Banana, Good day & mineral water

what is your favorite mode of travel, 3-tire AC, Business class air travel or a private cruiser, mine is unreserved train travel, i.e.. general compartment, my friends who knows Hindi can recognize my Hindi knowledge which is mostly attributed to train travel, “Yatrigan kripya jyandije .. ghadi number ... Mumbai sai Chennai central sub janevalli ....platfrom number .. aaye hey”, ya I know its not exactly Hindi, but this is what I “hear”.

I haven't tried any form of luxury travel in my life before coming to IIITB, some times I end up paying 190 bucks for Bangalore-Mysore trip because its a bit faster and I can sleep properly(it doesn't mean i cant sleep in other situations), the one thing that I miss after coming to Bangalore is train travel (the other one is hot sun).

I don't know how many of you will agree that it's fun to travel in general compartment, the never ending line of vendors selling anything like chikkus, bananas, roasted ground nuts, murukku and other eatables.

I observe that most people in reserved compartment are well planed families who have the idea of hygienic food (i.e. Cooked and packed from home) or people who don't hesitate to spend money in branded products or people who hesitate to buy from these poor vendors, why others, even I feel awkward to buy and eat from these vendors when I travel in reserved compartment because no one else will be doing that, so I decided to be a general compartment person.

I even calculated the amount of money I spent on eating in one journey, 200 bucks is not that bad you know, few cups of coffee, two or three cups of tea, masala tea, tomato soup , ground nuts, samosa, a dozen of chikku, one or two custard apples, bananas blah blah blah ...

I always board the train with Deccan Chronicle and Hindu (why two?), I have to take care of my cloths which are mostly light colored ones (I have to wash them), so DC helps here..i travel light, light in sense real light(both in money and luggage), I didn't have a mobile phone, mostly I'll be unshaved and wouldn't have had a haircut, a small bag with a set of cloths and some books, every time I reach home I'll be hearing the same comment (grandfather: who will believe if you say you are a college student, mom: why torture me every time, all our relatives know about your pathetic state, I wont find a girl for you, dad: no girl will come near you) irrespective of what time I reach home (mostly around midnight), followed by “did you eat?”, the obvious answer is yes, no matter weather I ate or not, I don't want to trouble my mom to prepare something at that time, first of all I wont inform her, giving her an unpleasant surprise, and she'll be very angry of my appearance(don't forget the long nails).

I think I understand the kind of people who do general compartment travel, some wired people(Me!!), daily travelers, some people who didn't get a reservation or unplanned journeys, some poor people who don't know that reservations exist or can't afford that, etc.. however very few people enjoy journeys the way I do(I think), the heavy wind (some times hot) that hits your face when you sit near the door, the struggle to hold sambar from flowing out of plate, the water splash on face(people wash their hands thro the window, ya I know yuk..), fight between kids, elderly people, general discussion that ranges from politics to daily life, hmm It feels good.

But I should caution, if you don't like to sit with dirty people, hear some unpleasing words, worry about sitting comfortably through out the journey, or people snoring in your ears please stay away.

Other than that it's a wonderful experience to know about the majority of India, eat good snacks and fruits at throw away price, get good flow of air, and most importantly get to know some “good” bad words.

Welcome, to a new world of journeys

PS: what is “banana, good day & mineral water”, my regular food/eatables during journey nowadays, I cant expect vendors at every stop in bus, can I?.

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