Train of Hope

A heartwarming story of a train stopping at a nondescript railway station in Japan just to help a girl passenger reach her school has become a social media sensation. The train stops at Kami-Shirataki railway station located near the girl’s house once in morning and in evening to help her commute to school. She is the lone passenger from that station to commute in that train.

It is reported that the train will not stop at the station, located in hinterlands of the Hokkaido island, after March, once she finishes her schooling. But there are some skeptics who have dismissed it as a PR gimmick and pointed out that the plan to take off stoppage at Kami-Shirataki has more to do with the ending of fiscal year in March, than the girl’s academic year.

However, the very fact that a government could ensure that a train stops at a station just to provide last mile connectivity to a student, is something that sounds too good to be true in these parts, where mai baap syndrome reigns supreme and railway ministries always took the cake. Raiilway ministers, irrespective of the government in power, have always been ardent practitioners of this art, with the order of priority being self interest followed by electoral arithmetic.

Railway budgets have always been used as a platform to dole out new trains, railway lines to keep their own constituency or the state in good humour, with little regard to feasibility, overall health of the railways or needs and aspirations of people residing in other parts of the country. Moreover sundry MPs and MLAs too have wielded the levers of power to introduce new train stops or divert the route mainly to fulfil their own pet agendas. 

A very glaring perversion of the above Japanese story happened in the early nineties in our country, when Jaffer Sharief was the Railway Minister. He introduced Lalbagh Express from Bangalore to Chennai with just one stop at Katpadi. The train timings were such that it helped a student commute daily from Bangalore to Christian Medical College at Vellore near Katpadi. And that student happened to be none other than the minister's own daughter!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Unreserved Chaos

The other day I had to rough it out in the ‘cattle class’ (general compartment) of a superfast train for a three-and-half-hour long journey, for want of an alternative. As it was around 6.30 pm and the train was nearly criss-crossing the country from Ernakulam to Delhi, I did not even take a chance to try my luck in a sleeper class compartment.

Earlier while buying the ticket at Koyilandi (a mofussil station near Kozhikode) for Mangalore I had enquired if it was any way possible to upgrade it. The woman at the ticket counter replied in the negative and warned that as it was already dusk I might risk getting fined if I travelled sleeper class with an ordinary ticket!

Having travelled many times in the reserved sleeper class for long trips (lasting 2-3 days) I was all too familiar with the inconvenience caused by those without reservation. Hence I decided not to be a cause of their misery and braced myself for the din, bustle and stench of the general compartment.

They are generally the first or last compartment of the rake and are the most unkempt ones. The train arrived about 20 minutes late and I made a dash to the last compartment, which looked already full with little foot space left. 

I did make it to the passage of the train and moved further into the aisles aiming to get a seat. A couple of years of commuting 'sardine class' in Mumbai’s suburban trains have taught me that getting into the aisle was the best way to ease suffocation, prevent achy shoulders and even get a seat in the bargain. 

About two stations later lady luck smiled, though the seat I got was hardly comfortable. Nearly six passengers were squeezed into a row seat, which was actually meant for 3-4 people.

The passengers were a mix of locals who were going on short haul journeys lasting a couple of hours and the migrant workers, who were in for a long haul to their home towns in the country’s cow belt. This under-class also happens to be the mainstay in general compartments of almost all the trains that chug along the Indian Railway’s expansive network. 

As for Kerala these migrant labourers provide the much-needed brawn to its acute shortage of manual labour, thanks to the upward mobility of its natives, who prefer white collar jobs or migrate to Gulf countries. After months of back breaking work at construction sites and other places that require hard labour, they were on their way to meet their near and dear ones. 

From the snatches of conversations I overheard I could gather that some were going to attend marriages, some to fix the roof or flooring of their houses and some even to reclaim their dues from recalcitrant and shifty borrowers.

In Loop With Wireless World

Though the way they live or travel may not have changed from their predecessors (could see the same old padlocked antique looking trunk boxes and cloth bags stocked under the seats), there was one tangible difference.

The new generation migrant workers have definitely got a toe hold into the wireless digital world, all thanks to low call rates and the entry of cheap mobile phones in the market. The presence of large number of smartphones (mostly of the Chinese and Indian make) in the compartment came as quite a revelation to me.

These labourers may be light years away from following the Mahesh Murthy-Mark Zukerberg free basics vs net neutrality debate and the ad blitzkrieg by Facebook, but they appeared quite savvy and nimble fingered while handling the devices they had in hand. Almost everybody was busy playing games, listening to music and watching downloaded movies to sustain them for the long journey. Some were even WhatsApping.

A couple of them were on the lookout for sockets to plug in their phone chargers. I am sure some of those ancient trunk boxes may even have power banks stocked in them!

A couple of years ago there was a news item stating that India has more mobile phones than toilets, a finding that was not so flattering and pointed to the skewed priorities of our countrymen. Now the day is not far when we may hear that the country has more smartphones than toilets!!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat