The movie titled, "Unreserved" by a young IITKGPian (link) was a no-ordinary-experience travelogue in the unreserved compartments of Indian Rail. Indian Railway's journey continues to be so.
Had the ticket of a superfast train from Howrah which was to start 50 minutes later than a galloping EMU local. Found a decent aisle seat though there were 4 in the space of 3 which was usual for a crowded local train. There was a soft-cover book with me to accompany. Once upon a time, a large number of passengers could be seen reading newspapers in such a journey, so much so that there used to be evening editions sold in the train. Now, mobile phone is there in almost every hand and that is a great time pass. So far, the experience is no uncommon.
After about 90 minutes of travel, a group de-boarded the train. One of their team member, a young person of about 20 years, was sitting at a distance, close to the window. In a hurry and in a crowded train, it is quite common that there may be gentle touch of one's feet with another one in narrow passage as one tries to move, specially during boarding and de-boarding time. Nobody minds that or, a simple 'sorry' or an apologetic smile is considered more than enough.
Hardly, there was any touch or not, I was surprised to see the young bowing down and touching my feet with hand in that crowded train. That could be common in our household environment but not in a train and for someone from this generation. I was stunned and could only fold my hands in return.
In the onward journey on another day, I boarded the unreserved compartment of a long distance express train which was full but, I could manage a seat for myself. I see many posts in travel pages on quality of food served in train and its cost. It was past 1 PM. There were IRCTC uniformed people selling Rs. 50 rice with double egg curry, all within one aluminium foil pack. There were no takers for that in that compartment. Considering IRCTC brand value, I went for it.
But, wouldn't co-passengers have anything for lunch? There were many kids here and there who would be very hungry. Outside temperature soaring past 40 degree celcius, people there in general, didn't mind buying water bottle whenever required which were charged little higher than maximum retail price. At 2:30 PM, the train was going past slowly a station where a few people boarded the running train and started offering fish-meal at Rs. 50.
Few of the co-passengers, specially the parents with kids, moved for it but not many. After 10-15 minutes, the same was offered at Rs. 40 for which there were many takers and lastly, it was offered at Rs. 30 and the whole compartment had their stomach full. The pack had rice, dal, one vegetable and fish.
When one compares their dish with mine (the aluminium foiled one), one may feel that one could have had a tastier treat (if not fussy with carry bag delivery). For the other no-ordinary experience, one may bring distant correlation with the soft-cover book that I was reading, a collection of letters of someone whose death anniversary falls today!
