Life itself is often compared to a train journey.Friends, neighbors, relatives & all contemporaries are considered as co passengers in a train journey. The moving train stops at every station . At every station those whose life span is over disembark and those who are newly born board the train and the train moves on. Life of some people is long and life of some people short. Similarly, a train journey too is sometimes long and sometimes it is short.
Journey isn't merely travelling from one place to another. It's enlightenment in many ways. It is for a man to make it lively and interesting otherwise it would be boring. Life too would be also how we plan and spend it. Of course, it doesn't more often turn out the way we want it to be. As a train moves fast thoughts in the mind too emerge faster and faster.Everyone lead their life with one or another purpose.If it is a night journey it is sounds of rail and sleep. We wouldn't know where we are or what are the places we passed through.
Travel as much you can. As far as you can .Life's not to be lived in one place.No doubt about it at all.But,no one travels without purpose.People belonging to all walks of life are found travelling in a train including adventurists and vagabonds . Capacity of passengers on a train runs into thousands.It's a mini world inside a train. It's in it one feels though itself is moving stationary objects outside seem to be moving. A train journey is full of experience. In a train people are leisurely and those who love snoring snore even during day time in it. Some read novels. Some play cards and some chit chat .Love takes place, friendships take place , thefts take place, and accidents take place on a train.In short, what wouldn't take place in a train it couldn't be predicted at all.Further,newspapers ,magazines, food , water and everything are available in plenty on the trains as well as at railway stalls and canteens at stations on the way too.But they are seldom tasty & hygienic. However, by and large train journey is improving day by day.
On 9-2-2014, I traveled from Mangalore to Madgaon by Mangalore -Madgaon Passenger Train with my wife. Because of inflation though all the prices have been rising, railway fares have not gone up at all. Mangalore -Madgaon railway fare was only Rs 70/-. In fact, it was low compared to auto fare from Kadri to Mangalore central railway station of Rs 60/- and taxi fare of Rs 600/- from Madgaon to Ramanathim. Yet, we find a number of ticket less travelers on the train. There was no checking of tickets anywhere on the train or off the train. Mangalore -Madgaon Passenger Train leaves every day Mangalore Central railway station at 6.20 a.m. The distance between Mangalore and Madgaon is 428 k. m.
There is no reservation of seats on passenger train. On 9-02-2014 there was no heavy rush of passengers also. As such we could occupy any seat and we occupied entire seat numbers 56,57 and 58 so that we could relax well. One can see in this trip the giant and small rivers, tunnels, greenery, villages, waterfalls.The train traverses along picturesque west coast having varieties of flora and fauna. The natural beauty of region complemented with elegant man made structures makes the journey memorable experience to us.It gives a glimpse of the Mother Nature in all her splendor.The 2.06 km bridge over the Sharavathi river at Honnavar is an engineering marvel. There are 27 stops in between Mangalore and Madgaon where train halts namely Mangalore Junction , Thokur,Surathkal,Mulki,Nandikoor,Padubidri,Udupi,Barkur,Kundapura, Senapura, Bijoor, Byndoor, Shiroor, Bhatkal, Chitrapur,Murdeshwar, Manki, Honnavar,Kumta, Gokarna Road, Ankola,Harwada,Karwar, Asnoti, Loliem,Canacona, & Balli. The train covers the distance between Mangalore and Madgaon in about 6 3/4 hrs .
The journey starts and ends with the landscape dotted with coconut palms, in between we see a plethora of water bodies and see the mighty Arabian Sea in bits and parts along the route. If we know what's along the route, we can see the Murudeshwar Temple's Raja Gopura, a 20-storied structure and also the top portion of the statue of Lord Shiva, which at, 123 ft, is one of the tallest in the world. The portion of cloud-kissing Western Ghats which can be seen right from Byndoor-Mookambika railway station continues till Karwar. Though there are more than 10 tunnels with lengths that vary from 2.6 kms to 6.5 kms along the entire Konkan route. On the Madgoan route there are two major tunnels - the 3.3 km long tunnel at Barcem (Goa) and the 2.9 km tunnel at Harwada near Karwar. It can get quite discomforting and claustrophobic due to the duration the train stays in the tunnels, but it cannot be missed.
There are number of crossings of trains during our journey. Every crossing is an uncertainty. Until it takes place passengers have to rot in that station. As a result seldom trains keep up timings . Besides, passenger train stops at most of the stations. As such,the journey requires a lot of patience. It is not at all easy to spend over 7 hours in a train without doing anything worth while. Besides, I hadn't carried either my lap top or any book with me to pass time. We reached Madgaon at 1.45 . p.m. on 9-2-2014.
Journeys kindle our memories. It was 1959. I had to travel via the same route. The area wasn't at all developed at that time.There were no bridges across the rivers and I had to cross them by boat. It was a long tedious journey. It used to take days to cover distance between Mangalore and Madgaon. India has certainly developed.