Skip to main content

Common Man's Common Journey


Rediscovering and reevaluating some old memories rather experiences is probably one of the most interesting things to do. After a substantially busy and constructive six months, which totally rearranges your perspective, you tend to reevaluate few things close to you in a different manner.
This time when I was back in Assam, I decided to rediscover the old travel experiences I which I used to have during my childhood. Since my family migrated to Guwahati, most of our close relatives resided in small towns within some 200 km radius from the capital city. And this time, I decided to pay them a visit, in Shahrukh Khan’s Swadesh style. I decided to leave the luxury of taking a car and use the most basic level of transport available.
Thus on 16th March 2013, I was at the Guwahati Railway Station, with Bongaigaon as destination which happened to be 155 kilometers away. The train route covers almost all the small and medium sized railway stations of the Lower Assam, and also crosses over the historic Saraighat Bridge over Brahmaputra.

After the increased train fares, a general compartment ticket of the Howrah bound Kamrup Express cost me Rs 55. Being a person whose daily college travel shoots up to Rs 100, I was just more than happy. 8:55 was my departure time, and hence I went forward to first compartment in the quest of a nice seat.
Amazing! Shocking! And why wouldn’t it be? A small compartment of 30 seats, which is already, filled by good solid 60 passengers, young, adult and old; and still we have more than 20 minutes to depart. I placed myself on the door in the hope of some fresh air and view, and by the time the train embarked on its journey, the total capacity of the coach overshoot by 70 passengers. With crying babies and smoking adults, the journey started. I managed myself a little space to sit on the floor near the door and started striking a conversation with a fellow passenger, who seemed or assumed him selves to be the smartest of the small town crowd. “This is how we travel, everyday.” He said, indicating towards an empty military compartment which was reserved for the jawans. He complained about the extra luxury the Army people were enjoying while the common passengers suffered every day. “Those Army jawans see, they now have bullet proof jackets, yet they can’t kill these terrorists, and people suffer.” He added further. I did not say anything. What he claimed to be bullet proof jackets were actually just ammunition carrying pockets. I did not to correct him, but I am quite familiar to this small town ego, he won’t agree.
Passengers on the floor near the door

As such, I decided to carry on with the new rediscovering experience of mine. Sitting near an open door of the fast moving train with over loaded crowed was just fine, but with addition of more passengers in each passing station made this experience from amazing to awesome. These people who are so used to these train travels can actually tell you why the train has stopped mid way, and which train is expected to pass by at this point of time at this palace; amazing. They seem to know every possible vendor at the railway station, who sells samosas to omelets. Those three hours, on the train door step, did away for my three hours of flight delay at the IGI Airport, New Delhi. An enriching experience came to an end as I stepped down at the Bongaigaon Railway station.
My next destination was Barpeta, another small town in Lower Assam, which happens to be 80 kilometers from Bongaigaon, while Guwahati happens to be another 80 kilometers from the other end of Barpeta. This time, I decided that I would prefer a bus. Thus on 17th March 2013, I was at the Chapaguri Bus stand, Bongaigaon. Being a Sunday, the bus stop looked deserted and there was only one bus available for my destination. As I approached the bus, I was unsure, if to be excited or tensed. It was a half a century wooden bus, with a driver 15 years older than the bus. With no other options, and a curious mind, I took my seat. A seat with a unique window, which you could either keep open the whole or close it full.th, acceleration full. Wow, the top speed of the bus was 40 km/h.
The window of the bus
My fellow passengers, interesting; from roadside vendors to visiting relatives, from college going students to child labors; it was a concoction of so many different personalities.  Enriching talks made the journey very interesting, until I realized that we were travelling at a speed of 40 km/h on an empty road, with a speed limit of 100 km/h. I went up to the driver. Gear shifted to 4
The interior of the bus is very unique. Something which can be termed as antique; it was full wooden. And there were pillars supporting the roof at random places. The seats were cushioned, but the suspension of the bus was horrible. So as we passed through some rough patch of road, we used to fly up in the air.
The interior of the bus

The bus had n number of stops. People used to get on at random places and get off at random stops. The maximum fare of the bus happened to be Rs 40, which I paid. Crossing numerous small villages and a couple of big rivers on an almost pre independence era bus, I reached my destination, Satranagari Barpeta.
My journey came to an end the next day, when I took a shared cab to Guwahati from Barpeta. All these means of transport, I did use them in my childhood. But now I realize how unique and different they are. So much to explore and so much to learn, more travelogues to come.      

Comments

  1. That was a nice travelogue to the heart of real India. I read it with interest because I am half Assamese myself. Though I have been to the state only once in my life, when I was very small.

    http://reekycoleslaw.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much. And I must say, you would love to visit Assam someday.

      Delete
  2. Foг phenԁimetгazіnе to
    bе еffective. Тhere are now some wеight pills foг men beсausе they all are weight lоsѕ pills thаt work not
    equally effectivе. Remember, whethег you mіght
    be intеrеsted in lοoking for аsѕіst by way of out the daу duе to theіr lack
    of aԁditіves. It's made up of caffeine, without the extra fat along with calories will be burned and it would make weight loss easier. Make sure you tune in and see the actual research that has been preached often but still seems to fall on deaf ears.

    Feel free to visit my webpage pure green coffee extract

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wish I could 'FLIRT'

I was in class VII, when I first came across the word ‘flirting’. (This apparently proves my weakness in vocabulary). Anyways, it was my friend Jyotirmoy who was talking about him flirting with a girl. As usual, an innocent me, asked, “ এই flirting মানে কি? ” Which apparently meant, ‘What does flirting mean? What an apt description he gave, he said, it is an act of conveying someone that you love him/her verbally, though you hold no feelings for him/her by heart. Mind it, class VII we were, and we were already discussing how to fake love. That was good old 7 years back, in a phase of time, where at least love was not merely a matter of one night stand. Over the time, Jyotirmoy did excel in the art of flirting on screen, no wonder, he is yet to score a girl, but he has surely excelled. This is an art, an art probably all of the cool dude modern guys surely have good hands on. But what I am more concerned about is actually described in the last part of the last line of th

A Note To My Abandoned Blog!

I have been writing for over a decade now. In 2012, I started a blog and went on to garner a lakh page views by 2015. Social media wasn’t as big then as to what it is now, the internet wasn’t a necessity, but rather an accessory and attention span surely was more than what we have today. So I believe I can get a little pat on my back for what I achieved.   Come 2016, my blog reached the 200k mark, and then like the abandoned Paper Factory in Jagiroad, Assam, I abandoned my blog. I did write a couple of pieces up until 2021, but that was probably the flickering flame of a dying lamp.   So, did I stop writing after 2016? Hell no, in fact, I have been writing an unimaginable volume of work. From academic papers, news stories, features for magazines, websites, academic papers, dissertations, press releases, scripts, concept notes and my favourite pass time, emails, I have been churning out words after words .  But what I absolutely stopped doing is, writing for myself. Personal writing a

Life on the Wheels: Mr Ram Kumar

The title might suggest that the post is about some adventurous traveler, who roams the world in a four wheeler exploring thousands of kilometers. Indeed, he travels thousands of kilometers, probably 36000 km a month, yet he is not adventurous traveler, and probably we would never imagine our lives to be like his. Life on the Wheels Meet Mr. Ram Kumar , the coach attendant of the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express . Mr. Kumar, with just 4 holidays a month, travels all the way from New Delhi to Dibrugarh via Guwahati serving passengers and back. Again the same day he leaves for Jammu with another fleet of passengers and the cycle goes on. Four holidays is just like nothing, a resident of Bihar, it takes him 2 days to reach home from Delhi and unlike the so called posh Rajdhani where he serves; he boards a general sleeper class compartment to get back. Yet, he wears a badge saying ‘Serving with a smile’ and severs to every new face which he meets in his journey without any compla