Yes, recently, after a few unpleasant experience in mid air caused by bad weather and my intuaitive fear of flying, I have taken to travelling by trains. Not fully true because there are still places were trains can not take you or can not take you first enough. But I have really taken to travelling between Delhi and Mumbai by trains and I have to make the following observations;
1. It only takes 16 hours to travel from Mumbai Central to New Delhi and the timings are very decent. You can almost finish your day's work in Mumbai and reach Delhi early enough to join office by 930 in Delhi. If you are travelling by Rajdhani you can be sure that in 90 per cent of the time the train would be on time. If you are travelling first class in that train you can be assure of a) a good night's sleep in airconditioned comfort b) great breakfast c) a shower so that you are fully prepared to rush to office in the morning.
2. In a sixteen hour journey you get three full meals which are much much better than whatever they serve you in planes and you can actually choose from a wide menu [at least in first class]. And those cutleries that have now disappeared from airlines, you still get to see them here with real plates, bowls and forks and knives. Food is served to you and not thrown at you. I was amazed to see once that they also carry sugarfree sachets as well as extra chocolates and icecreams, addressing both youngsters and oldies like me.
3. The toilets are cleaner than the normal airline toilets and if you find them to up to your standards of cleanliness you can get someone to clean them for you. The first class coach also has a shower. Toilet papers and mugs both are provided:)
4. You get to sleep on a berth which is six and a half feet by three feet and someone actually makes your bed for you. In addition there is an attendant to respond to your call, a bell being provided in each coupe. If you are an early riser you get bed tea too.
5. Sight seeing is free: You will be amazed to see Neel Gais and Peacocks at dusk while travelling from Delhi in addition to quaint little villages; while entering Mumbai the scene is not so attractive, though:)
If you want to enjoy this journey all you need to do is to book yourself once [you can do an online booking and travel with a printed ticket with your id from the irctc website] and enjoy the experience, I am sure you would be hooked.
A word few words of caution though:
1. Sometimes you will get stuck with the wrong type of co-passenger [ask the conductor to change your seat] I had once been on a 9 hour non stop flight with a pubjabi gentleman who was very talkative and was convinced that Punjabi is the national language of the world and he was shocked that I did not speak the language, that of course did not stop him talking with me all the way]
2. When the waiters come in the morning with saunf post breakfast you are supposed to tip them. 50 Rs in the first class is fine.
3. Most importantly, be careful at dusk and dawn. People standing by the side of the track are neither a welcoming party nor have they come to watch the train. If you watch carefully each one has a water container in their hands. Shakespeare said "world is stage" they say "world is a bog". So do not disturb they with your curiosity.
Bon Voyage
Monday, September 03, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
An Englishman in New York
This is the chair on which sat the "writer" of the Indian Constitution when he handed over that bulky but a watershed document to the first president of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad. I am not sure many would know who the write of the constituion of India was although most of us would be aware of the importance of that document in defining our national lives and our freedom and democratic principles in the last. Some of us who are a bit older would of course know Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar or Babsaheb Ambedkar as the father of the Indian Consitution.It was almost by chance that I happened to visit the small and rather quaint museum at Pune which has a few of his personal belongings such as his books, working table, dining table, crockery and cutlery, clothes, walking sticks etc. To me he looked a more western than many of his contemporaties and I did not anywhere see the hideous blue suit and the red tie which is most of his statues and calendars are painted. Instead there were some very elegant white shirts and dark grey suits. The museum itself is small but well kept by the Symbiosis Management Institute and happens to be on the main Senapati Bapat Road across the passport office.
Finally, for those of you who would be wondering why this entry is titled the way it is: Poona is traditionally the land of Peshwas and brahmins:)
Friday, August 17, 2007
What's Wrong With Our Kids
First there was this series on television - not the saas bahu but more ominous type of children dropping left right and centre in borewells and manholes. One day I sat all evening and nearly whole of the night watching live coverage of a kid being rescued from a borewell in Hissar or Hastinapur, I forget which. A few days back, the other child was not so lucky. Then another one fell through a manhole in Ghaziabad, yet another one in some part of Madhya Pradesh. The series, it seems, is far from being over.
In the meantime, we have a new series of abandoned babies being miraculously rescued here there and everywhere. Then there was this remarkable story of one child who was recovered three days after he was abandoned by a milkman. This series too continues.
Then of course there is the penennial series of children [both boys and girls] getting raped and molested in every part of the country with remarkable regularity. And finally there are the usual stories of children getting killed as collateral damage everywhere from kashmir to assam.
What is wrong with you kids? Can't you behave? Don't you know your sixty year old mommy is now decked in a new western outfit with a smear of maybeeline and a hairdo from bblunt is parading herself in front of a global audience flaunting her newly reconstituted figure much to the envy of many other younger global mothers? And daddy dear as usual is drank out of senses basking is her reflected glory. Can't you kids give them some piece of mind and some space to do what they wish to do? Can't you grow up on your own, after all we are 60 now, let us glow one last time before we are snuffed out.
Jai Hind
In the meantime, we have a new series of abandoned babies being miraculously rescued here there and everywhere. Then there was this remarkable story of one child who was recovered three days after he was abandoned by a milkman. This series too continues.
Then of course there is the penennial series of children [both boys and girls] getting raped and molested in every part of the country with remarkable regularity. And finally there are the usual stories of children getting killed as collateral damage everywhere from kashmir to assam.
What is wrong with you kids? Can't you behave? Don't you know your sixty year old mommy is now decked in a new western outfit with a smear of maybeeline and a hairdo from bblunt is parading herself in front of a global audience flaunting her newly reconstituted figure much to the envy of many other younger global mothers? And daddy dear as usual is drank out of senses basking is her reflected glory. Can't you kids give them some piece of mind and some space to do what they wish to do? Can't you grow up on your own, after all we are 60 now, let us glow one last time before we are snuffed out.
Jai Hind
Monday, August 13, 2007
Bihar Loot-ney
I was much enchanted by a hindi song rendered on the screen by Dr Shilpa Shetty. It went something like this "Dilwalon Kay Dil Kaa Karaar Lootney; Main Aayi Hoon UP Bihar Lootney". I will not attempt to translate it because much will be lost in translation. Having lived 16 years of my life in that state [in the real Bihar and not the current Jharkhand], I read more meanings into the song that many others. For one, like miss Shetty, the rivers in Bihar also have patli kamar [narrow waists], they are beautiful, dangerously attractive, and lethal when they strike:) And of course, they come to loot Bihar once every year, unlike Ms Shetty who has never set foot in Bihar.
True to tradition, this year too with the arrival of August Bihar is again on our TV screens with large parts of it flooded and with our leaders making sorties on helicopters to "assess the damage". And true to tradition of the last forty years, media is presenting this as something that has happened only this year. Hence statements like biggest flood in living memory et al. I have seen this story repeated every year since at least 1980 when I was old enough to separate bull from bullshit and it pains me to see that the trend - of repeated floods, air sorties by politicians and the reporting remaining the same. No one has ever done anything about it nor will. The reason is simple, Bihar is the most backward state in the country it neither has any money to give to anyone no do it's people ever voted on the basis of "economic and social achievements of its leaders". And of course, since the 1980s most resourceful biharis [like myself] cutting across class, caste and religion have chosen to migrate to Delhi and Mumbai if not New York and California never coming back anywhere near the Patna airport. And of course, Biharis are too good to harm anyone, all they do is to kill each other in their own state - never taking the violence out of the state nor killing anyone who pass through that state. It is, therefore, a completely autarkik society and economy, about which no one need fear and hence not do anything about anything and anyone.
For those who do not know this, there are districts in Bihar notably the Maithili heartland of Madhubani and Darbhanga where the land is flooded for almost nine months in a year. It would need a super economist to explain how people live off the land which is flooded for most parts of the year - but they do and its a miracle. The endemic flood seems to be spreading its wings to parts that were not usually affected even a decade ago, such as Champaran in the west and Katihar in the east.
I have taken the escapists route, but there are two people currently deciding on where Bihar goes tomorrow, both respectable, both with vision and both with the required talent to wind their ways through the byzantine alleys of Patna and Delhi politics to steer Bihar not to a bright future but at least to what it used to be when my father as a young 20 year old migrant landed up in the unknown town of Katihar in 1954. Oh you would also want to know the names of the two gentlemen who could "do something" about Bihar - here they are : Nitish Kumar and N K Singh.
True to tradition, this year too with the arrival of August Bihar is again on our TV screens with large parts of it flooded and with our leaders making sorties on helicopters to "assess the damage". And true to tradition of the last forty years, media is presenting this as something that has happened only this year. Hence statements like biggest flood in living memory et al. I have seen this story repeated every year since at least 1980 when I was old enough to separate bull from bullshit and it pains me to see that the trend - of repeated floods, air sorties by politicians and the reporting remaining the same. No one has ever done anything about it nor will. The reason is simple, Bihar is the most backward state in the country it neither has any money to give to anyone no do it's people ever voted on the basis of "economic and social achievements of its leaders". And of course, since the 1980s most resourceful biharis [like myself] cutting across class, caste and religion have chosen to migrate to Delhi and Mumbai if not New York and California never coming back anywhere near the Patna airport. And of course, Biharis are too good to harm anyone, all they do is to kill each other in their own state - never taking the violence out of the state nor killing anyone who pass through that state. It is, therefore, a completely autarkik society and economy, about which no one need fear and hence not do anything about anything and anyone.
For those who do not know this, there are districts in Bihar notably the Maithili heartland of Madhubani and Darbhanga where the land is flooded for almost nine months in a year. It would need a super economist to explain how people live off the land which is flooded for most parts of the year - but they do and its a miracle. The endemic flood seems to be spreading its wings to parts that were not usually affected even a decade ago, such as Champaran in the west and Katihar in the east.
I have taken the escapists route, but there are two people currently deciding on where Bihar goes tomorrow, both respectable, both with vision and both with the required talent to wind their ways through the byzantine alleys of Patna and Delhi politics to steer Bihar not to a bright future but at least to what it used to be when my father as a young 20 year old migrant landed up in the unknown town of Katihar in 1954. Oh you would also want to know the names of the two gentlemen who could "do something" about Bihar - here they are : Nitish Kumar and N K Singh.
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