One thing that has always fascinated me, has been the Train journeys. I should admit though, it has not been the same kinda fascination always; at different ages I have enjoyed different faces of a Train journey.
At 2 it just took the mere sound of a train to amaze me; At 4, it was the length and gigantic structure of train that caught my eye.
At 6 ,the addictive movement pattern of the train excited me. 5 days after the journey I could still feel my body swaying. I term it as addictive movement ,because you started wanting it more and more. At 8, the biggest ambition was the Upper Berth in a Train. It takes a year to convince your dad that your grown up to move up. If You succed this, you are the hero next day among friends.
Trains are not always associated with fun and entertainment alone. It taught you lessons you would never forget.
At 10, we learnt Helping and Sacrifice ,when we swapped our Lower berth to an elderly person who had difficulties to climb up. It would have taken ten years for any teacher to teach you the virtues of Helping and the satisfaction a Sacrifice could give. At 12 , when struggling with topics of Parallels and Perpendiculars ,Train
tracks came in handy.
At 14,"Chaiya Chaiya"(Famous A.R Rehman Bollywood song) popularised trains more. All your fantasies were revolved around the train from then on for a long time. At 16 the TGV Atlantique fascinated me.These trains from France ran at speeds of 300 km/h, at a time when Indian train delay units were not minutes or hours but Days.(At 20 though , I realised that, If France had India's Population their train delay units would have been Months).
At 18 , you learnt to fill the first form of your life(Not knowing that you would spend most of your life ahead filling forms), when your dad asked you to book your own tickets and travel on your own. At 20 ,Trains gave you an opportunity to show your respect to Elders. Whenever you see an elderly person, you would be the first one to offer a seat.
The current happenings on a Train requires a whole new article. What a 22-Years-and-above person Observes on the Train,requires a whole new article...
