Baki sab theek thaak hai!

AMRITSAR STATION

My latent desire to go to Amritsar finally fructified and I booked Railway tickets to travel by the Swarn Shatabdi from Delhi to Amritsar. I loved train journeys once upon a time, so was quite looking forward to it. I even told my grand children that they would see the Indian countryside and the towns as we passed them. I also told them that it was a prestigious train and would therefore be quite comfortable and clean. It was quite a disappointment by the looks of it, as the paint was chipping off, and it did not look like what I had imagined it would be. Nevertheless we boarded, my daughter purposely ran to catch the train in DDLJ( Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge) style, as it would never be possible anywhere else in the world, where the doors are shut before the train moves out. Don't want to sound hoity toity, but the fact remains that I have travelled a lot by train in Europe particularly Switzerland, UK, China, and have absolutely great memories of those beautiful, clean, gorgeous trains.

HAPPY WITH THEIR SEATS

The train moved, the tea was served and we were settled comfortably on our seats. We had excellent seat numbers and plenty of leg room. Soon the landscape changed and the fields and small towns went past us. The disappointment of the looks of the train started fading away, when the waiter serving us tea noticed that my grand children would neither drink tea nor coffee, so he brought them extra Marie biscuits, removed their tea tray and said, "Ye le lo beta". This dialogue of his touched my heart somewhere....this is India. This is what is "us", the relationships that we build so easily. Behenji, mataji, auntyji, bhai sahib, beta, these are the general terms used by all and sundry.We are all one big family!

SUMPTUOUS FOOD

The journey after that did not bother me and I took everything else in my stride.

The first stop was Ambala, and the announcement on the Public Address system said, "We welcome only passengers from Ambala......" I was quite amused by this declaration of bias towards passengers from Ambala. The next station was Ludhiana, again only the passengers from Ludhiana were welcomed. I thought it was quite strange and sounded not too good. By the time the third station arrived and the PA system was announcing the Welcome, I listened to The Hindi Welcome too. It said, “Phagwara se chadne wale yaatrion ka hum Hardik Swagat karte Hai." I realized that all this time the lady was actually saying, "We Warmly Welcome passengers from ..... and not "We Only welcome passengers from.....

After having solved this mystery quite successfully, I turned my attention to the passing scenery. Punjab is really a land of plenty. The fields were all green and fully planted. There were paddy fields , and sugar cane was present to a lesser extant. There was a pathway along the canal (nahar) on which people were going about on motor cycles and tractors. I also saw an elderly gentleman walking on the path probably taking his morning walk. It reminded me of my mother- in- law telling me that her father was the Dipty(Deputy) in the Irrigation department and he used to go on his horse for Inspection of the canals. That was the time of the British Raj and they lived in Imnabad which is now in Pakistan. My time traveller mind could find the similarities of a period about ninety years ago with this day. The nahar, the pagdandi(pathway), the same fields, the greenery of a fertile land, the prosperity of the people, everything seemed the same. The houses were few and all were pucca houses, they did not have the village like, rustic looking thatched huts. We crossed quaint little stretches of platform with two boards displaying the name of the station, a railway crossing with cars, tempos, motor cycles, tractors waiting for the train to pass, and a cluster of houses around the station. I felt glad that I had decided to take this train journey. It brought me in touch with My India, the real India. Prosperous, still rustic, still grounded, still surrounded by land, agriculture and crops.
Even though I strained my neck a lot, I simply could not see a Waheeda Rehman romping on the fields singing “Doongi tujhe reshmi rumaal oh banke zara nede aana( Des Pardes style). Could not see Simran( DDLJ style), simply couldn't see those beautiful damsels anywhere. OH! I know, those were all in the fields of the yellow sarson, so I guess if I come when the sarson is flowering and the fields look like a sea of yellow, I will see the damsels singing in filmy style! Eureka!

THE MIGHTY RIVER BEAS

Train journeys are still very romantic.They take us to our destination, and the view from the windows of greenery, prosperity, large rivers, little clusters of villages, power transmitters, electricity and power towers, the chaiwala visible but not entering your compartment, is a good memory.

THE OUTER POST OF AMRITSAR STATION

 One does have to overlook the toilets, the nasty complaining traveller who wants the complaint book as the waiter refused to serve him a cold drink, and the non existent cleanliness of the station.
One thing that I kept thinking about, was the same time of August in the year of 1947. I recalled the journey that a lot of people undertook on the train fleeing from Pakistan or India, leaving their homes, lands, belongings and memories. A lot of them lost their dear ones too. They all travelled on this very route, in very difficult, turbulent, disturbing and tragic circumstances. I know that a lot of water has since flown down the Ganges as well as the Indus, and yet I thought about those who travelled on this very route, and felt a little sad at those memories.

Back to the present day and time and journey, I have to say what most of us Indians usually say, after a full bout of complaints, "Baki sab theek -thaak hai!" (everything else is fine).