By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Just a few days ago, I read a short piece on an online national news channel, about a small bit of controversy that had been created by a family that had decided to make its own sandwiches, while on board the train that they had been travelling in.

As I was reading it, I was redirected to a ten-second video about that scene, that seemed to have been made by members of the group itself, specifically for the purpose of being uploaded on the social media.

Why I say this is because, of the show offish ecstasy with which every one of the group members was swaying and singing, in harmony with the rocking of the train, while participating in the rather mundane activity, which usually will have no eager takers, when done at home and out of sight of an audience. Had they exhibited their excitement while munching on their sandwiches, it would perhaps have looked convincingly genuine and in place.

But there is nothing surprising or out of place in their act because almost all people these days, ‘act out’ every one of their most ordinary daily activities, for the sole purpose of uploading videos on the social media. And, since everything and anything that gets uploaded on to social media platforms invariably generates much excitement, either well deserved or ill deserved, this too is not very surprising because that is exactly what it is meant to do, in the first place.

So, the video I’m talking about has done exactly that, with some viewers getting ‘wowed’ by it, while many others have expressed their displeasure that it is an act that offends the sensibilities of the fellow travellers. Why it should do that, is what I am unable to understand because what were being prepared were just harmless sandwiches, meant to be eaten by them on their train journey.

It was certainly not an act that should draw any kind of criticism from anyone because they were most certainly not doing something wrong, like smoking or drinking or creating a ruckus on the train.

In these days of ready and packaged snacks, it may certainly seem a little unusual and even out of place but until just one generation ago, this was the ‘in thing’ to do if you had to undertake a long train journey and you preferred to avoid eating what was available as food or snacks, on the platforms where your train stopped.

Safe and fresh food was hard to find and if you were hungry and without homemade food and snacks, you had to helplessly eat what you could find. So, it was common then for people to prepare and pack snacks and even full meals, as elaborately as they packed their clothes and other personal things before embarking                   on their journey.

And this process too would have its own share of excitement, especially for the youngsters for whom the train journey would become an on-board picnic. Yes, that is exactly what a train journey was in the past and that is what made it something very exciting and full of happy memories for people like me.

Today, with the twists and turns that time has taken, while it is unthinkable to accept food from or offer it to fellow passengers, while travelling, it was common then for people to share their home-made snacks and food with their co-passengers, making friends out of them.

It may be interesting to recall here that many of those friendships formed on long train journeys, lasting through just a couple of days, used to last through lifetimes with some even blossoming into love affairs and happy marriages, exactly like what have been the themes of many block-buster movies!

Thankfully, I have grown up while constantly travelling on trains and for the Ruskin Bond in me, train journeys, long or short were something that I used to look forward too, most eagerly during my childhood and that lure has remained with me to this day. It is a different matter that these days, I hardly get to go anywhere close by on a train, let alone going far, because no one from my family is willing to accompany me.

For them it is always the car for the former and the flight for the latter. Times have changed and with it in travel too, with time now being the foremost consideration when we decide on how to go.

Very interestingly, during the train journeys of my childhood, the real Ruskin Bond too would most often accompany me, in the form of one of his books!  Yes, since he too, like me, has grown up travelling on trains, a good many of his stories and even a couple of his books are about trains and railway journeys.

And, because our trains from the past were very slow and most long journeys involved changing them once or twice, which required spending much time on railway platforms, it made good sense to have enough ammo for the body and the soul too, in the form of good food, enough snacks and good reading material.

Among the few eatables that would be available at railway stations, the safest that most people would prefer to buy were fruits, an occasional bread-omelette if you were lucky and maybe some roasted                peanuts for the kids.

Things have changed much since that era and much water has flown under all the railway bridges, both old and new.

Now you try coaxing a kid on a train to settle for a humble but healthy banana, instead of the colourful packet of potato wafers or packaged peanuts and you’ll end up having a sulking packet of displeasure, instead of a kid, excited about the journey!

And, here is another magical bit of information about the joy that train travel was for book-lovers like me. Since it was common for people to carry books while travelling by train, it was also very common for them to strike interesting conversations with the others about the books they were reading.

And, occasionally, they would even go to the extent of exchanging the books already finished during the journey, along with their addresses, cementing their friendships for a lifetime. It has happened to me, though just once, while I was a second-year medical student. But I must warn you that this story has a very sad end.

I was reading the book, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee on the train, on my way to Gulbarga, where I was studying and my fellow passenger, a young girl, was reading, the book, ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey.

We naturally ended up discussing our books and many other things too, when I discovered that she too was a medical student from England, on a solo tour of South India.

Surprisingly, we both finished reading our books almost simultaneously, somewhere near Raichur, when we decided to exchange them. After that, we remained friends until many years, occasionally writing to each other, until one day, I received a letter from my friend’s mom which said that my friend was no more, succumbing to a serious cancer.

But, thankfully, her gift and the memories of our brief interlude and friendship, remain safe with me, to this day, with the former amid my favourite books and the latter, amid my fondest memories!

(Stay tuned to read about one more unusual railway adventure of mine next week)

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