Riding the Rails of India

by Chalerm Raksanti

The Indian subcontinent is one of those places which seems to evoke the word: paradox. India. How does this vast, overpopulated nation manage to run, and even prosper? For nearly 150 years, the chief reason has been its railway system. The railway was one of the greatest imperial achievements of the British Raj. And now, as an even larger system has expanded over a subcontinent divided into sovereign nations, it still has the powerful atmosphere of empire about it.

Darjeeling’s toy train

In many ways, India is one of the world’s greatest railway nations. It is self sufficient in rolling stock. The country manufactures all of its own coaches and engines. It has the largest number of trains, stations, and long distance travellers, and it operates at a profit. It also has the longest forms to fill out, the most cockroaches in the dining cars, the dirtiest sleeping compartments, and the most rats living in the train stations. But in India, the railway is not merely a form of transportation which gets one to work, or simply from point A to point B and back again. It is a solution to the complex demands of the family’s life. Rituals such as birth, death, marriage, illness and religious festivals all require personal appearances from family members. This means they must journey home.

If a traveller wants to see India at a vantage point closer than 30,000 feet, flying from one airport to another, then riding the trains of India is the cheapest and most enriching way to do it. Not the easiest. But the most rewarding. You can board a train from nearly any point in this vast nation, and travel for weeks if you choose, or only a few hours to the next town or village.

Near New Delhi, you will find the best organised train station in India, the Hazrat Nizamuddin, just south of the city. Unless one is a seasoned adventurer, this station will probably make the best impression. It is clean and well managed, and the trains run on time. About 200 trains pass through this station each day.

A mass of humanity fills every nook and corner

If visual and cultural overload is more to your liking, the Madras -Janata Express travels to Madras. Don’t let the word express fool you. This is the slowest express train in the country. It is the “people’s” express, travelling a total distance of 1,400 miles, and it stops at virtually every station along the route, just like a country bus.

Long distance journeys by locals in India are endeavours which demand planning of the most exquisite nature. The women of the family prepare steel trunks containing most of the household. “Be prepared” seems to be their motto. They pack glasses to drink from, cooking utensils, plates, trays which will hold their food, bath towels, their personal toiletries, 30 saris and all the necessities for the children travelling with them. The steel truck is a guard against being robbed, and at all stations along the way, one sees whole families gathered around the trunk. It is used as a table, a chair, a bed. And when the train prepares to leave the station, they always seem to hire the skinniest man on the platform to wrestle the trunk back onto the train.

Village life along the tracks

Actually, one doesn’t need to bring much of anything along on a train journey in India. Crops of vendors haunt the stations selling everything imaginable. Booksellers provide reading material, vendors flog food of every category. Trinkets and toys for the children can be purchased out of an open window, along with sunglasses, and transistor radios. Hot, sweet tea will be served to you right where you sit. You must toss it down quickly and return the glass before the train pulls away. Even monkeys are employed to either outright beg, or entertain the weary travellers who still have any sense of humour left.

The panorama from the windows is a timeless scene of the human masses living out their daily lives. Men and women bathe and wash their clothes along a river’s banks. In the heat, before the monsoon breaks and the rains cool the scorched earth of the plains, whole villages will vacate their breathless huts and sleep in the open under the starry skies. If there has been rain, the landscape takes on a serene, lithographed look. Indians up to their knees in water prepare the rice fields with obedient buffaloes, or weed fields of vegetables under the shade of a black umbrella. Small girls, covered from head to toe as protection from the searing sun work side by side with the elders. Their little brothers frolic naked and play. Working, planting, tending crops, all of them toiling under the broiling sun, are blacked and burned as their beasts of labour.

Vendors at every stop

It is just as well that the scenes from the windows are enthralling. Because the conditions of the compartments are not. The terrible crowding on an Indian train is hardly to be described. And the passengers are not always of the human variety. Be prepared to share your space with chickens, goats, ducks, pea hens, and a menagerie of wildlife which is limited only by imagination. The only way to escape the heat in the summer is to ride on the top of the train, as do so many young boys. Not only is it a free ride, but at least there is plenty of fresh air. The boys will be happy to assist you. They just pull you out through your open window. Strong arms will hoist you to the top, and happily make a place for you. They will also tell you when to duck and lie flat when approaching one of the multitudes of tunnels which run through the highlands.

Sleeping cars, depending on the train and the route, are mostly cells; un-swept, uncomfortable, with barred windows and steel doors. In the morning a turbaned gentleman with one eye and fewer teeth will serve you an English breakfast of eggs, toast, and hot tea on ancient crockery.

However, there are also trains with first class compartments and air conditioning, which are clean, comfortable, and cost about the same price as taking a plane for the same distance.

Cramped quarters

The train stations themselves are worth the effort to make the journey. Varanasi Station has the contours of a Hindu temple. Since Varanasi for Hindus is a most holy place to die, or at least be cremated at the river’s edge, the train station is filled with pilgrims and holy men. It is also filthy and full of beggars. The Howrah express, one of India’s best trains will take you all the way from the outskirts of Varanasi into Calcutta. This train is clean, efficient, and almost always on time.

The Howrah Station is massive, and like Calcutta itself, in a state of decay. Enormous, noisy, a combination of grandeur and desolation, the wonder is that it works at all. Calcutta is one of those cities which people associate with nightmares of what mega-cities may become if they are neglected. Rudyard Kipling referred to it as the “city of dreadful night”. The cavernous train station is not as dreadful as the first glimpse might imply. It has everything; food, retiring rooms, and a mass of humanity that fills every nook and corner.

One of the most enchanting train journeys in India is the 8 hour trip on a narrow-gauge train from Siliguri to the hills of the tea plantations of Darjeeling. Begun as a sanatorium for the disease riddled East India Company, Darjeeling was reached by rails in 1881. This little train winds up a steep incline of difficult terrain. High above the town, it executes a spiralling decent, and loops down and around itself like a snake swallowing its own tail. Darjeeling is a famous hill station and resort area, and the train is a popular attraction.

Train travel through India is an adventure. It is a way to see the country, know the land, its sounds, smells, and its people in their unchanging fascination. Here, the endless kaleidoscope of living culture and unforgettable landscape as viewed from a train gives us an up close and personal experience of one of the world’s great civilisations. India is humanity on parade.

Rotarians salute RI President Elect: HE Bhichai Rattakul

Story and photos by Peter Cummins

They came from near and far - from all over the Kingdom, in fact - to pay homage to HE Bhichai Rattakul who has been confirmed as Thailand’s first-ever President of Rotary International. He will serve from 2002 - 2003.

RI president-elect HE Bhichai Rattakul checks his “Windsor knot”: ready for Chicago?

Some thousand Rotarians, incumbent presidents, past presidents and district governors packed the splendid ballroom of the Plaza Athenee Hotel in Bangkok, including Jomtien-Pattaya’s finest: DG Premprecha Dibbyawan, president-elect Alvi Sinthuvanik, PP Peter Malhotra, PP Dennis Stark, and Rotarians David Jeater, Thanakorn Limsakul and Peter Cummins.

The evening at the Plaza Athenee was, indeed, a heartfelt tribute to HE Bhichai who, in a most gracious manner becoming to him, moved around among the gathering, greeting each and every Rotarian and their guests, as well as posing with individuals and groups for photographic mementos and a visual record of the great occasion, for posterity.

“On the wings of song”: RI president-elect Bhichai is enraptured by the chanteuse

The RI president-elect addressed the group, saying that he was “excited and thrilled” to see so many Rotarians from all around the Kingdom attending the evening, to support the ideals and aims of Rotary International and to honour Rotary Thailand’s Royal Patron, HM the King.

DG Premprecha Dibbyawan (District 3340, 2000-2001), in his address, referred to the progress made by Rotary since its founding in Thailand in 1930. In those seventy years, the membership has grown to around 6,000, with more than 250 clubs, divided into four districts, specifically 3330, 3340, 3350 and 3360.

RI president-elect Bhichai accepts a model of the Royal Barge from Dr. Pratoom Rodjam president of the Rotary Club of Dhonburi

“By the time HE Bhichai takes up the mantle as RI president in mid-2002, I hope we can count 10,000 Rotarians in Thailand in all of our 72 provinces,” DG Prem said.

Nevertheless, there was a little deja-vu this time, for it had been just one month earlier that a big contingent from the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya went to Bangkok to celebrate Rotary’s seventy years in Thailand (see story, Pattaya Mail, 22 December 2000 Vol. VIII # 51, p. 20), to greet HE Bhichai and to welcome RI president, Frank J. Devlyn on his first visit to the Kingdom.

Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya’s finest (l-r) Dennis, David and Lin.

Thus it was a somewhat disappointed gathering when the RI president did not arrive. However, mitigating circumstances were quickly explained in a letter received from the president that, acting on medical advice, he was obliged to cancel the long trip from Chicago. It was through an oversight that the change was not communicated to the host Rotarians and Mr Devlyn was profusely apologetic. “Thailand is important to Rotary as it is to me,” Mr Devlyn wrote. “The World of Rotary looks forward to the great leadership of a great Thai in Bhichai Rattakul. I hope all receiving (this message) will forward this apology to my friends in Thailand who they can contact so we can do our utmost to clear up a misunderstanding that should not have occurred,” Mr Devlyn added.

PDG Somchai Jiaranaipanit and Daranee greeting the RI president-elect

As DG Premprecha pointed out so succinctly, “the non-arrival of the RI president had a positive effect inasmuch as our own RI president-elect was thus able to stay centre-stage and not have to share the limelight.”

As one expects - indeed, looks forward to - at any Rotary gathering, the ambience of the evening was one of good feeling and fellowship, the hallmarks of any Rotary gathering - anywhere. Laughter, smiles and good conversation were punctuated by copious libations of wines, good food and fine music, presented by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and some lively singing by the girl students choral group and the ‘chanteuse’.

As the evening wound down, a long line of well-wishers stood waiting in the wings for the chance to greet the RI president-elect, who was standing on the stage, and to ply him with tokens of appreciation, ranging from huge bouquets to a beautiful scale-model of the Royal Barge the “Subanahongsa”.

M.V. Doulos arrives in Chonburi

M.V. Doulos, the world’s oldest ocean going passenger liner - two years younger than the Titanic - has now arrived in Thailand. She is open to the public in Sattahip from until the 9th of January, Laem Chabang from the 12th until the 29th of January and in Bangkok from the 1st until the 19th of February.

More than just a ship

The main attraction of the ship is the Book Shop. 6000 different titles for sale, it is the world’s largest floating bookshop. The books cover a wide range of subjects such as science, medicine, cookery, sports, technology, art, and children’s books.

The M.V. Doulos has arrived in Chonburi

During the visit, the Book Shop will be open for the public. An international crew, from over 35 different nations, will be there to welcome you from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Entrance fee is 10 baht.

As well as the Book Shop there will be many other events in and around the ship. These will include a Family Day with clowns, face painting and music, and a Lighthouse Cafe, an opportunity to sit in a relaxed atmosphere and talk with the international community.

The finale in Laem Chabang is International Night on the 27th of January, a two-hour performance of cultural dances, songs, drama and mimes. For more details please call the Doulos Office during office hours on (038) 361 731.

The M.V. Doulos has the largest floating bookshop in the world

The Doulos is owned and operated by Gute Bcher fr Alle (GBA - meaning Good Books for All), a German non-profit charity organization. GBA has operated the vessel since 1978 and seeks to promote literacy, education and international understanding through its floating Book Shop and Cultural Exchange programs.

Over the past 20 years the ship has visited 85 countries in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific and has had over 15 million people visiting the ship.

The Rotary Club
of Jomtien-Pattaya

Skal International

Pattaya Fun City
By The Sea