Making of a Rail fan

Today, while commuting to work from Dombivli to CST Mumbai, I came across a 5 year old young chap who had all the makings of a rail fan. I had boarded the 11:59 CSTM local from Dombivli and was seated comfortably by the window facing the fast tracks in a near empty 1st Class compartment. It was 12 car DC train. My coach was 3rd from the CSTM end and adjacent to my window was the door of the ladies 1st Class.

We departed at 12:01 and after stopping at Kopar and Diva Jn, we reached Mumbra, where this toddler entered the compartment accompanied by his father. The father came and sat beside me while the toddler, was spoilt for choice of window seat. He had the window seat opposite to mine as well as the West facing window available to him. Without an iota of doubt he decided to sit opposite to me and view the world outside. In fact, he was so small that his feet didn’t touch the ground when he reclined back. That’s when he ditched the seat and decided to stand by the window. As soon as we left Mumbra, we entered one of the two small tunnels on the line. The motorman hadn’t turned on the lights in the compartment and sudden cut-off of natural light meant there was darkness in the compartment for a few seconds as we were traversing the tunnel.

The ignorant kid, Saurabh( that’s his name) was petrified and screamed, “Abu, ye kya tha ?”(What was this?). His dad tried to pacify him by saying that it was just a mountain. The smart kid said, “Abu, ye tho gufa tha naaa….” (Wasn’t it a tunnel?). Saurabh had already made a mark on my mind by this statement. As we entered the next tunnel, Saurabh was more daring and did not seem to be withered by the darkness this time. He asked his dad, why the tunnel was so small, as the last time they had travelled by train, he had seen a long tunnel. His dad told him that, last time they had taken the fast train, hence the tunnel was longer.

As we were approaching Thane, we crossed over the Thane Creek Bridge and this chap was all excited to here the rumbling sound when we went over the iron girder bridge. We spotted a few EMUs bound for Thane and Panvel on the Trans Harbour line and everytime he noted a train, he used to go ballistic and shout, Abu…train…Abu..Train… The dad was having a field day in keeping his ward under control.

Every time we stopped during the journey, he made it a point to ask which station it was. He was too small to read the station name and as soon as we left Thane, we were overtaken by a loud and hard chugging WDM3A Loco from SCR stables of Kazipet pulling the Hyderabad-Mumbai Express. The chugging sound was deafening and we had a short parallel run and Saurabh was all animated. He first tried to close his ears with his tiny hands and finding them to be too small to be effective, he decided to give an ear to the chugging sound of the loco and as it sped past us, he began shouting, “ Abu..Special Train…Abu …Special Train…” . By now, everyone in the compartment was observing this kid’s mannerisms. I was privileged to be sitting just opposite to him. He was almost leaning on me to see the Last coach of the Hyderabad-Mumbai disappear from our visibility.

As we pulled into Mulund, he had both his hands out of gap in the window and screamed at the ladies waiting to board the adjacent 1st class door saying, “Mujhe hath do naa… (Give me your hand or possibly clap my hands). A few college girls who were waiting to board our local were amused by his gesture and were giggling as they board the adjacent door. As we left Mulund, a WCAM3 Loco with an unknown express sped past us from the adjacent track and Saurabh was again shouting at his best, calling it a special train. We halted at Nahur within 3 minutes of our departure from Mulund and saw the Truck-on-rails being stationed on the 5th line and a JCB was filling it with a load of ballast to be transported down south towards Ghatkopar. The truck-on-rails doesn’t fail to amuse even the worst critic of railways for its innovation and I had a kid in front of me who would have been watching it for the first time in his life and he was curious at first and when he noticed that the truck did not have normal wheels, he was all the more excited and was all gung-ho about it. As we reached Bhandup, he repeated his act of asking the ladies to clap his hands. Even though none of them obliged, everyone had a smile for him. His wish was granted by a blind hawker who was trying to locate the door and accidentally touched Saurabh’s palm. As the Over head equipment (OHE) van, Kaveri was visible on the fifth line resting at Bhandup, Saurabh was again seeing something new. He queried his already frustrated father about the new type of train he just saw. I tried to intervene by explaining him the use of such a vehicle for the maintenance of the Over-head cables. After that he stopped looking at the railway tracks and concentrated on the cables over-head. He might have been trying to deduce some logic out of it. At Vikhroli, a furious sounding CSTM-Nagercoil Express behind an Erode based WDM2A went past us blasting on all cylinders.

All this while he was standing and the opposite window was empty. At Vidyavihar, we saw a group of men working on the Over head cables for the new lines between Thane and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. Saurabh kept on studying them till they disappeared into the distance, as we moved away from them on our journey to CSTM. He was exhausted by now and finally decided to rest on the seat available to him. Even though he was feeling drowsy, he had his one hand out of the window to feel the wind. In a matter of seconds, he fell asleep. Soon, his dad sat beside him and made him comfortable, by allowing him to lie down properly. At Dadar, the father-son duo got down and I was left wondering, when would this kid join the growing army of the rail enthusiasts. I would see myself in him.

IRFCA is awaiting you Saurabh….

-Nikhil Padinjaroot Karunakaran
Dombivli East