Train journey!!

So train journey..this is something which is always fascinating and given lot of experiences since childhood though i have nt travelled in trains when i was kid as my father doesnt believe in planned travel and also he prefers to travel by bus which for him sounds economical and he always decides on the last minute for any travel and bus is a friend of last minute deciders than trains...

So my experience with train has become really memorable and more relishing in 2009 that too between two destinations...yeah its chennai and bangalore!!!for nearly 4-5 months every week week i do up-down train journey between these two destinations and ofcourse alone!!!initally it was somewhat tiring and i get more tired when people ask "how come u travel every week" and esp " 5-6 hrs in trainnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn wow" etc.... but then as the week started rolling out i started enjoying my travel and waited for the weekend to come....Every friday afternoon i use to take the 3 PM train from KRpuram station and reach my desti chennai in the evening by 8-830 where my dutiful hubby wl be waiting for his betterhalf to come and trouble him and his weekend(he never complained though!!!!!).i use to start from office in the afternoon as usual after giving some excuses(to my BOSS - interesting character will write abt him soon) and sometimes even without giving any and asking friends to manage and reach station....the train most of the time doesnt come on time ..so my train journey actually starts with observing some interesting conversations and happenings in the platforms....mostly there may be lot of tamil speaking crowd who are eagerly waiting to reach thier motherland(TN) and most of them who get in from that station are average 20-30 of age and most work in some xyz IT company(how i know it....he he he they all have the backpacks with thier co names or logo...so i assume they work for them and they are proud to cal themselves XYZ ian by having the bags and also they have all the latest gadgets like iphones,ipodsm,notebook what not.....).So these young geeks really provide u wonderful past time....they most of the time hook to thier mobile phones and obviously the otherside would be thier opp sex and much late the train arrives that much more the groundnuts brewing happens...and if u get to sit next to one of those cell gurus and u happen to understand the language...u will have good time...yeah i know eve's dropping is not a good habit..but then at 3 Pm in afternoon and unpredicatble southern railway trains its not that much of a bad idea to involve oneself in those conversations...mostly the conversaions are girl friend/boy friend types..and for all you know these dialogues and conversations will provide encouragement\inputs to the directors\writers for romantic subjects and novels...these are all only platform stories and once you board the trian there are lot of other things that you get to notice and follow till you get down....generally i travel by second class and the train i travel has regular/daily commuters who have pass or season tickets to travel in between destinations and though it is reserved train and has only two or three general compartments still anyone and everyone gets into the reserved boggies and top of it they even demand u to adjust a bit and sit though u have a reserved ticket....very rare scenario if i get to use my seat fully for myself and not being encroached by other co passengers...at some point in time they will a mishap and u cant even get up and attend your nature calls(hope u get what i mean)...But inspite of these short comings one can still enjoy the travel with the interesting things happening around....u can learn a lot....specially the railway vendors who manage to sell eatables,water and esp soup....they really sell and market the soup at one point u feel like buying and throwing it even if u dont want to drink...so much marketing they do the management graduates esp the marketing guys should really do a study on these guys...they manage to traverse through the sitting,standing and sleeping crowd and walk atleast 10 boggies to complete thier targets...(what and all u can learn)..And one more thing is that the crowd that get into this train are from diferent strata of life... ranging from a urban upper middleclass student,IT professional to a ticketless traveller,vendor,beggars,physically challenged people etc travelling in the same class...

When the train reaches mid way through we can see lot of college students getting into the train...there is a famous college(sorry now a deemed university) and the students get in like crazy to reach chennai (mostly the hostelides) ..The people who study in that college mostly are mostly from affulent class(becos the fee structre and facility offered are so) and inspite of it they tend to travel in this class as it is the shortest travel time to rach thier hometown....the train really become happening when the students take in charge and u dont realise when you actually reached the destination....The really keep u on with thier jokes,pulling each other within the group,thier campus stories etc etc....one of those journeys even one of the student travelled in the same compartment as mine was really souding interessing to me(Hope my hubby forgive me for this!!!!) and i was followiing thier group and thier activities till the train reached chennai...even the same observation was happening from the other side as well(thinking i am single and ready to mingle:) ).But after that one journey never happened to see the same group or the interesting someone again!!!!
So this is how my journey was for sometime last year till i got transferred to chennai completely...Even though i did not have the pain of travelling every week i somewhat felt that i am missing something in life for quite sometime after i shifted to chennai..One more encouragement in recent times to remember about train journeys is gautam menon movies(VTV,VA) where he would have given some cute romantic sequences in trains..So the train journet means different things to different people and its been a really meant a lot for me and in some part of my life it was playing a part in my life(yeah it was bringing back me to my hubby every week LOL)..With this i am signing off and catchya with more interesting stuff soooooooooooon...
ciao