Train Journey's are, I am sure, everyone in India loves and are frequent to travelling by Train. In India, if you want to travel all across India and that too safely, then Train is the Only means. Thanks, to Britishers, who Introduced Train to India almost 155 years ago. Since then, India has come a long way ahead. Now, we are on the likes of Bullet Trains of Japan, China, for which Work is already in Progress. I believe, Government of India, is leaving no stones unturned to make it a success story, and , I too wish to travel by Bullet Train In India as soon as possible. I would really love to travel from Mumbai to Delhi in say less than 4 hours, which at present takes almost 20 hours for a Journey of approximately 1350 kilometers. Trains, in India are undergoing a sea change, and it is not really so easy to upgrade, manage world's Biggest Train network. I hope, future governments will take even more wiser steps and make India's Train Journey, one of the most economical, memorable, beautiful experience of a lifetime.
Coming back to my story, on my first train Journey. It's an interesting story and like mine, I am sure, you all will have many such amazing stories to tell. The thing is, your stories just remain to yourself as they don't find a platform to go to the masses. I would rather like you all, to pen your amazing Train Experiences and enjoy reading the same many many years later in life and maybe share some for the world to read and enjoy.
The story goes back almost 3 decades back , when I was a kid(teenager). Since, it is about first train Journey, I will strictly stick to the first, but I have many more interesting stories to tell for many other train experiences of my life. I have met many amazing people during this Journey of time and even built lifelong friendships. I just love travelling by trains in India. There are various classes for travelling and each class has its own flavor. I love all classes, but I specifically love the 2nd class as you get to meet people of your taste and you have so much time and so many topics to discuss, like we talk of entire lifetime during these 15-30 hours. I have even travelled by Third class and that experience is again something different. I think, the closeness of Humans gets highest in that class. There are so many other things to do and try as well. We get to try and eat so many variety of food from various areas of India, as the train moves from one station to another. They say in India, on every 100 kilometers, the food , the taste, the tone of people's language changes. India you see is a very very diverse nation, like no other in this world. It itself is like one world, as we have so many varieties, in each and every thing. Everyone on this planet talks about Diversity of India. If I tell you, it is like a Europe in itself!! The "IndianNess" of India, is yet to get bigger on a global platform. Every fifth human on this Planet is Indian, yet every fifth Invention, every fifth richest, every fifth success story, every fifth discovery, every fifth patent, etc etc is or has not been coming from India. It is only in recent times, that somewhere India and Indians, are or have started to make some noise globally. I tell you, there is lot more the world is to see from India and Indians. I believe coming times, belong to "IndianNess".
It was, I remember very well, in the year 1995, March 1st (that is my birthday as well), while we were travelling in a train from Jaipur (Rajasthan) to Gorakhpur (Utter Pradesh). It was my first for so many things and the experience made it memorable for life. Before this, it was only on TV and in books that I saw a Train. The train we travelled was an express train and luckily, we had an amazing family with us that day as our companions. Those days, travelling used to take so long and used to take days, Even now, some of the long distance trains take 2-3 days time to complete the Journey. It took us 2 days and believe me, they went in a flash. They were a family of 4, Uncle, Aunt, their elder Son Manoj (In grade 10), and daughter "Tonya" (My age & My grade-7). My school was co-educational school, so getting along with the family was not that Hard. We began interacting with greetings & eventually, we started sharing food, drinks, life experiences and then our love life. I, particularly, got along nicely with Tonya, as she was very cute and very intelligent and so open like she knew so much about the world and people and just everything. Till today, we are friends & best of the friends. Initially, when we started the Journey, I was like, How will I spend 40 hours. But, being together with Tonya really helped me spend those 40 hours, I, still remember, it was March and Cold weather & our parents told us to get to bed early, but my curiosity to know and learn about Tonya did not allow me to sleep at all. I believe, even she was equally curious about me as she was also awake the entire night. Even today, If we have good friends group on train journeys, we hardly sleep during the journey. I learned from Tonya that she had a boy friend, and they were in so much love since last 2 years. I did not have any experience of a girl friend by then. It was Tonya who taught me what is what and all about love. She taught me the meaning of love and how you build a relationship and for that I am always thankful to her. I will remember her forever and that first Train Journey. Those 40 hours never, looked and felt long.
The experiences like these, makes and builds our character. We must consider, ourselves lucky, if we get chances to travel and meet people. They say our life is like an empty book, the book is always there, but without stories. It is on us and our luck that we get experiences and memories to fill that empty book and make it interesting. I wish, all of you to make your book interesting!!
Thanks and regards
AA 17.05.2023
