On Travels by Train - Part 1

On Travels by Train:

Part -1 : Passenger 4-47 (Four Passengers & Forty Seven Pieces of Luggage)

I was travelling from Chennai to Mumbai. I’d been to Chennai for a week and was now returning back. My trip to Chennai was a whirlwind trip and was planned at the last minute. But last minute trips never receive the blessings of the Indian Railways, as they expect you to plan your travel 2 – 3 months in advance.

Planning a trip is fine, as long as you are planning a vacation or you are planning to attend a wedding ceremony / religious function or plan to go on a pilgrimage. But how can you anticipate that after a couple of months a family member is going to fall sick or there is going to be a death in the family or something unexpected is going to come up? When something like this does come up, you find yourself in a quandary. For want of tickets I found myself in the same situation when I had to urgently travel to Chennai. After running around to railway booking offices, online booking sites and even approaching agents, I was still without a ticket. Then my brother suggested that I travel to Chennai by bus and that there were several private bus operators who ran services between Mumbai – Bangalore – Chennai. I was quick to heed his suggestion and soon enough I had a ticket in my hand. I was on my way to Chennai by bus the very next day.

The travel was no doubt very comfortable what with air-conditioned sleeper coaches and all. The only drawback being that you had to adjust yourself and your body clock according to the bus operator’s schedule. They decide where the bus halts and you have to ensure that you relieve yourself where they had halted. This was something that was not quite acceptable to me. Hence, while coming back to Mumbai from Chennai, I didn’t want to travel by bus.

Luckily for me, I got a ticket with a waiting list status 1 in Mumbai mail. I was sure that the waiting list would definitely change to ‘confirmed’ by the date of my travel, which was a week after I booked my ticket. The waitlist – 1 status changed to RAC-2 on the very next day of my booking the ticket. That was enough to boost my confidence that the ticket would be confirmed. On the morning of my date of travel when I checked the status, it was still showing as RAC-2. The train was scheduled to depart at 2250hrs and there was still time for the ticket to get confirmed. By the time I reached the station, the status was RAC-1. Now I was sure that my ticket would get confirmed after I boarded the train. Since I already had sitting space, I boarded the train and went inside.

What I saw flummoxed me. I sure did have a sitting space but I didn’t think that I’d get a place to sleep, even with confirmed tickets or even get space enough to keep my luggage for that matter. There was no chance of me catching forty winks during the journey. Forget catching forty winks, I was sure I’d have to keep my luggage on my lap throughout the journey.....28 long hours.

The reason being, my co-passengers, four of a family were travelling with around more than forty pieces of luggage. This luggage included travel bags of all size and shapes, several small shopping bags, cardboard cartons and to top it all a 125 litre plastic drum. I later learnt that the plastic drums were filled with Laddoos. To accommodate their luggage, they had used up all the luggage space available. The space under seat numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. While seat numbers 2, 3 and 6 were seats that had been officially allotted to them (one seat was in another part of the compartment) they had also used up the luggage space of seat numbers 1, 4 and 5. In addition, they had luggage stored on the berths. Not only that even the rack provided to store water bottles were not left vacant. Each of the racks, six in all was stored with bottles of water.

The train was soon in motion and by 23:30, my seat was confirmed. Much to my horror, the seat allotted to me was seat number one, which happened to be a window seat. A window seat is usually cherished by young and old alike, for what reason I don’t know, but somehow it gives a sense of achievement and satisfaction. I gave up all hopes of occupying that seat because reaching that seat was next to impossible. Impossible because several shopping bags, a huge carton and the 125 lt drum stood in my way.

Seat number six which was officially theirs was a side upper seat which they very graciously offered to switch with me. Very kindly they offered me seat number six in exchange for seat number one allotted to me. In other circumstances, I’d have gladly accepted their request and swapped seats with them considering the fact that they were senior citizens and it would hugely inconvenience them to climb up seat number six which was side upper. But considering the prevailing scenario i.e., I did not have any place to park my luggage, it was certain that I’d have to place my luggage on my berth itself. Most people who have travelled by long distance trains would agree that side berths are shorter than other berths comparatively. If I’d tried to accommodate my luggage and myself both onto this side upper berth, I would not have been able to sleep. In fact, I would be twisting and turning the whole night trying to accommodate myself and my luggage. On other journeys when I had the misfortune of being allotted a side berth I had to fold my legs while sleeping but with the luggage there was no chance that even folding my legs would do the trick.

Hence I was quick to reject this exchange offer. But still I didn’t get my lower berth number one, as they asked me to occupy their upper berth number two. Since it was already 0000hrs., I didn’t waste any time in shifting my luggage onto berth number two and getting onto it myself. It was still a tough task as my bag was fat enough and it occupied three quarters of one corner of my berth, leaving me little space to squeeze my weary legs one on top of the other. It was as if my legs had been bound together and chained to a pole. I somehow managed to fall asleep praying for the night to pass by quickly.

What I don’t understand is how could anyone carry that much luggage around with them? Doesn’t it give them the jitters just looking at the luggage? Doesn’t it inconvenience them? Don’t they even think about the inconvenience it might cause to other passengers? I surely do. I consider carrying even one piece of luggage with me as an inconvenience. If I had my way, I’d surely prefer to travel hands free. As a matter of fact I would suggest that the railways follow the same rule as airlines. Only allowing hand baggage inside the compartment and all other luggage should be shoved into the luggage van. But then again, it is not possible as that would require more manpower. Manpower to sort out and mark each piece of luggage, load and unload them and a proper system to streamline the process. This I guess is a tall order and will take a long time to be actually implemented. But then, it would be wrong on my part to talk about implementation when actually it is not even a thought in the minds of the authorities yet.

Therefore I think we’ll have to continue travelling like this and tolerate the intolerable foibles of our fellow passengers. Ciao!