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| Photo Courtesy – Atul Vaidya |
Indian, one mode of transport which we all would have used at least once in our
life is a train. A mere mention of trains can evoke in our life many memories
like the fun filled train journeys during vacations, an exciting journey to
reach your hometown or the boring train journey for business. I have always
been a big fan of train journeys; it’s hard to tell you what I like the most, I
still can’t figure out if it is the beautiful sceneries, the hustle and bustle
in the train, the constant chattering of the people or the endless food items
making the rounds at every station. But in midst all these things, there is
something more to the Indian rails and that is “RAIL ROKO ANDOLAN.” It is a
common terminology in India, literally meaning “Stop the Train Movement” and
it’s mainly used by a group of people who want to make certain bodies, mainly
the government, listen to their woes. So, what happens when you are on route
your vacation and suddenly it is interrupted with a “Rail Roko Andolan?” I will
tell you exactly how it feels; because, I was one of the unlucky ones to
experience this. So, here is my story about Rail Roko Andolan which happened on
28th January 2010 on route to Bandhavgardh.
the winter of December, I, along with my sister and friends, decided on going
for a wildlife trip to Bandhavgardh in Madhya Pradesh in Northern India. If you
are a wildlife enthusiast like me then you would definitely know Bandhavgardh,
it is a well known wildlife destination, especially famous for its gorgeous
tigers. We chalked out the plan and decided on going to this trip in the last
week of January 2010. To enjoy a wildlife trip, one needs at least 5 days, 3
days for the jungle safari and 2 days for the travel, so, we planned a 5 day
trip. Now, the thing with wildlife tour is you get two safaris in a day, one in
the morning and the other in the evening. Keeping this in mind, we had planned
accordingly, and booked Kamyani Express; this train leaves Mumbai at 12.40 p.m
and reaches Katni Junction in Madhya Pradesh the next day at 10 a.m. Katni
Junction is the closest station to Bandhavgardh. Our plan was to reach our
resort around 1.00 p.m, to have lunch and then head to the evening safari.
Everything was set and as planned we boarded the Kamyani Express.
of us which included me, my sister Varsha, brother in law Sandesh, friends
Purvi, Tanvi their dad Bharat Uncle, Atul, Mitesh and Farhad. As you would
know, no train journey is complete without the food flowing in the group.
Likewise, our journey too was packed with lots of food to munch on and lots of
chit chatting. My sister and I had packed fried rice for dinner, Purvi got nice
homemade theplas and some dry snacks, Atul got awesome burgers and kheema pav
from our favourite eating joint in Mumbai. Happily, we hogged on all the
available food, played cards, cracked stupid jokes, laughed, wondered whether
we would be fortunate enough to get sightings of the magnificent tiger and then
retired to bed.
about to reach Sagar station.
supposed to leave Sagar Station and head towards Katni Junction.
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| Photo Courtesy – Purvi Mistry |
Alas, it didn’t leave Sagar station! It was around 7.15 a.m, when we all were enjoying
our sleep. In less than 3 hours we were to reach our destination Katni
Junction. Suddenly, our sleep got disturbed because the train was not moving
ahead and we realized it’s been half an hour since the train halted midway. We
got out of the sleep and peeped from the window and saw lots of passengers on
the railway tracks. Puzzled, we asked other passengers in the train about what
was happening at the station and one of them said, “Koi rail roko andolan chal
raha hai Sagar station pe, andolan karne wale trains ke saamne baith gaye hai
aur kissi bhi train ko aage jaane nahi de rahe hain, dono taraf sab bandh kar
raka hai.” We were about to witness our
worst nightmare! Like others, we too got down from the train and could see
hundreds of people dispersed all over the railway tracks and as we moved
further towards Sagar station platform, we saw a lot many trains stopped on
both the sides of the track. In this entire thing, what was most surprising was
that the movement was mainly led by the women of Sagar. There were dozens of
women sitting on the tracks with big banners and shouting slogans against the
local bodies. After checking with someone, we got to know that the agitation
was against the local bodies asking them to start more local trains for the
locals to commute from Sagar to nearby cities. Apparently, people from Sagar
had problems commuting everyday and even after many complaints nothing had been
done and that’s why this time they came
down to the “Rail Roko Andolan.”
Nothing
to do and nowhere to go, we too happily sat on the tracks, after all, it’s not
every day that one can enjoy sitting on the railway tracks. This happy moment
was now slowly turning into frustrating one because the people of the andolan
were just not budging. We all were waiting patiently for the train to start and
were optimistically thinking that this all will get over and in next few hours
we would be enjoying our first safari. But it was not going to be the case;
this agitation was not going to end soon. We were waiting from 6.53 a.m and it
had now been 10.00 a.m and we were still waiting for the train to start. At
10.00 a.m, we were to reach Katni Junction, but here we were still stuck at
Sagar. But this was just the beginning, the worst part started when our
stomachs started roaring with hunger and because of the agitation there was hardly
any food available on board. To satiate our hunger, we helped ourselves with
the dry snacks that we were carrying.
was soon turning to afternoon, it was close to 12.00 p.m and our resort driver
who had come to pick us was still waiting for us at the Katni Junction. It was
getting frustrating now; it was noon and we were still stuck at Sagar, which
means we were going to miss our evening safari. Instead of waiting any further,
we decided on taking the next step and called the resort driver who had been
waiting for us at the station, and asked him if he could come and fetch us at
Sagar station. He said, “Humein Sagar aate aate teen ghante lag jayenge.” 3
hours which means 3 hours of more waiting and we were in no mood to wait in the
train with no AC and it was also getting suffocating inside. We ditched this
plan; each passing minute was angering everyone and to pass the time, few of us
slept, few talked and few waited desperately for the train to move.
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| Photo Courtesy – Atul Vaidya |
passed by, it was 1 p.m, Bharat Uncle was getting more and more frustrated so
he decided to go out and see if he could do something. And, he came back with a
car rental number who agreed on taking us to Bandhavgardh. That’s it! Around
3.00 p.m, we packed our bags and walked the entire track to get out of Sagar
Station and as we moved out, we gave a sarcastic smile to the people of Rail
Roko Andolan. And I think they were enjoying the sight of harassed poor
passengers. Nevertheless, we moved on, straight into our rented cars.
being a train trip this was turning into a road trip and this road trip was
going to take a lot of time. Bandhavgardh was a straight 6 hours drive from
Sagar, which meant we would reach our resort only late in the evening. As we
were 8 of us, we had to book two cars; the drive was a beautiful one as it
passed through quaint villages and pretty landscapes. Adding on to this, was
spotting of some great birds. As we were starving from morning, we had to take
a lunch break; we cherished some roadside dhaba food consisting of yummy
parathas and moved ahead. But, our little adventure was still not over, it was
getting dark, roads were bad and suddenly one of the cars broke down, there was
a tyre puncture. In the middle of the highway with no street light, it was
difficult to change the tyres, but somehow the driver managed to change it,
they are pro at all these things. The break down affected our travel time, from
evening it was now turning into night and we all were exhausted, we just wanted
to sleep. It was around 11.p.m when we took a dinner break at one of the dhabas
and then headed straight to the resort. I still remember passing through the
dark forest around 1.00 a.m, listening to the various sound of nocturnal
creatures and getting goose bumps from the cold breeze of the night. There, in
the midst of the darkness, all we could see was several flashing eyes which
turned out to be deer. They were happily grazing on grass and crossing the
road.
at around 2.00 a.m, we reached our resort and being winters, it was freezing
cold outside. Exhausted, we retired to our beds because we had to get up at
4.30 a.m for our morning safari which we didn’t wanted to miss this time.
Luckily, we didn’t miss the safari, we completed our vacation, saw the majestic
tigers, enjoyed the jungle and returned back home happily forgetting the
anguish which we had to go through because of “RAIL ROKO ANDOLAN.”
happened to the andolan? All I know is the train reached Katni station around
10.00 p.m in the night. And as far as the end result of the agitation is
concerned, I tried searching on net, but didn’t get enough information. I don’t
know if the “Rail Roko Andolan” was one of those political gimmicks and if it
yielded any results, I still won’t blame the locals of Sagar for what happened
that day. But I do feel there are other ways to put across your complaints than
making other’s suffer, that train had lots of old passengers who had no choice
but to keep waiting in the train and you never know there would have been
others for whom reaching their destination would have been an emergency. I
still dread hearing the name “Sagar” it gives me goosebumps even now.
journey has its bittersweet moments; all you need to do is enjoy every bit of
it, stay cool and take logical decisions. If you ask me if I still love train
journeys, I would say “Yes”. Although, train journeys are unpredictable, they
are fun, and they take you to places which would you’d never think of visiting
in your lifetime. Who had thought that I would ever visit a town called Sagar
in Northern India. If you still haven’t experienced one train journey in your
life then you surely are missing something. Pack your bags, book your train
tickets right now and experience the simple joys of travelling in a TRAIN.
Note – This write up was also submitted for Railonama, compilation of short stories on Indian railways. Here is the link for details http://railonama.com/