GOOD OLD RAILWAYS

Romancing the Railways

He peeped out of the train compartment window as the train slowed down and  jolted to a halt that winter morning. Yes it was an unscheduled stoppage at a small railway station with a solitary uncovered platform.

It was all quiet except for the sound coming from the engine as it idled and released steam. Smoke was rising from a chimney in a nearby hutment on that winter morning. He looked out for a tea vendor but there was none. He needed a hot cup of morning tea.

It was an old model first class compartment with an attached attendant's cabin. Mahadev his resourceful travel attendant presently entered with a steaming pot of tea.

" Oh good! where did you get tea ?  he cheetfully asked Mahadev.

" I got boiling water from engines boiler " Mahadev said, stirring the  pot with a spoon  to mix the brewing darjeeling tea leaves , "But there is no milk or sugar"

He was carrying a packet of milk-and-sugar sweets. He crushed a couple of sweets in his cup and poured the steaming hot tea. The cup that cheers was ready !

That was someone in the family travelling across India in the early fifties. He would write letters while travelling,  sharing  his experiences with us. As a kid I eagerly looked forward to reading   those long interesting  letters.

In those days trains had steam engines.Most of the drivers were happy-go-lucky anglo indians wearing purple overalls and a smile.

They would give you boiler's  scalding hot water on request.  Some trains occasionally had to make unscheduled stop at small stations to allow mail trains to pass as there was usually single track connectivity between stations.

Except for the big junction stations, there were no food stalls at the railway platforms. Tea vendors, usually teenage lanky boys, ran across the length of the platforms  calling out  "CHAI CHAI" and stopped to pour hot ginger tea in earthen desposable cups called kullhar to the weary travellers as a train came to a stop.

There would be shouts of "O chai, come here " from numerous train windows. The chai wala boys would dispense tea as quickly as possible and rush from one window to another train window until  the train started moving again.

There were spacious  railway colonies at  railway headquaters towns and these colonies had a high standard of cleanliness and a better  lay out with wide clean road and ample street lighting at night.. When one entered a railway colony he would instantly feel a difference.

AH Wheeler bookstalls were ubiquitous.  There was one in most bigger railway stations selling paperback books , grown up's and children's magazines and newspapers. In the small city where we lived, there was a big A.H.Wheeler stall at the railway station which offered a variety of  good novels and magazines

and we would regularly visit it for our supply of books and magazines.

As time rolled on, platform got overcrowded with passengers and vendors.  Those days of laid back railway times are past, those  vintage railway days. It is all  very noisy now.

There is no longer any  romance in the railways. There is, literally and figuratively, no steam left.

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