All my bags are packed...

I copied "Leaving on a Jet Plane" from Vod a few days ago, and now I can't get the song out of my head. Hence the lame title. Incidentally, Vod has actually left on a jet plane. And he's actually not sure when he'll be back again. Maybe it's not such a lame title after all then.

Got back from a trip to Bangalore this morning. It's nice to get away from the city for a couple of days. It's even nicer when it's all on the Central government's expense! The catch was that I had to sit in an auditorium and listen to THREE organic chemists speak, interspersed with biopics of two physicists. It's then that you realize what a bum deal biology gets in this country. The only science that gets less focus is Math. But then again, since physics owes a great deal to math, math does get some reflected attention. So it's just bio. And I've had to listen to physicists tell me how confusing bio is and how logical physics is for the last two years. Sigh.
It wasn't half bad, though. Only one of the lectures was really bad. Most people either gave up trying to listen, or fell asleep outright. The highlight must've been the time when the third speaker made a rocket in the auditorium. Using a bubble top water can and methanol. Really.

It was a fun outing otherwise. I met pseudo and Lioness after a whole year.Lioness hasn't actually changed very much. But pseudo has, or seems to have, rather. Maybe it's because I've gotten to know her so much better over the last one year. She doesn't seem like the self-conscious, slightly inhibited girl I met last May. More like one of the select group of people I'd like to have with me in front of my fireplace. If I had a house with a fireplace, that is :)

In other news, the last two weeks have been pretty hectic. I've been volunteering in a theatre company here in Madras. There have been a spate of birthdays. soupy, estarra, pseudo and Chitra, to name a few. Oh, and mine as well. Appropriate changes have been made to the blog since.

That's all about me for now. I'm gonna return to observing and commenting for the next few posts.

And miles to go...

As you probably know by now, trains have a special place with me. Sometimes they infuriate me. Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise. But they will always be there, as unshakable as the main building of Egmore station. And nearly as old :D (Chennai Egmore turned 100 this month)

Railway stations are a different matter, though. I'm always at my most philosophical mood when I'm in a railway station. Think about it. Unless you're in a tearing hurry to do something once you get to your destination, there's no need to worry while you wait for a train. And even if you do worry, there's nothing you can do. The train will arrive when it does. Your luggage is safe with you. And you probably won't fall sick because of that coffee you just bought from the vendor on the platform. So just sit back, relax and watch as the rest of the human race files past.

It's an attitude that helped me a lot when "disaster" struck last June. There was flooding in Bombay then (as there is every summer) and my train to go back home from Pune was held up between VT and Kalyan. There wasn't much news coming from the enquiry counter, it was raining and I had two big suitcases with me. So I couldn't go out, I couldn't move around freely and I had no bloody idea when the train would get there (7 hours later, as it turned out). And that's when a calm, laid back attitude helps.

But I digress. I've always had a special attachment to the station in Udumalaipettai (Udt from here on). Udt is my mum's hometown. The station there is one of those classic small town stations. Two platforms, concrete benches, an inadequate asbestos roof over the platforms.

And a metre gauge track. Yeah. That means trouble for the time being. The railways is on a drive to convert metre gauge tracks to broad gauge, and is going about it piecemeal, at it's own pace. The line on which this station stands used to have trains that went all the way to Rameswaram. Now Coimbatore is completely broad gauge, And I believe there's no metre gauge line between Dindigul and Madurai. So there's a small island of metre gauge track between Dindigul and Palghat. To make sense of what I'm talking about, look here. (the map's a little outdated, I think)

Since it's such a small stretch, there's very little traffic on this line. Only ten trains pass through Udt. Both directions put together. That's really sad. Trains here hardly ever run on time. Since they are so unreliable, most people don't bother taking a train. Why would they? The roads out of Udt are pretty decent. And even State Transport buses here have colour TVs and DVD players (to play cheesy Tamil flicks). There's no reason for anyone to take the train . And that means the railways has even less reason to be punctual or improve services. The only people who take these trains now are the ones who seek nostalgia or have a lot of luggage.

It doesn't even feel like a real railway station anymore. The signalling system is antiquated. People gather there in the evening like it's a park of some sort. And the track is rusting over. Really. There's a fine brown coat on top of the rails. You probably won't find a finer example of a living museum.

Yet, the station lives on. And I'll never forget it. Not least for its ability to throw up some of the most beautiful sunsets. Orange light, sculpted exquisitely,yet softened by layers of clouds. Lush green trees, mostly coconut palms, provide a fitting foreground. It's a sight worth killing for. And something a 2Mpx camera phone can never do justice to.

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)