Random Forays: The Abiding Charm of India’s Railway Stations

Railway stations in India have metamorphosed themselves into rather glitzy, partly technology-enabled, cleaner and relatively-manageable versions of their former selves. Yet, the number of travellers seem to have only mounted and have surmounted all statistics of years gone by. India’s railway station retains some of the most charming facets of yore, with some added recent novelties, making it perhaps the single-most interesting spot, on earth, especially for an observant writer.

India as a nation still manages to boggle the mind, of course, with its almost exasperatingly diverse landscape, not as much in its physical terrain, as in the widest possible spectrum of people-types that it presents to the onlooker. And a station is a microcosm of India, in all its glory. People from all parts of our land, all classes, backgrounds, cultures and ethnicity continue to throng towards trains and therefore to stations. Thus, from the smell of achaar to the stench of a leaking pipe, from a swanky hoarding to a sketchily hand-written notice, from the most unclean of loos to the squeakiest clean ones, you can find it all at one of these amazing locomotive halts!

Air travel has come a long way too, with hordes of passengers queuing up at airports day after day. But airports do not represent India in its truest sense, even though the profile of the flyer has undergone an unrecognisable transformation in recent decades. They are too plastic and sanitised compared to train stations. The English-speaking culture is almost absent from the domain of service providers at railway stations, whereas at airports it is the norm.

The blatant sense of entertainment that one beholds at a station through the drastic variety of languages, colours, smells, flavours, clothing, hairdos, music, body language and expressions make the scenario there an absolute delight for a student of humanity. The cacophony, the bustle, the jostle, the frenzy, the bonding, even the arguments, add further drama to the human spectacle that our stations present.

And a sense of calmness seeps into us, upon finally boarding a train that appeared elusive, given the chaos outside. This calmness is in stark contrast to the dizzying hurry that most train-goers exhibit while moving towards their coach on the platform.

Mumbai’s local trains provide, of course, a far more authentic Indian experience than the seamless modern metro shuttles with their synthetic announcements and the tik-tok culture inside. A ride on a Mumbai local still offers us the sheer thrill of travelling with seemingly a “million” people piling on to us. The likelihood of being unable to deboard a Mumbai train at the desired station is quite high given the human labyrinth that one has to meander through, in order to get to the exit!

In fact, for some reason, stations are even more fascinating than trains, and one should, at times, park oneself on a bench, with nothing else to do but watch the world go by. It’s something I wish I could do more of, instead of catching fleeting glimpses of interesting scenes while scurrying to my train coach or missing the fun altogether by catching a flight. A family from the hinterland, with a variety of chappals and hair oils and tiffins with bhindi-roti on display, is far more captivating than a city-goer with a laptop bag and two or three gizmos jutting out of his pockets.

Plus, the great Indian railway “book” ensures that its gloriously-variegated chapters and pages keep unfurling themselves as one proceeds on a long train journey, let’s say from Amritsar to Chennai. The landscape, the dialect, the countryside, people’s attire and even their attitudes will undergo a significant mutation as the train trundles along from north to south, or vice versa. If a north Indian station will showcase before us tempting bhaturas, bread pakoras and chai, the southern stations will present the more healthy option of idli-vada and sambar with filter coffee, although fried murrukus will also be in evidence.

An admirer of the maddening expanse of the experience that is India, will find much to ogle at if he’s at a railway station. For the right reasons!