A Railway Journey Essay Example for Free

A Railway Journey Essay I am a frequent traveller. That’s because I am a small town boy from Rourkela studying in the national capital of India. My batch friends who live nearby take every opportunity to go home be that a one day holiday or a week’s holiday. I on the other hand cannot exploit every holiday because travelling takes me 48 hours to reach home. Unfortunately there is no direct train from Delhi to Rourkela. So I have to switch trains in a preferable stop. I usually prefer Ranchi station. From Ranchi to Rourkela there is just one train in the evening that is the 7 pm train. My usual itinerary is that I travel from Delhi to Ranchi via Rajdhani which reaches there at 4 pm, and then I take the 7 pm train to reach Rourkela at 11 pm. I was so engrossed in my studies and exams that I forgot to book my ticket before time. When the holidays came near I suddenly realized that I hadn’t booked my ticket. I immediately opened IRCTC website from my laptop, and saw that my usual train Rajdhani was completely booked and no more tickets were available. I couldn’t risk booking a waiting list ticket so I booked an alternate train which takes relatively more time but I thought I’ll make it. It was supposed to reach Ranchi at 5:30 pm. I thought that I have a reasonable time gap and I can easily make it. Soon my exams got over and the time came for me to go home. To be frank, I usually get bored at home. But the idea of going home, the packing of my stuff, the travel and the journey is what excites me. I said goodbye to my friends, hugged them, and wished them happy holidays. A friend gave me chocolates for my journey and wished me happy journey. I just love this feeling. Since the exams were over they had nothing else to do, so they came with me to the station to see me off. I bought a bottle of Thums Up. Yes that’s my favourite drink. I went on and sat on my berth. I always prefer the side lower when I am travelling alone. There is a sense of privacy and is comfortable as well. I waved at my friends as the train started to move. I was very happy, but my subconscious was slowly telling me that this train better not be late because otherwise I am screwed. My father will scold me for my irresponsibility. Since it was not Rajdhani, its standard was not that good. Moreover I had to buy food for every meals and the compartment was also not that clean. But I knew I can manage as long as I get a charging socket nearby. I have a laptop and I love games. I can pass my time very easily. For some reason I don’t know why, I like to travel alone. One of the biggest and consistent problems faced by a youngster preferably male travelling alone is that someone always will request him to exchange his berth with someone who needs it more. Be that a senior citizen, or a family whose all tickets are concentrated in one area and only one is far away. Whatever it may be, we boys have to suffer. There is no point in booking tickets early if you don’t get the seat of your choice. And there is no way you can say no to them because they are elder people and they make such horrible requesting faces with puppy eyes that you just can’t deny. A fairly middle aged person requested me to trade my seat for his upper berth in a different coach skipping 3 coaches in the middle. I said let’s see in the beginning but later on I had to give in because I had no other option. He helped me shift my luggage and thanked me a lot later on. Travelling alone is some kind of a self-assessment time for me. I analyze what I have done in the past, I day dream a lot in this time and set personal goals. As soon as we cross Delhi and reach Ghaziabad my telecom service (Reliance) initiates the roaming facility and unfortunately my u nlimited SMS pack becomes void. My parents keep checking on me calling at regular intervals. After some point it becomes very irritating because it costs even to receive phone calls. I look at the scenes outside the window. I feel bad when I see the people living near the railway tracks, the slums and the poverty. I stare at the empty advertisements loaded with spelling and grammar mistakes on the boundary walls of the slums and on houses. Now the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) came to check the tickets of the passengers. When my turn came I showed him the ticket, he said that my ticket is booked for a different compartment, which has different TTE, so I have to show it to him. I said we have exchanged the seat, but nothing that I said mattered. So I had to go back to the previous compartment and ask that person to show his ticket to the TTE of my compartment. Same thing would have happened to him so he took my ticket. It was an unnecessary exercise and I hated that person for the troubles he gave me. The sounds of children crying and yelling are sometimes intolerable, but there is nothing one can do about it. I try to console myself by saying that I was also like that one day, funny but true. The vendors keep on moving here and there shouting and selling. It’s okay up to a certain limit. After that you just can’t listen to their annoying voices anymore. There is total chaos. So I put on my headphones and listen to music. What a great relief that is! Soon the day came to an end, and I went to sleep early. The next day when I woke up I went out and brushed my teeth. After that I asked the attendant whether the train was running late or not. He said yes, one and a half hour late. I became nervous because then I’ll not make it on time and I’ll miss the connecting train. Hoping that the train will make up for the lost time I went back to my seat and lied down worried. What should I tell my parents if I missed the train? What will I do? Where will I go? Ques tions like these haunted me. I ate my breakfast and read the newspaper that I bought from a vendor. I tried to pass my time but my mind was unconsciously worrying about the consequences. As time passed I noticed the arrival time had crossed, and the train was still running one and a half hour late. My heart started beating faster with every second that passed. Soon the train came to a halt and I reached Ranchi at 6:45 pm. Ranchi has two different stations, one being Ranchi and the other Hatia. I had reservation up to Hatia, but if I had waited for the train to reach Hatia, I would have missed the connecting train. So I took a chance and left the train with my luggage and ran in search of an auto. I found an auto-driver, the first one that approached me. I asked him how much he will take to get me to Hatia station, to which he answered 100 rupees. I said I’ll give him 150 if he takes me there within the next 10 minutes. He being a sport took my luggage and placed it in his auto and I sat and then we rushed to through a different path. I became surprised as to why was he taking me through a different route. He said it is a longer road, but the road is very smooth so we will reach early if he drives very fast. As bad as this nightmare was, it was about to become worse because it started to rain and was becoming very dark. The driver was very instrumental, because he broke all the traffic rules, crossed all the red lights but we reached Hatia at 7 pm. I thought I had missed it. But still I paid him for his bravery and I took my luggage and rushed towards the station. To my surprise I found that my connecting train was still standing on the platform and my previous train had not yet reached Hatia. I took a sigh of relief and then I ran towards my compartment, and took a seat. Just as I sat on my seat, drenched from head to toe, the fellow passenger sitting next to me requested me to trade my seat for his in a different compartment. I was still breathing heavily. But I was so happy that I made it in time that I accepte d. We went to the very next compartment and he got me a lower berth. I was happy that things are turning my way. No one further wanted to exchange my seat. I sat down wiping my face with my handkerchief. Then I called my mother and shared my adventure with her proudly. She was amazed with the story but I could hear my father calling my irresponsible from behind. I could not help but laugh. I would have reached Rourkela by 11 pm. I was thinking of taking a bath and then would sleep. Just when I thought nothing else could go wrong the train stopped at a very small station at 10 pm. Then I saw people coming out of the train. I panicked. I asked my fellow passengers among which a boy of nearly my age. He said that this train has stopped and will restart at morning 6. It is a naxalite-attack prone area. So the train won’t run to prevent accidents in the dark. Suddenly I saw the police patrolling the train. I called my mother and updated her on the situation. This meant I’ll reach at 7 am in the morning. I was literally criticizing my luck. Many people went to the waiting room, but I stayed and so did the boy sitting next to me. We thought of sleeping, but it was unsafe. So we decided to keep up all night. So I took out my laptop and we decided which movie to see from the large movie database I had kept in hard drive. Luckily the socket was running and so was the air conditioner. We stayed up all night watching movies back to back. Slowly the people passing by or the people who heard the noise from my laptop came near our cubicle. They also got interested and sat down. Soon there was a gathering of 8-9 people. The few people who were sleeping nearby started to complain that we should sleep as we are disturbing them. But it was too late to stop now because there were a lot of people who were actually enjoying the movie. So we continued till 6 am in the morning. The train started at sharp 6 am. I reached Rourkela at 7:10 am. I came out and saw my father standing in the platform waiting for me. Finally I reached home. It was a huge relief. Surely it was a journey to remember. The ups and downs and the adventures were memorable. A railway journey surely takes more time and has a lot of problems attached to it, but has a lot of memories attached to it as well. This is one of the main reasons I always prefer to travel in train.