace at regular intervals. Watching the train taking a round turn at ‘ghat’ sections and inside a tunnel used to be exhilarating experience despite coal dust pricking the eyes. Sometimes there used to be water showers coming from the window on to your face indicating that some body is washing his or her hand after finishing sumptuous food from the next window or compartment!

While sitting near the window, have you ever tried to sing a song along with the sound emanating from the running train? It will appear as if the sound of rails matches with your song- ‘Dhadak bhadak…Lohe ki sadak’! Try it in your next train journey. Slowly with the advent of technology, these coal engines were replaced by diesel or electric engines making them a part of history and museum. Now we are in jet age, bullet trains, metro and mono rails. Railways in our country have come a long way in providing cleaner, comfortable and faster train journey and instant ticketing/ reservation through click of a mouse!. Internationally, China is developing a non stop super train wherein a passenger can get in or get out of the moving train!

Confluence of two cultures

Confluence of two cultures-
Church,Dwaja Stambha & the Sun set.

From Kerala Trip- Feb'09

(Dwaja stambh at Arthukal Church,Allepy,Kerala)

The way we are! (Sab Chalta Hai)

The other day I was going on an evening stroll when suddenly a man came running to me.

‘Sir, I was just waiting for you to come this way’ beaming with excitement he said ‘look Sir, do you see this pothole on the road? Why don’t you write something about it? So many people have tripped here, autos and cars bumped in to it, a lady’s backbone got dislocated and still no body bothers to take up the matter with civic authority!’

I noticed that the pothole was right in front of his newly built house. In addition, there was also a wide road cutting across the road for taking the water connection. The newly laid road was dug up to erect a ‘pandal’ on the occasion of the ‘house warming ceremony’! When I coolly blamed him for this, he got a shock of his life. After spending lacs & lacs of rupees on construction, who bothers to cover up the dug up portion and road cuttings with debris if not concrete costing a few rupees only? People’s responsibility ends up with the deposit for the road cutting charges with the civic authority; rest is none of any body’s job.

It is quite normal to observe the office ‘Babus’ discussing office matters and higher ups corrupt practices  sipping a cup of tea in canteen or tea shops but some of them never fail to bring home office stationery like white papers, pen, pencils, carbon papers and erasers for their children. Claiming reimbursement of expenses for conveyance, cleaning materials, doctor’s fee or even LTC on fake receipts is common in Government offices and PSUs.

Good number of people talking about discipline never fails to jump the queue at the bus stops, railway/bus ticket counters or even at temples to get priority ‘darshan’. Youngsters talking about traffic & lane discipline at various forums take short cuts through one way, jump the traffic signal or move their two wheelers on to the footpath in order to go ahead of all waiting traffic.

Talking about the ethics of journalists and TV reporters who keep exposing scandals after scandals too can be found to fall prey to malpractices by politicians, film people and page -3 personalities who entertain them with fat envelopes and 5 star parties. The ills of dowry harassment continues and now cases of ‘harassed husbands’ are coming to light. There are so many issues, issues for thoughts and to write about but the million dollars question is who is listening and who is acting upon?

School Going was Fun

During 50’s & 60’s going to Municipal or Government schools in Madhya Pradesh by walk was a fun as there were no school buses or shared cycle rickshaws those days. School classes had no table chair but only gunny mats spread on the floor where we used to sit. Ball pens were never heard of. We used to write on a slate with a white a chalk pencil and used to clean the slate with wet cloth once a lesson or problem is solved. Later on, the slate was replaced by note books and we started writing with the help of ink & nib Holder but no pens. Bottle of ink and nib holders were carried in person along with the school bag or tin box. The nib used to be very important tool in improving the handwriting. Better the quality of nib better would be handwriting!
Studying in dim lights of kerosene lantern and subsequently brighter ‘Patromax’ had its own charm which can not even be imagined now. Those were the days when teachers used to be strict and corporal punishment was a normal feature. Despite the practice of corporal punishment, neither student used to get depressed nor parents used to get upset over the punishment meted out to the student. Committing suicide over such trivial issues was unheard of.
Pocket money was strictly No... No. but sometimes we do used to get few paisa on request from our parents. Otherwise we had to be contended with our own home made eatables which used to be carried in small Tiffin box. Bottled water was unheard of and we never used to fall sick even after drinking water from any tap, well or earthen pots kept in school premises.
Republic Day & Independence Day in all the schools used to be a big affair. Those days the whole atmosphere used to get charged with patriotism. We used to assemble in the school, and after unfurling the National flag and singing national anthem , all the students along with teachers used to go round the town in procession called “Prabhat Pheri”(in Hindi) in an orderly manner waiving the national flag and shouting ‘Vande Matram’ , ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ or singing patriotic songs. At all the strategic points of the town, patriotic film songs used to be played on gramophone over the loud speaker. After gong round the town, we used to re-assemble at the school to collect our sweet packet and to run for cinema theatre where any Children or Patriotic movie used to be screened free of cost exclusively for the school children.

(Published on 19/9/08 in 'Deccan Herald' newspaper)

Cinema Those Days

My father was a movie buff when we were young. Because of his interest, our entire family used to go to movies. Those were the days of 50s to 60s when he often used to get transfer from one place to other during his service days in Madhya Pradesh. This gave us a chance to see the cinema theatres of many towns and even small villages in M.P. We all brothers and sisters used to eagerly wait for Sunday when my father used to call me to announce that we are all going to a particular movie that day.

There were no twin theatres or multiplexes. All were simple, ordinary looking non- air conditioned single screen theatres which more or less looked like present day FCI Godowns with asbestos sheet roofing. Before the commencement of the show, songs were played over a speaker so that entire town used to know that its time for the film to start. Normally the first song used to be some devotional song. There was no dearth of devotional/ religious songs as majority of the movies used to be either Religious movie or Historical movie. Later on AVM & Gemini film companies started making family movies all of which became hit with the masses. People used to throng the theatre well in advance to see the photos of the movie. Those days, photos of several scenes from the film used to be displayed on a specially made poster board outside the theatre hall in the foyer. During intermission, I used to revisit those photos just to know what all scenes have come before the interval and wait for the scenes which are yet to come after the interval. Songs of the movie printed on small foldable sheets used to be sold for a paisa or two. Even while going to the school by walk, the cinema posters here and there used to fascinate me.

During interval, gate pass used to be given to those going out of the hall to be collected back on their return. This was to ensure that no ticket less person gets in to the hall. I remember, once when I was in my college, went to watch a movie bunking the class and without telling anybody at home. In the interval, I took the pass and came back home with the idea that I will watch the remaining part later as I had the pass. After few days when I went to the theatre after the interval, I was denied entry by the gate keeper because they were using different colour pass for different days and the one I had was not being used that day! I had to cut a very sorry figure before the gate keeper and returned home without watching the remaining film after interval.

Being a gazetted officer, my father used to command high respect in small towns. At some places, the film used to start on our arrival to the theatre. We used to watch the movie from highest enclosure called ‘Box’. As the name suggest, all the theatres used to have two boxes like cabins on both side of the projection room. It was one class higher than the balcony. Boxes used to have limited seats. While watching the movie, we also used to hear the whirling sound of the projector from balcony or box class. There used to be a separate class for ladies only. During interval, the ladies class used to be covered with a screen so that no one could peep in. The lowest class used to be just ground in front of the screen where villagers used to watch movies squatting on the ground. Smoking ‘beedies, eating groundnuts, chewing ‘Paan’ during the show and spiting all over the place were common sight in all the theatres and no body used to complain or object.

The film publicity was normally used to be done by hand push carts and the man pushing the cart used to shout to announce the name of film and their cast. I remember, at one place Sagar, one of the theatres used another novel way of publicity. They had an old Austin car with a carrier (normally used for to keeping luggage) fitted on the top. Film posters used to be mounted on the carrier on all the four sides and during night times used to be lit with tube lights. This car used to go round the town during night times with full illumination and announcement made over a mike. Sometimes, the sound of generator set fitted on the back side of the car will be so loud that we used to run out of the house to find out which new movie has come.

While recollecting about cinema theatres, I particularly remember a unique theatre of those days called ‘Starlit’ at Indore. From outside it looked like a domed shape godown made of asbestos sheets. Inside, the ceiling was covered with steel rods in a pattern. At each joint of those rods were small blue coloured bulbs like stars. There were no bright lights inside except one in the middle to give a look of moon. The theatre from inside used to look blue (e-la Leela Bansali’s ‘Sanwariya’) because of the glow of several small blue lights. The slide projector was also a unique one as the projected slide advertisement used to traverse from floor up to the screen and thereafter from screen to ceiling and again back to projection room. I have never seen such a theatre elsewhere. Probably, it was a concept well ahead of its time. Alas, that theatre does not exist now..

After experiencing all the comforts and fun of present day hi-fi theatres, Dolby sound system and several screen multiplexes, it was still a thrill to wait for Sundays to watch a movie those days.