Life, Lilies and Surf

Chapter 4

Fortune, men say, doth give too much to many,

But yet she never gave enough to any

                                          Sir J  Harrison, Epigram.

Soon the eventful day came, when Latha was relieved of her duties as a clerk in her office to join her prestigious covenanted service that was ruling the department.  She traveled by third class compartment in the Grand Trunk  train to Delhi as in those days government never paid the fare to join duty.  There was a joyous farewell and her friends also hosted a party for her and Bhama.  In the farewell party, her division head who spoke in the occasion talked only about the higher entry level possible by the competitive examination.  He was a good speaker and  carefully refrained from openly praising  her for her success.  Possibly he thought that would be taken as flattering her, as she could even come to the same office and become his boss.

She had searched and bought some warm clothing.  Sweaters were not much in demand in Madras that has a climate of hot, hotter and hottest, as people in north would say.  Sixty years ago the winters in north India, especially Delhi and the hill stations of Himalayas were quite severe and lasted for longer period than now.  Madras was cooler in the so called winter months of November to March, while the states north of Vindyas were cold, colder and bitterly cold for couple of months.  Winter months have shrunk in the north now and so also cooler days in Madras.  In those days there were only three trains, the grand trunk express, southern express and janata.  The prestigious grand trunk express popularly called as G T, started at noon from Madras.  It had diesel engine and that was faster than the steam engine.  In fact GT and Southern Express had more number of bogies and so it used to have two engines, one at the head and the other at the tail of the train.  It took the whole day of boarding, the next day and night and on the third day used to reach New Delhi railway station at noon and that was the shortest and fastest time of travel.  The southern express would start in the evening at about four and after two nights it would reach New Delhi after the GT had arrived at noon.  These two trains would stop only at important stations and junctions.  At Nagpur the north bound G T and south bound G T would cross each other and shake hands at the center of India.  Oranges would be brought by basket full as the area is orange growing territory.  The janata train would take the longest time of three full nights and three full days.  It would have only third class compartments as the name itself suggested.  It would stop at all the stations as it was actually a passenger train and not an express.  People used to joke that if the driver of janata train saw any yellow board, he would halt the train there thinking it was a railway station. The names of the railway stations were always painted on yellow boards.  There were no air-conditioned  compartments in those times when our heroine was traveling.  There were  first class compartments with two lower and two upper berths in each cubicle that could be secured with a sliding door as it is there now a days also.  There was also a coupe that had only two berths, one lower and one upper with its own door.  There used to be six cubicles with a catwalk near the door as we find in the fast vanishing air-conditioned first class compartments of today.  The coupe was highly patronised by  newly married couples and those not so newly married but with some amount of romance left.

Coming back to Latha, she reserved only for a seat in two tier third class compartment.  It had two cushioned upper berths  and they had to be reserved in advance by paying additional cost.  The two  persons allotted these  berths had  ear marked seats in the sitting space below their respective berths.  There would also be four reserved seats in the remaining space, two in each side, facing each other.  As the track to Delhi was a major route, it was a broad gauge track as against the meter gauge tracks that were connecting  towns in different states, especially in the state of Madras, now called as Tamil Nadu.  As the name itself suggests, the distance between the two rails was one meter while in broad gauge the distance was more.  Hence the compartments plying on broad gauge were bigger.  The Indian Railways very conveniently for them and very inconveniently for the passengers built two seats opposite to each other, abutting the  windows opposite to the six sitting and two sleeping berths. There would be as of now, one upper sleeping berth for one of the seats below abutting the window.  In such an arrangement there would be very little space for gang way.  The poor souls who get the side seats would have inevitable parade of people numbering more than fifty in each bogey, going past them at all times of the journey.  This traffic necessitated more by mere three toilets at the two ends of the compartments  would be additional unsavory freebie for the unfortunate persons who get such side seats or  sleeping berth above these seats. This configuration of seats and berths was the same in the case of three tier third class compartments also.  But the three tier compartments  unlike two tier ones had the added flourish of a plank between the upper berth and lower seats cum berths perpendicular to the window.  This plank would have to be raised at night, after nine o' clock as per rule and slung by a chain  from the upper berth.  The passenger allotted this middle berth in a three tier compartment has to crawl like a big cat or a squirrel depending upon his size, and sleep on this plank.  Mercifully, the railways have not so far thought of making such a middle or muddle of a  berth on the two side seats adjoining the other window.