“Choo-choo,” was the sound it made followed by squealing noises of the wheels grinding against the rail tracks. That was the start to a journey by train.These were journeys that got etched to be part of my fondest and precious childhood memories.
When I reminisce about them, it reminds me of how the journey involved meticulous planning. A structured process for a child (a 10-year old or slightly older me) to ensure every moment during the train journey was thoroughly utilized. Boredom was a concept that never existed at that time. Internet you say? What’s that? All this was at a time when mobile phones were non-existent for us. Aptly called the ‘good ol’ days.’
My childhood memories of train journeys were with my family during my Christmas and Summer vacations. We used to board the ‘Island Express’ that ran between Bangalore and KanyaKumari. The journey was long, one where you would board at 9pm and reach your destination, the following evening: a 19 hours journey. Recalling how ‘un’punctual the trains were then, the travel time would easily shoot by few additional hours. With so much time in hand, there had to be efficient planning for time to pass smoothly. That’s where I enter.
While the others were busy concentrating on packing clothes for the trip, and essential food supplies for the travel, my focus was on another unimportant agenda. How to keep myself busy. Now when I think of it, I probably got all that time because my mother did my packing. (Yes, a kid. No, I didn’t need matching clothes.)
While mother took care of the nutritious food supplies for dinner and breakfast; and fruits for refreshment, I took care of the non-nutritious bit. I distinctly remember a fried snack that I used to get when I was little. It was called ‘Yummies’ and it was a small pack of fried rings. It came in different flavours (coloured-packets) and cost only 2 bucks. This was something that was not available in Kerala so I ensured that my dad bought me a bunch of those packets (at least 10) for the journey and afterwards. I don’t remember demanding any other snacks for packing because we would end up buying delicious pazham pori (banana fritters) and vada from the station/ people selling them on the train. So yes, food was taken care of.
Entertainment was via limited means. Music was taken care of by the famous portable cassette player, ‘Walk-Man’: the uber cool player of that era. I would carry a bunch of Hindi cassettes and a borrowed English one. The English one would probably be a ‘Now! Series’ music which was acquired through a trade off with someone for something in return. In this bunch, there would also be few devotional cassettes, courtesy my father. For the reading bit, I would have got my hands on the latest edition of ‘Tinkle’ or any ‘Amar Chithra Katha’ comic depending on what was available in the bookstores on the railway platform, which we would have visited before our journey began. We were quite punctual you see, we would have arrived at least 2 hours before our departure time! I always preferred Tinkle as it was simple, colourful and fun to read. It cost 10 bucks. I probably don’t mind reading them even now. I remember I had a collection of them which we used to subscribe to fortnightly which after a point I had to sadly give them away because let’s face it, nobody wants piles of termite eaten old comics in their house!
Apart from the above pre-planned time-pass activities, there were few games which were invented on the spot. ‘Spotting cows’ was a game that we invented via journey. (I named the game right now as it was nameless then). It was a two player game and each of the players were seated against the window. The person to first spot the maximum number of cows in a given time wins. Two people cannot count the same cow. You need to point and declare the cow you spot as and when it happens so there is no clash (which often happened). The winner got nothing but it was fun. Then there was a slightly different version of it, where you had to spot plastic/paper stars that were hung outside houses. This game was valid for train journeys during Christmas vacations.
There were few more activities that occurred. There was waving at random people as the train passed any station. Then there was glueing my head to the rusted train windows to see the train curve as the track bends. Then there was one where I did some mimicry or mono-acting (when there were no other co-passengers in our seats) for my family, because they were amused (probably they were acting too).
I believe everyone must have had some form of train journey memories. It could have been in your childhood or maybe at a later age. It could have been with your family, or friends or maybe a solo journey amidst strangers. I am sure you would be able to recollect some of them to be memorable. No matter where we are today in our journey of life, if an old journey was good it is worth revisiting. So go on. Why don’t you recall some of them and see if you feel good for a while.
