Piggy on the Railway

Oil, fish and coal
And a billion whole
Traverse a million miles
On the parallel lines.

If there's a nerve of this country that hasn't cracked as yet, it isthe parallel lines. The parallel lines of Indian Railways, perhaps thecheapest in the world that ferries you at a rupee a kilometer even inAC coaches. The idea of going round Delhi in one and a half hours flatand covering 36 stations is a fascinating idea.

Delhi Avoided Line
The Ring rail service was introduced in the 1970s before the Asiad asa 'Delhi Avoiding Lines', to ferry passengers inside the city anddecongested the four major stations. Thirty years down the line, veryfew people know about it, and the Delhi planning website,delhiplanning.nic.in, tells that the ring rail handles only one percent of the passengers. It's become the avoided line, rather than theavoiding line. Reason? The stations are invisible, it took me half anhour to figure out the Safdarjung railway station. There are noconnecting buses, no landmarks, definitely unsafe at nights. And aboveall, there are only two trains in the morning and two in the evening.So despite amazing speed, and dirt cheap prices, it's not happening.

Ticket babu kahan hai?
We missed the ring rail service courtesy its timings and paucity, butthere was one Nizamuddin bound train waiting. We wanted the tickets,but the ticket collector didn't want us. So he was missing. Apoliceman told us that we are not supposed to click pictures.Safdargunj must be a classified station, for we haven't ever heardthis even at New Delhi. After much hue and cry, the station masterhimself gave us the tickets.The Lonely IslandThe gross underutilization can be gauged from the fact that you canalmost play cricket in the train; it's so empty. The ladies compartment doesn't obviously hold any significance and anyone sitsanywhere. Even at the station you have to hunt for people atSafdarjung. The policemen were packing children – must be for juvenilecrimes – in an auto; they were laying a red carpet for The Palace onWheels and the children were adequately removed before the VIP guestsarrived. Inside the train, the commuters are generally smallbusinessman. So you'll find a fruit seller, a utensil vendor who worksat hundred rupees a day. And Sadhus, sleeping away to glory travelingrandomly in circles. It's almost Romantic, the whole languidity of it.

The Engine Drive
My friend, the photographer, missed climbing on the train eitherbecause of his paunch or his camera, at one of the stations he'd gotdown at. So we wave at an oncoming engine and get a lift. Liaqat Khanis the driver and tells us about his grueling schedule which hasprompted him to study engineering as a part time course. Next year,he'll have a degree to get off the parallel lines. We cross SewaNagar, Lodhi Colony, Nizamuddin and they look very different from whatthey look from outside. The tracks are laid in the body of the city,and not the skin, and the body doesn't appear very healthy. They areplastic bags strewn all over, you cross all jhuggis, and see theinteriors of UP in the heart of Delhi. At the Okhla station we have nooption but to wait an hour for the next train which is an express, andwhich we miss again. In the meanwhile we roam around to see a barber'sshop full of Tere Naam and Himesh Reshammiya, a quack doctor, milkvendors. The milk vendors have a harrowing journey back to Haryanawith train upto only Palwal in the afternoon, after which they have totake tempos. There's variety here, college going girls, bidi smokinguncles, and a girl lying on the floor, with the world oblivious to herbut the flies sensitive to every inch of her body.
Years ago, I had read a very romantic account of the ring rail – thesunset, the trees in the background, the serenity. It's there, butwhat we saw, also exists, and glares.