TRAIN of thought

There's something very strange about the way my mind works when I'm on a train. It keeps fluctuating between nearly comatose inactivity, and march-hare hyperactivity. Almost comatose cos most of the time I just stare out the window watching trees, poles, telephone cables, roads, small stations, dogs, cows , schoolkids, fences, other trains whiz by. And none of it registers. Nothing at all. It's like I'm still watching a movie even though I've lost all interest in the plot. I'm just looking at the changes in the lighting, listening for wrong notes in the music track and smirking at the odd accent the heroine speaks in. And not giving a whit about the story line. Yes, I realize that the countryside cannot actually have a story line. But wouldn't it be so much better if it did?

As for the hyperactivity, here goes. I'd just read this piece by estarra before boarding the train for Delhi. And once my imagination kicked in, I created my own interview with Dr. Kalam. Complete and picture perfect. With estarra's college in the background. With that endearing style of speaking that Dr. Kalam has. I won't go on about how the interview went, but suffice to say it was enlightening. Apparently, I can enlighten myself :)

Fact is, I've got a love-hate relationship with trains. I love the sense of occasion that a long distance journey brings. I hate the fact that trains here are so slow. I love the sights I see along the way. I hate the fact that almost all of the Indian countryside is a boring, identical, unending mass of farmland. I love the idea of eating different kinds of food along the way. I hate the way the railways has standardised all the meals. (stiff idlis for breakfast, rice with weird gravies for lunch, stiff chappatis for dinner. On every route that I've been on!)

The worst part is that I can't live with trains(for all the above reasons). And yet, I can't live without them. Travelling halfway across the country between college and home means that the train becomes a part of your life. Okay maybe not nearly as big a part as it is for someone who works in the railways. But you've got to remember that my first long train journey (and by long, I mean a journey that's longer than a day) happened when I was 15. So I'm not much of a traveller and this is a big change for me.

Flying is simply too expensive (and irresponsible. It contributes far more CO2 per person that any other mode of transport. Yeah, I'm environmentally conscious.). And it makes me burn up whenever I hear about the high-speed rail networks in France, Japan. Even China! In comparison, our "superfast" trains travel at a mind-numbing speed of over 55kph. WOW!! :P

Sigh, what to do. A Pune-Delhi journey is gonna take 26 hours for the forseeable future. Might as well just sit, lean back and stare out the window. Maybe those pethas in Agra will be pretty good.

(Written on board the Karnataka Sampark Kranti express on Feb 6th. And the pethas were far too sweet :D)