A Train Journey Half a Century Ago

 

The railway station from where I embarked my first train is now defunct. Cochin (today Kochi) Harbour Terminus. It was 21 June 1975, just four days prior to the declaration of Emergency in India by Indira Gandhi. I was 15 years old and had just completed my schooling.

I was part of a large contingent of equally young boys who were being taken to Don Bosco’s school and seminary at a place called Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. We were all aspirants of priesthood. There was a year-long process of initiation at Tirupattur after which we would return to Kerala to continue our normal secular education.

Since the group was pretty large and none of us had reservation on the train, we were all asked to reach the Terminus from where the Madras (today Chennai) Express would start. Since the Terminus was the starting station, all seats in the general compartment would be empty and we were supposed to find seats in that compartment. Hardly any passenger would take the trouble of travelling to the Terminus for catching their train. Willington Island on which the Terminus was situated wasn’t easily accessible in those days.

Willington Island was a vast manmade island of 775 acres. Sir Robert Bristow, engineer, created the island using the soil and other material dredged from the sea while the harbour was being modernised. The island was named after Lord Willington, Viceroy of India at that time. Today the island is a hub of activity and well-connected with all other parts of Kochi. That was not the case in 1975.

You can see some wonderful pictures of the terminus on the website of IRFCA. Let me bring here just two of them to give you an idea of the railway station from where I started my train journeys which became countless eventually. 

Harbour Terminus in 2003

Today weeds and shrubs cover the area 

About 40 of us, including two adults who were to take care of us, got into a compartment that was empty at Harbour Terminus but became unbreathably overcrowded as the train moved to the next couple of stations. We were young and belonged to very ordinary families from Kerala’s villages. Hardships were our birthright. We would even stand and sleep on the train if that was required. We got a few inches of space to place our little bottoms and sleep with one boy lying on the back of another.

Indian economy was in a terrible state in those days. Agricultural production had declined by 8% in 1972-73. Foodgrains were scarce. Industries were performing miserably for the first time since Independence. A severe inflation took the wholesale prices up by 22.7%. Most families had more children than they could feed. Children were born not because parents wanted them but because Indira Gandhi’s family planning schemes were yet to reach the masses. Moreover, the Catholic Church, a dominant religion in Kerala, was opposed to family planning as it believed that every act of copulation should contribute to population. No wonder, the trains were overpopulated. 

Our train reached Jolarpettai railway station in the small hours of the next day. We had been woken up long before the train arrived at our destination. We were told to be ready to get down quickly since the halt wasn’t long at that place. We all dragged our trunks and beddings as close to the train-door as possible and waited for the heavy sound of the rushing train to subdue.

That was my first train journey. I didn’t know then that I was destined to make a lot, lot more train journeys in my life particularly because the first job I landed was in a place more than 3000 km away from my home. I travelled so much by train that I began to hate trains. In the last years of our job in Delhi, Maggie and I started flying whenever we visited our village in Kerala. Our school in Delhi was generous enough to fund the flights substantially.  

I have not travelled by train in the last many years. I want to. Maggie and I are planning a train journey as soon as the scorching summer relents. Painful memories beckon us again with a diabolic charm. Sweet memories lack that charm. Nostalgia is an itch to scratch some old scars.