Trains

For the longest time, traveling was synonymous with a train journey for me. The very first memory I have of being on a train is from the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. I remember there being a lot of commotion and discussions. At the time it had no significance for me.

I don't know why I should have remembered that now - I had intended this post to be a homeage of sorts to my love for train journeys! But atleast it sets a time-line to how long I've been travelling by trains! Let me try and capture my intentions here on :)

We'd mostly go and visit my Grandparents over vacations and this entailed about 13hrs of traveling by train. All those innumerous trips with family must have paved the path for this love of train journeys. The thrill of holding your face to the window; standing at the door of the compartments; feeling the rhythm of the engine (I had to add this -- to me the beat in O Saya captures the rythm to a perfection). Singing songs; eating the yummy yummy ullipai samosas (onion samosas) the vendors keep hawking; poories with kobbari podi (coconut powder all spiced up) Amma makes that are a must for such trips :); jostling for the window seat; falling asleep to the gentle sway of the berths. Meeting new people. Betting with siblings on the next station to come. Watching out for our uncles as our destination approached; being the first to spot them; the joy in meeting up again. I even have a hangover from travelling by trains! a sort of rocking feeling for a couple of hours after.

Even to this day I always prefer to travel by train if I have the time on my hands -- in the non ac compartments; you can't open the windows in the ac ones!

I've been told the Coast Starlight between LA and Seattle is a breathtaking journey. Looking forward to making this trip sometime soon.