In Praise of A Government Enterprise

dostmittar ji, very nice article

More about Indian railways:

http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/travel/20030411-0.html

Studebaker:
I only travelled on mail/express trains. The situation is probably different on commuter and slow-moving passenger trains.

Ansari:
No, you are not late. It`s just that things seem to moving at a dizzying speed on Chowk these days.

Nice article but I am just too disturbed at this time to share a fond memory of a railway journey. I`ll regret that opportunity

Ansari #32 I think it is only the regular army on both sides who treat each others POWs well. While I remember long ago hearing rumors of Indian pows in jail, I dont think that is true (there is no particular bitterness towards one another among soldiers, and a prisoner does require resources to maintain). But if there are any forgotten souls sitting as pows, clearly it would be nice if someone made this public (e.g. via newspaper articles or something).
I agree though that civilians are another matter. Particularly egregious in my view is the treatment of fishermen who are netted (sorry for the pun) by the hundreds by both sides and jailed for extended periods of time. Given that these are merely poor people trying to earn a living, I hope one day the two countries will agree to allow these poor people to cross imaginary national boundries on the sea and go about fishing. Periodically, during brief episodes of sanity between the two governments when they are trying to make at least symbolic gestures of peace these jailed fishermen are exchanged in large numbers. I think we need some public outcry for both governments to stop harassing these poor people.

Reply # 28 Dost-mitter

My preference will be a female company. After Ali`s enlightening article, it has all the options available.:)-

Essensaur:
I think I saw that documentary.

temporal:
The next one will be more personal.
You added some good info. I also found the staff to be generally quite helpful. At Madurai, we wanted to advance our journey to Bangalore by a day; when we arrived at the station, the time limit for booking under foreign quota had already passed but the clerk asked me to see the Assistant Station Master. The Assistant Station Master, who happened to be blind, found that the general quota from Madurai was also full, but there were two berths available from the previous station, so he sent me with an escort to the reservation supervisor to book from the previous station. The supervisor, a woman (the Tamil Nadu govt. seems to be proactive in promoting employment of women and physically disabled) went out of her way to do the needful. To be honest, I felt somewhat bad about getting precedence over the long queue of residents wanting to be served.

dostmittar-jee; i`m a little late in coming to this. . .thank you, i really enjoyed reading it.

t; aapka write-up kahan hai? :)


tahmedsaab; I remember Farzana wrote an article a while back about Indian POWs still stuck in Pakistani jails. Inquiries with friends revealed this to be common knowledge. I think the two you mention were lucky.

Well, on Cariappa . . . and Coorgis . . . and nature . . . he is also the author of the Siachen Environmental Reserve plan (or some such name) in which I believe he has got support from the Pakistan and India establishments . . .

I have lots of great memories of trains myself.

Karachi to Pindi and

Lahore-Amritsar-Delhi

Someday I hope to take the kids.

Ras

nazarhayatkhan:
Does the company have to be gender-specific?:-)

Layman:
Time Tables too have improved. In the old days they were in small print and difficult to decipher. Now, I bought a very inexpensive ``Trains At A Glance`` which is very user friendly. It`s not comprehensive but lists all major trains. I believe that the time-table is now easily accessible on the Internet.

Thanks a lot Kabuliwallah for a brief but concise description of seemingly a beautiful and distinct region in Karnatka. Good to see you back...regards.

dost mittar: I think the army people still treat each other reasonably well. Talking about treating POWs well: Way back in the early 1960`s, two Indian pilots were captured after their spy plane was shot down over Rawalpindi on Eid day. I actually saw the action in the sky from the race course ground in Rawalpindi where Eid prayers were being held since, being a child at the time, I was looking around on that clear blue day when I should have been bowing my head to the ground. I heard some planes, saw a spark in the blue sky, and actually saw one of the Indian pilots parachute descending. The two POWs became instant celebrities in Rawalpindi, with vips going to visit them in the hospital and the Pakistan Times doing an interview of the two, giving accounts of their family.

stuka: On Cariappa`s son, I knew the pakistani brigade commander (he was an old time friend of my father): he had volunteered to take up command on the front rather than be in GHQ during the war. His son`s humorous comment to his father volunteering for the front was: Jad giddar dee maut andi ai, o shehr passay dorda ay (when it is time for the jackal to die, he runs to the city). The father not only survived the war, he gained fame within army circles since he was in charge of the brigade that took khem karan (as small indian town) and also picked up Cariappa`s son as POW afer he ejected from his plane.

sadna#12
``And though its admittedly chancy, there is nothing like an emergency journey made without reservations (not without ticket ofcourse) to really understand how unexpectedly accomodative Indians of all socio-economic classes can be.``
True. This reminds me of, I think, a uniquely Indian characteristic - we are not willing to respect the rights of others but will lieerally give the shirt off our back for someone we know, even remotely. In the unreserved trains, it was quite common to see people stretching themseves out beyond their allotted space whenever they saw a new passenger approaching; after a while when they had a chance to strike a conversation with the same stranger who thereby no longer remained a stranger, they would make extra room for the same person and his luggage and may even offer to share their tiffin with him.
Yes, I did not find the ambiance of the old trains in the new coupes. No hawkers of various types of goodies, no blind singer, no fakirs and no medicine peddlars to cure all ailments. People too tend to open up less than they did in the old days but when they do, they still get up-close-and-personal right away without talking about weather and other trivia.
Yes, I did travel on Konkan railway and it indeed is impressive. But I was still a bit disappointed - I had naively thought that the track runs across the coastline and I will actually be seeing ocean from the train!
Re. food, it may have to do with my palate and system growing intolerant to spicy food after decades of western living.

Kabulliwallah:
Nice to know you are still visiting chowk.
If you enjoyed Dadar-Poona route, you will love the new Konkan Railways, connecting Bombay with Goa. As pointed out by sadna and temporal, it is a marvel of Indian engineering with tunnels numbering in three-digits running through the ecologically sensitive marshlands and western ghats.
Thanks also for englighteneing us about Coorg. Whether they are descendants of greek soldiers or not, they do not seem to have classic dravidian features. I have seen some Coorgis with blue eyes as well. Yes, their contribution to the Indian army is indeed heroic, General Thimaaya was perhaps India`s best general; he was also the only one who showed some guts in standing up to Nehru when he protested against Menon`s policies as Defence Minister. Too bad, he did not stand his ground in that confrontation.

Veeresh, Stuka, Tahmed:
I read somewhere that General Ayub sent a telegram to General Carriapa, offering to release his son who was a POW. In his reply, the General is reputed to have said that he considered all POWs as his children and he did not want any special favour for his son. Alas, those giants have been replaced by pygmies!