Mahalaxmi Express 2019
NOTE: NO PHOTOS IN THIS BLOG; ALL PICTURES ARE ADVERTISEMENTS.
Genre - Fiction
Sub-genre - Road Trip
Length of blog - 2200 words
February was the
last time Neel had visited home. He wanted to go to his native place, but he
was waiting for Lucky’s company. They were best of friends and always
coordinated their way home.
“Book Mahalaxmi
Express for next week”, Neel messaged Lucky.
Neel was a
railway employee and he knew Lucky would book his own ticket. On Friday, before
9 p.m., Neel called Lucky to see if he had arrived at Thane railway station. He was courteous and disciplined man.
“The train has
left Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and is on time. Are you getting it?” Neel
said.
Neel stayed at the
railway quarters near CST. It was better to get onto the trains he was assigned
to do his shift duties. CST formerly known as Victoria Terminus was one of the
biggest railway stations in Mumbai. Thane railway station was the stop in the
neighbouring city.
“Yes, I am on the platform waiting for the train. I left early cause of the rain”, Lucky
continued, “Are you on duty?”
“Yes, but I have
taken a half day”, Neel said.
“Of course, or
else we will miss our destination”, Lucky said.
The train rolled
into the station and Lucky navigated his luggage to his berth. As he settled
down on the top most tier and became comfortable in the sleeper, Neel
helloed from the gangway.
“Are you ready
to party”, Neel said.
Lucky turned
towards the uniformed policeman smiling at him. He beckoned Neel to come
up which the latter gladly obliged. Both tried to hug each other as much as the
confined space allowed them to. They
exchanged pleasantries, their jibes and jokes poked at each other made all
around them understand that these were old pals and to let them be.
“My duty has not yet started
yet”, Neel said, all too loudly.
Neel had
purposefully said the last part very loud so that the last of the passengers
who were looking at them gave up interest in them.
“How many night
shifts are you doing?” Lucky said.
“Only this
week”, Neel continued, “Last month I had two weeks of night shifts. Comparatively
speaking, July is being kinder. Not much to highlight in my
reports” “What about you? Which shift were you in?”
“I was in the
morning shift today and tomorrow I had to apply for leave, you know”, Lucky said.
“Yes, coz of our
party plans. Does Smita know?” Neel said.
“Yes, she knows I
will be reaching tomorrow evening, after our party”, Lucky continued as he winked
at Neel.
They had done
this earlier, reached their destination early, had a small party and then carried
on towards home. This time they an excuse too – their train reaching at 3 a.m.
Both were married and had decided amongst themselves to take timeouts whenever
they could. This was what made them such good friends. Smita was Lucky's wife.
“Do you want to
see the bottle?”, Neel continued to open his bag. Then decided against it and handed
over the bag to Lucky.
“You keep my luggage
with you. Open the first zip and its standing on the side”, Neel said.
“That’s fine, I’ll
wait until we hit the hotel. I need to catch up on my sleep. These morning
shifts, you know, they drain you”, Lucky said.
Neel departed to
fulfil his duties. He looked at his watch. He would relieve his second shift guard
and see if anything required immediate action. His reliever would get on at
Pune railway station around 2 a.m. He had informed his reliever that he would be
leaving his post one stop early. That was what he liked about his job, the mutual
help and understanding amongst his colleagues. It was always one of
the basic emotions required to keep the Indian Railways guarded – all 70000 Kms
of it. He had indiscriminate respect for the administrators who prepared the
shift rosters for the different staff. He considered it an art form - to prepare a roster for such a huge amount of employees, including vacations, sick leaves, new train additions, etc. It had taken him a couple of years to
get a hold of the grand scheme of things, but now eight years down the line, he
understood not only were good observation skills required, but also important to
look at things from a bird’s eye view, to be a successful Railway Police Force-man.
He
made his way towards his guard berth which was central to the train. On the way,
he kept a vain eye for troublemakers and vagrants. There were few in this train
compared to some he had been on. Probably, because this train hit all the major
railways stations enroute at wee hours of the night. Also, maybe because, this
train had no pantry car – the train starting its journey near dinner time and ending
by breakfast. The wet weather had helped too - kept all the last minute vacationers at bay. The mild discipline he had noticed in this Train-number 17411, had always made him find a new respect for
the people of the train’s destination – Kolhapur.
He
looked at the feet of the people, whether they all wore Kolhapuris, a world-renowned
open pair of leather slippers. He smiled as few straightened themselves at his gaze
went to below the seats. They would see him doing his duty of checking for
suspicious packages, but he was looking at their footwear. Most of the people
were already sleeping. The doors and windows were shut too, thanks to the rain
outside. He checked the latches of the doors that were shut, making sure that
at least one door, in one compartment was not safety-latched from the inside. He
hated someone missing their train in the middle of the night due to a closed
door, especially in this weather.
The
train had halted for a few minutes now. He had relieved his colleague who
cursed the weather and got off at Kalyan Jn. The train was already one hour
late there. Neel was not bothered by the delay; the railways had a way to make lost
time. But now again the train had stopped mid station.
“Train
delayed due to rain”, his walkie said.
The
engine driver was communicating to his staff onboard the length of the train. By
the time it was 2 a.m., the train had moved slowly at times, but mostly had halted
a lot. And they had not yet reached Karjat railway station yet where he would’ve
started his 10 p.m. shift duty.
“Where
are we?”, Lucky said.
Neel
had strolled over to Lucky’s berth who was eating his dinner. One omelette sandwich
which he offered Neel.
“Not
yet crossed Karjat and the train has to still start its climb over the Lonavla
plateau”, Lucky said.
Lucky
looked at his watch.
“Cool,
more time to sleep, wake me when we are about to reach Satara”, Lucky said. He covered
himself with a blanket and turned on his stomach.
Lucky
got up a couple of times and checked his watch and never did he feel the train
move. At around six o clock, he heard the train abuzz with voices. He uncovered
the blanket from his face and peered onto the bunks below.
“The
train hasn’t moved since two”, one person said.
“There
is water all around us”, another person said.
Lucky
put his head back under the bedsheet and slept.
“There
is help on the way, please do not get off the train”, Lucky heard a familiar
voice that stirred his sleep. He put his head out of the blanket to see Neel making the announcement over
a toy speaker.
“Which
child did you rob?”, Lucky said.
“Someone
suggested that I use it to keep everybody calm”, Neel said, his mouth away from
the microphone. He looked calm. Almost wanting to laugh at himself. He
continued his journey, “Please stay in your seats, please save water. Please
look after the elderly and other dependents in and around you."
Lucky got off his
bunk and followed the few people following Neel. He offered Neel water.
“Its good that I
did not open the whisky bottle last night, else I would’ve used this water”,
Lucky said.
Neel waved Lucky
off.
“All onboard are
taking care of each other, there is no pantry car, so ration the water. People
are beginning to feel hungry now, as all would’ve expected to arrive at their
destination shortly to some breakfast”, Neel said.
Lucky looked out
one of the open doors. The water was flowing against the direction the train
was supposed to be going. Its level was two rungs below the ladder on the door. The last two rungs could not be seen.
“We need to
panic if the water comes over the last rung”, Lucky said.
“The water has
not yet entered any of the compartments. The last few compartments have no power.
Two are airconditioned coaches and the
people were feeling stuffy but have made themselves comfortable by shifting to
other coaches” Neel continued.
“Where are we?”
Lucky said.
“Midway to
Karjat, where my shift would’ve actually started, if the train was on time”, Neel
said.
Both laughed.
“Oh! we are far
from the foothills of the plateau”, Lucky continued, “I thought we got stuck in the water coming downhill.”
“We would have
made it, but the engine broke down”, Neel continued, “The engine-driver was
quite confident we would’ve made it to higher ground above the rising water
level.”
“A dam was
opened due to the excessive rain”, another person said. They all looked towards
the left which looked like a river. The right hand side had a few trees on what
could have been farmland. But no one could say anything for sure because all of it was underwater.
“Any other
trains in front of us?” Lucky said.
“No, and none
behind us too”, Neel said.
The party turned
south. Lucky went back to his seat. There were nine pregnant women and milk for
a few new-borns had been collected from few of the other passengers. Neel was
doing a good job. Lucky got all this information from one his bunkmates.
“You slept well,
all through this”, another person said.
“I have learnt
not to panic”, Lucky said.
“We are on the
news”, another person said.
“They are
sending helicopters to help us”, another person said.
Lucky could not
believe it as all the passengers’ eyes turned towards the right hand side. In
the distance - on a mound where the farmland, now under water, ended - they saw a helicopter
hover low, a orange inflatable thrown out and few men shimmied down a rope onto it.
Another inflatable followed. Everyone on the train looked in amazement as the boats to come towards the train – the trees underneath did not help. It took them an
hour to reach close by, but still they were twenty yards from the train. A
couple of personnel from the NDRF swam with ropes around themselves and setup a
rope-pulley so that water bottles could be sent to the stranded train.
“Please do not hurry
into anything”, Neel said. He was back with Lucky. He was relieved off his
duty, as per the message he received on the walkie.
“I have provided
all of the important information to them, now the ball is in their court”, Neel
said.
They watched on
as few passengers were led over the rope-pulley towards the waiting boats, but
the water was chest high and few bags were seen floating off.
“Let’s wait”,
Lucky said.
“Yes, no need to
panic, we are on holiday”, Neel said.
An hour of seeing
people struggle, after which they got news that the villagers nearby had shown the NDRF a
better route for evacuating the passengers. Lucky and Neel were amongst the last to leave. One
uniformed NDRF-man saluted Neel and told him not to worry and carry on, while he
would see that all the passengers are off the train. He headed towards the
engine while Lucky and Neel proceeded towards the tail end of the train. They had
to proceed southwards along the tracks in the ensuing rain for half a kilometre.
There were people distributing water bottles and biscuits to the passengers.
After the ten-minute
walk they had to leave the submerged train tracks towards the right onto knee-deep
water. This too looked like a farm, and there was rope zigzagging along it which
one had to hold with one hand and luggage in the other. At intervals, there
were volunteers to guide people keep their wits about themselves.
“Argh! My slipper got stuck in the mud”, a person behind
them said. He was unsuccessful in retrieving it.
A few more minutes
of struggle and they were on a road. Buses were leaving for Kalyan where a
train was kept ready to go back to CST. Also, an alternate train via a
different route was made available to those who wanted to complete their journey to Kolhapur.
Lucky and Neel sat in the free bus ride eating their free biryani. The railways
had arranged for it all. Lucky got his ticket money refunded too, and guided his
fellow survivors to do the same.
“Did you see the
train on the news”, Lucky told his wife, relatives and colleagues at work, “I
was in it.”
--- THE END ---
