Sangli - Chennai journey

After a long time battle of words with parents and relatives and after a lot of convincing (helped by the prohibitively high prices of Mumbai-Chennai Flights), I finally made my journey to Chennai by train and not by flight. The experience was amazing (as expected).
My train booking was such that I had to travel from Miraj junction to Hubli junction by one train and then catch a connecting train from Hubli to Chennai. The difference between the arrival time of the 1st train and the departure of the 2nd train was only 1 hour 15 minutes.
Now it so happened that the first train was running slow and it got delayed continuously. At Belgaum, about halfway, the train was delayed by 45 minutes. It meant that any further delay would have caused me missing my 2nd train. However, after Belgaum, the Dandeli jungles made the train driver press the accelerator and the train gained time. He didn’t allow the train to delay any further. Also, the railway officials ensured that the train isn’t further delayed. Due to presence of only 1 track, railway crossings had to be scheduled to make way for trains running in the opposite direction to pass by. So,one train has to wait at a station until the other opposite running train crosses it). The railway officials ensured that my train got preference at each crossing and the other trains had to wait. After some tension, I finally arrived at Hubli at about 2000 hrs barely 25 minutes left before the departure time of the next train. After crossing the platform (a tiring one due to luggage), I made it to the far away AC compartment at around 2010 hrs.

In the 1st train, there weren’t many people in the AC coach (should have taken the normal sleeper coach – missed the good jungle view in the AC coach). However, the 2nd train was filled with a lot of people. The AC coach didn’t sound much different from ordinary sleeper coaches. Noise was buzzing all around. Interestingly, the AC coach in which I was travelling had more number of Marwaris, Gujaratis (including me) as compared to the number of Tamilians. I, being alone, got a lot of proposals to change my seat. Since there were ladies with children, I also readily accepted the changes. After changing seats, I finally got into an interesting compartment. The compartment had a Tamilian couple sitting in it who also wanted a lower berth. However, I couldn’t help them since I had already exchanged my berth with other Marwari family. Then a girl came, who had a lot of luggage and who had a lower berth which she didn’t exchange with anybody. (Quite rightly) Then a Kannada person, in his late 20’s, joined us, who incidently had also changed seats with the same Marwari family. (Good for him – Saved him from a lot of their Bak Bak).
The Tamalian couple was typical and quite hospitable. They made adjustments for the young girl travelling alone and also chatted freely with the girl. They had their own food prepared in typical south Indian style and talked only in Tamilian. However, because of this girl talking so much, they too started conversing in English and Hindi at times. Now there was something quite peculiar of this girl travelling alone. She was an OKish looking girl. However, her speech was very good. She had good pronunciations and talked to others with a sense of respect. (I liked that). Later on, I got to know that she was married to a Gujarati boy who worked in Chennai for Reliance Industries Limited in their raw material department. In the morning, I had a chat to her and learnt that she was also pregnant. She also chatted very very freely and made talking very easy for people around. (Even I started talking to her and others in the train which happens quite rarely). She called me ‘Uncle’ once a while and also remarked that I look like a typical Engineer who was very serious and she also commented that I don’t have a girl friend (All these things just at the start of the conversation in the morning. Quite amazing) She later pointed out that we were quite opposites – she enjoyed talking, chatting, living aaram se while I was serious type of person. I sometimes wonder – Does my face really tell all these things? Need to change my looks then.
The other person who was travelling alone talked to her girl friend over the phone for most of the time till midnight. I couldn’t interact with him in the night. I could talk to him only in the morning. I learnt that he was quite philosophical in nature and read books related to spirituality, religion, etc. In fact, there was one more person in adjoining compartment reading books on Swami Vivekananda. He toh even asked me to stop reading novel and read such spiritual books from which I could gain something. (Quite a lot of gyan given to me in the morning time)
At night time, a big Marwai gang entered the train (They were about 10 in number – only ladies and their children off to enjoy their vacation at Chennai). Their noise woke up everyone and the way a lady fought over the luggage and her space (non-adjusting types) irritated me very much. Others in the compartment including me had a bitching session (when she was away in the morning) when we pointed out her misbehavior and the general tendencies of Marwaris. It was quite fun (Full marks to that young girl to have moderated the discussion in the presence of others)
After taking directions about how to travel in Chennai and other details like their telephone numbers, to my surprise, I found that we had reached Chennai (Before the correct time – (Indian Railways have improved on punctuality).
I have come to a conclusion that to know different behaviours of people of different castes and ages, a long train journey is just just right. It exposes us to different people and because there is no scope of any disturbance from family and friends, we can draw our own inferences. I feel that if we are to do market research on a new product meant for everybody (Mass marketing required), a train is the prefect place - Journey ka journey - Research ka research.

However, I feel that rather than an AC compartment, the sleeper 2nd class coach provides a better view outside in addition to more people and more diverse behavior. (An observation which Sudha Murthy also made in one of her short stories)
We can also make some new contacts in new places (like I made – I’ve been invited by the Tamilian couple for a lunch at their place)
I also realized (in fact learnt from that girl (Pooja was her name)) that I need to look less serious and be a bit aggressive. Also, realized that Marwari people rarely help others (even people in their own community) while Tamilians, quite selflessly, help people – especially young women.