5:30: On my way back: It will be a long day. A cherished desire for train spotting waits to be fulfilled. I have a whole five rolls of film ready for my trip.
7:00: Alwaye: An otherwise busy station is almost empty. The Calicut intercity waits at the platform as a few passengers frantically try for tickets. In no hurry myself; I let them go ahead of me.
7:45: Waking Up: It’s a long wait in the sleepy town waking up to a new morning. There’s scarcely a soul at the station. A few rays of the morning sun stream through the clouds. To my surprise, the train turns up on time, behind a screaming red-yellow engine.
7:50: A long wait: We pass by the Cochin International Airport. Unlike the railway station, it is a busy day here – there are two aircrafts taxiing on the runway, and a few others waiting patiently for their turn at the terminal.
8:11: Click! Click!: My first train sighting! A bright red WAP4 screams past. I get to work with my camera.
8:20: A little sunshine: After playing hide and seek in the clouds, the sun finally streaks through. The countryside is bathed in warm, golden sunshine.
8:22: Dhadak! Dhadak!: We scream through the countryside. The stretch between Alwaye and Thrissur is one of the most beautiful in this country. Dotted with green fields and sparkling rivers, we travel through a heavenly countryside, caressing the curves.
8:51: Thrissur: A delicious breakfast of home-made idlis. We pull out of Thrissur. Whatever crowd was there in the train is no longer there. We glide past the slums that dot the trackside in Thrissur. It’s morning – time for the children to have their bath. Under the cascading water, they are dancing gleefully, oblivious of whatever the future may have in store for them.
8:52: A home for four years: Punkunnam, a suburb of Thrissur, with a small railway station, neglected by most super-fast trains. My home for four years during childhood. The station where I nurtured my love for trains and travel has barely changed, except for the odd fruit stall.
9:01: Coffee: They call it coffee. So do I – since I’ve paid for it.
9:10: Picture Perfect: The sun is shining again. I can see the hills coming closer. It’s time to take out my camera. Oh dear! It’s so lovely! Why am I going back?
9:11: Ghostly Sentinels: We pass through a couple of hills. It’s not yet autumn, but the trees are bare to the bark. They loom up like ghostly sentinels guarding the forest.
9:35: The great river: Bharatapuzha – Kerala’s longest river! A river which has spawned many a story and inspired many an artiste now lies as an expanse of sand – the victim of years of neglect and cruelty!
9:45: Shoranur: A small and sleepy town where nothing happens. The biggest landmark here is the sprawling railway junction, on the banks of the great river. As we wait for the 20-minute reversal stop, I notice a small shrine in the middle of the platform. It’s just a stone, nestling under a tree. But you can see a garland around it, with a teeka on its forehead. Does it teach me a lesson? Perhaps in the midst of all our toil in our daily life, we still can find God hidden somewhere!
10:15: Scarecrows dressed for the night: We are gliding on a green carpet. Fields stretch from the tracks to the hills in the distance. It is almost the harvest season. I can see the crops swaying in the wind. On the other side, the great river winds its way along with us. I also spy the occasional scarecrows, dressed in various outlandish costumes – one even in a night dress. Fashion designers in the making?
10:22: Speeding through: Ottappalam: One glance at the station will make people wonder why all trains stop here – well, almost all! Today we speed past at full throttle. A sight to behold!
10:36: Old Age: On the outskirts of Palghat lies the quaint little village of Parli. A row of old double storey houses, with tiled roofs and tiny verandahs, line the tracks. It’s a wonder that these haven’t been replaced by ugly concrete structures.
10:46: “Palghat Junction welcomes you”: The cloudy sky broods over Palghat Junction as we pull in. The first words that you hear as you enter the station is the pleasant announcement welcoming you, as well as information on the trains expected in the next few hours – something that is common to all railway stations on this division. Palghat, or Palakkad as it is known, puts me in a trance. Towards the South of the station, at the foot of the Western Ghats and the now-dry Kalpathy river lies the village of the same name. Kalpathy, the village made famous by the so-called “Palakkad Iyers”. We visit this place – my father’s ancestral home – every year. I can imagine the afternoon breeze sifting through the scorched road that leads down the hill. Rows of houses connected to each other by common walls line the roadside. The ladies of the house would have finished their cooking and would be engaged in heated discussions on Tamil serials (In olden days, it would have been on how much tamarind should ideally be used for preparing sambar, or what happened to that girl from the village who ran away with the guy she loved, but television has changed everything). I am completely enamored by its beauty. I wish I could get off the train.
11:00: Into the gap: A maze of tracks lead the way out of Palghat Juction. A few kilometers away, I can see the mountains. Their immense peaks are covered by a tablecloth cloud. Coconut groves reach up to the base of these mountains. The houses go by slowly, their gardens full of beautiful violet flowers.
11:13: Tiger-faces: Passing through Kanjikode. Two tiger-face WAG7s stare at me, heading a long goods train. After zipping through the station, we head towards the looming Walayar Ghats – the most beautiful part of our journey. On one side lies the sprawling plain of the Palghat Gap, while on the other, the looming mastiffs of the Western Ghats. A small stream of water trickles down the rock face, forming a tiny waterfall. A cloud runs ahead to cover the naked face of the rock. Soon, we are aside the mountains. Drool over the scene while it lasts!
11:20: Middle of the forest: From the scenic mountains and plains, we are in the midst of the dense Walayar forest. Above the noise made by the train, you can still hear the birds chirping away merrily. An old woman walks along the lonely forest trail, gathering wood for an evening meal.
11:24: Familiar frontiers: We pass through Walayar. The Malabar Cements factory towers over the small station, in the middle of the forest. National Highway 47, which runs parallel to us, is jammed with trucks trying to get past the Border Check Post of Kerala. In spite of all these, there is an uneasy silence in the air, punctured only by the rickety sound of the train. Soon we will pass above the small stream, which separates the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
11:38: End of roll: It’s only three and a half hours since I started, but I’ve finished the roll in my camera! – and more than two thirds of the photos do not feature any trains. We are passing through the open Tamil Nadu countryside. The mountains are coming closer to us.
11:40: The dancing men: Ettimadai – Once a broken down station, now spruced up because of the sprawling campus of the Engineering Institute nestled into the hills behind it. An omnipresent tablecloth obscures the hill top. A group of students are performing some sort of calisthenics on the terrace of one of the hostels. Perhaps some kind of a noon-time ritual. A small temple adorns an adjoining hill-top, announcing that you are now in Tamil Nadu.
11:47: A Cemented Presence: We zip past the huge Madukkarai Cements factory. It’s a chalky white environment. Even the rooftops of the adjoining houses have become permanently ashen, as if in a gloomy ghostly world.
11:49: Yaadein Yaad Aati Hai: The iron horse slows down to a trot after steaming past Podanur. We are approaching Coimbatore Junction! Old memories keep flooding back. The few years when my father was stationed here, the summer vacations I spent here as a kid, I remember all those!
12:00: Coimbatore: The end of my first leg of the journey, I take out my cell phone and find that it has been switched off. As I turn in on, I hear the familiar beep of an SMS – perhaps one of those “Dear Karnataka subscriber, Airtel wishes you…blah blah blah” messages. To my surprise, it turns out to be a Good Morning wish from my friend. Alas! Too late to wish her back by any standards…
12:15: Basic Necessities: My stomach screams for attention, and I oblige with a delicious helping of “Thayir Saadam”. I love this place!
12:30: Time to waste: Two hours to go for my next train. I spend some time composing questions for my next quiz. Fed up with it soon, I decide to explore the vast, but generally empty station. There’s a small crowd waiting for the Coimbatore-Chennai Kovai Express.
12:45: Cleanliness & Godliness: They say cleanliness is next to godliness. The Indian Railways seem to be on a drive to keep the station clean. On every empty track you can see a railway employee, cleaning the place with a powerful jet of water. In another half an hour, the next train will come in and leave, and he will have to start his job again!
13:15: The Beehive: The station is suddenly abuzz like a beehive! I look ahead and spot the Bangalore-Coimbatore Inter City Express smoking in. This will now double as the Kovai Express to Chennai. In barely a few minutes, the train is full, and everything is quiet again. Thankfully, it is a weekday. On a weekend, you would need to push your way through here.
13:55: Gaadi Bula Rahi Hai: The Inter City Express to Bangalore hoots its way in from Chennai. The absence of much of a crowd helps my cause in obtaining a window seat. I’m on my way again!
14:25: An age old city: Those who’ve been to Coimbatore know that it is a hugely expanding textile centre. However, pulling out of the station gives you a contrasting image of the city. The train takes you through some remaining vestiges of the old city. You can see the long closed-down gate of the Somasundaram Mill. A dilapidated road passes underneath the track. It’s cracked at several places and no longer in use…
14:38: Steeped in tradition: ….Huge “Kolams” dot the courtyards of the old houses. It is afternoon now, but the designs are still fresh from the morning, when you wake up hearing the devotional hymns blaring out from the nearby temples.
14:46: Pal do pal ka saath: My fellow travelers are an old couple from Palakkad. They are sleeping peacefully in each other’s arms, as a gentle breeze caresses an otherwise hot afternoon. A momentary glance through the opposite window, gives me a glimpse of the impending storm. Black ominous clouds gather, threatening to spoil this idyllic bliss.
15:10: Déjà vu: The storm breaks in a torrent over the town of Tiruppur. Travelers waiting for our train are caught helpless in the downpour. Looking out of the window, I can barely make out the adjacent track. I’m transported back a couple of years when traveling in the same train, I encountered a similar ferocious storm at Salem.
15:23: A sea of mud and water: What was a couple of hours ago a thoroughfare is now a sea of water and mud. Cars and buses are floating in the road nearby. The result of nature’s fury or man’s neglect?
15:30: The rain has relented at last. I open the window. Small drops are still dripping from the window sill. The smell of the damp earth fills the air.
15:33: She’s really attractive…and her long hair is lovely! With a glance back, she walks away into the adjoining coach…
15:42: My dil goes mmmm…: There’s still rain in the air…a cool breeze blows…I lean on to the window and start humming…
15:51: The heat is on: Whatever happened to the rain? A hot and dry wind blows as we pull into Erode Junction.
16:11: The divide: Kaveri! A bone of contention that divides two states; a lifeline for many who depend on her and worship her as a goddess. Today, she’s swollen to her full by the rains, and flows angrily with twirling currents, as we thunder over her on the long bridge.
16:25: Anangur, a small station in the middle of nowhere…You wouldn’t give a second place to this place as you pass through. But today, it has transformed itself into a different world. A group of children dressed in white and blue is returning home from school. A game of cricket is on nearby. A group of men sit under a tree on the platform, engrossed in a game of cards. A couple of women are gathering sticks, perhaps to light a stove, discussing among themselves what to cook. To add to this environment, a distant sandstone hill glows red in the evening sun.
16: 32: We crawl to a stop at Sankaridurg, a sleepy little village with a station bigger than itself. Underneath the tracks, a road leads to the village square, which houses a few shops, most of them closed. In the distance, the bare hills glow in the sun. The whole place looks as if taken out of a Bollywood movie.
17:03: Thodi si Pet Pooja – Arrival at Salem Junction. I feast myself to some vegetable cutlets. Delicious enough to satisfy my hunger, but pale in comparison to those we used to get in the University Canteen during my college days. The late evening sun bathes the platform with his golden hue. The place is filled with small saplings – thanks to an group called the Salem tree lovers or something.
17:11: Avenues, wells and ayyanarkoils: The last leg of our journey is on…the single line from Salem to Bangalore is dotted by the huge ayyanarkoils, which guard the villages in these parts. This is a landscape filled with tree-lined avenues and wells.
17:45: In the middle of nowhere: Muttampatti, a small and beautiful station, almost in the middle of nowhere. We have just climbed up the Deccan Plateau. On one side of the station, the tracks move down the hills into the plain below, where as on the other, they curve onto the forest beyond. As we proceed, I spot a small stream flowing alongside the road that follows us. Soon, the road is no longer visible. It has transformed into a forest trail. If not for the train, you wouldn’t believe that you were in the midst of a civilized land.
18:10: The last rites: Dharmapuri. The climb is over. The sun is setting on the opposite side, casting his fiery glow on everything. In the distance, the mountain tops are ablaze in the evening light. Rejoice O Nature! You have just performed the last rites on my sad, short vacation.
21:00: The train has stopped at Baiyyappanahalli. What started off as an anticipated long day had ended abruptly! I get down here with a heavy heart. Tomorrow will be a new day, a new trip… Back to hearing and giving IT-related fundas! Is this the life we are longing for? Today, I saw my country as I want to see it. I saw a life which I would love to live. I’m now back in the life I’m living. After today, I’m none the wiser!
