Monisha Rajesh is a London-based journalist writing her first book, Around India in 80 Trains. She has worked on the features desk of the London Evening Standard, and written for the Telegraph, the Guardian and TIME magazine.
Apr 18th, 2010 10:00am
Travelling great distances on Indian trains is like sitting in one long, cosy living room. Blanket-wrapped ladies feed kids from tiffin carriers, gossip passes between overhead berths and cross-legged I.T graduates play rummy on briefcases. Mobiles charge, laptops shriek bootleg copies of Three Idiots, and nappers snore behind curtained compartments, oblivious to the clamour. It’s a friendly confusion in which you can blend, or quietly observe.
However, after super-fast Shatabdis, comedy toy trains and the regal splendour of the Deccan Odyssey, only a clattering passenger train can take us from Trichy to Tanjavur – akin to jumping on the central line during summer rush-hour. But unlike the tight-lipped nods and snap of the Evening Standard, a fellow passenger will stretch out a gnarled hand to drop tiny bananas into your lap with a long blink and gentle head movement to the right, which means “that’s ok, you don’t need to give me anything.”
When we pull into Tanjavur, many hands reach for our bags, placing them deftly on the platform, before waving brightly through barred windows.
Definitely the most fun journey so far.
