It has been more than 20 years Travelling by Train. Travelling by train from Tambaram to Guwahati has been an unregretable experience. I still remember travelling all the way from Guwahati to Pune for 3 days on sleeper in the middle of summer. It was so hot that we used to cover ourselves with wet towel which would dry again, sometimes have a bath in the cramped train toilet.
Now circumstances have changed a bit in that I am travelling in 2nd AC and not sleeper but sadly most of the remnants of Indian railways remain the same and there is hardly any progress save for the bio toilet, earlier when you defecated, you could literally see your shit on the railway tracks and train stations used to smell. That’s a bit better now. But reading and looking around the world, it’s a far world from the Chinese and Japanese trains which are neat, spic and span and travel at 200-300 kilometers per hour.
The only saving grace of this train journey has been the beautiful farmlands you fly pass by, it’s much drier in the south and gets more lush towards West Bengal and Assam. Sadly, you don’t see much progress in the villages and towns that you fly pass by. They seem to be entombed in some time machine still backward, as you near a town or a village you can see the slums and also can see that open defecation is practiced openly everywhere. I don’t understand how our government can claim to be open defecation free. As with the big cities, scan regard is given to the environment and sewage mixes with industrial affluent flowing into the river. India maybe a developing country aspiring to be a developed country but it cannot ignore it’s environment, ignoring the environmental issues is akin to shooting onself. India’s software prowess is not having an impact on the agricultural poor, It’s time the government put’s more stress on using software and technology in increasing agricultural produce , most of the farmlands are still made using bullock cart and cows. This would increase the agricultural output. India’s population growth, especially in the northern part of India has to be controlled by family controlling or else there will soon be a point where there is not enough agricultural produce to feed the people.
