The God of Small Things

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The God of Small Things
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Travel through the once 1005 km long Bengal Nagpur Railway's Satpura Narrow Gauge system said to be the most extensive NG system in the world, in which one can still perform a fabulous 400 km journey in the sleeper coach of a single NG train.






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Railways as a metaphor for one's journey through life will appeal to those who feel the right pace for the human soul is no more than a breezy canter. Bill Aitken in Branch Line to Eternity.
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Part I
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Divine Intervention
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The biggest problem of all is to convince polite society that what they consider real life is actually only the poorer half of it.Bill Aitken in Branch Line to Eternity.
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When confronted with this problem on reaching Jabalpur station on the morning of 29th September 2006, we had reached a stage when we even started looking for accomodation availability for a train which would take us back to Bombay in the event of no NG Nagpur train turning up at the station.
The train-list board at the staion did mention 2NNJ Passenger at 20:30, but nobody at any of the enquiry counters was sure if it actually ran or had discontinued. Our queries were only answered with suggestions to travel in a bus or via a BG Express with changeover at Itarsi and symphatetic looks were given to two brain-damaged people wanting to travel in the Narrow Gauge passenger for no conceivable reason.After a couple of hours of fruitless enquiries, we made a last-ditch attempt by visiting the NG platform asking whoever we met on the way about the train. Hope came in the form of a ZDM3 horn and soon a NG passenger coming from Balaghat arrived on the platform. The ultra-friendly driver convinced us of of the existence of a single train to Jabalpur with a SL, and further, informed us that they themselves would be taking the train uptill Nainpur. They then acting as our Guides accomodated us in the same rake which was been shunted to Howbagh, from where we would get sharing autos at Rs. 15 per head to spend the day between the world-famous Marble rocks at Bahera Ghat.
The divine intervention was conplete, Krishna the charoiteer had taken the form of ZDM3a drivers, and we bought back small marble statues of God and Goddesses from Bahera Ghat for our saviours, not as a bribe for footplating (which had already been proposed to us by the drivers themselves!!), but more as a symbolic gesture of what these people meant to us at that situation at that point of time.
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End of Part I.

Part II
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Slippery Sleeper
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There's nothing so comforting as a deep sleep on a train. Even a lover will only rock you for so long, but the rhythm of a train in motion is continual, and the most soothing, lulling movement in the world. - Off the rails, Memoirs of a train addict by Lisa St. Auban de Teran, quoted in Bill Aitken's 'Branch Line to Eternity'
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True, but the problem at hand was to first lay a hand on the reserved berth of the narrow gauge sleeper.The resons for the problem were the following:1. No prior reservation is possible for the SL class, the same is provided only on approaching the TTE at the platform if there are any seats available by the time you approach him. 2. Until the (9 coach) rake is formed nobody is sure whether SL will be attached to the train for not. There are only 3 SL class coaches in all, with only 1 visiting Jabalpur, and if it is taken off for maintenance then there is no replacement for the same.3. Even after the rake is formed, one would not know if there is a sleeper attached or not. This is because there is nothing on the outside to indicate the presence of a sleeper, the only markings on the coach are the second class sign (II) and the 3 digit coach number.
On enquiring from the person who was shunting the rake a vague reply to the effect of 'maybe yes maybe no' was obtained. It was only when our charioteers arrived did we come to know that the 2nd last coach should be a SL.
Sure enough, the coach (2004 manufactured!!) with only II markings which looked an ordinary 2S sitting coach seating 38 from the outside turned out to have sleeping accomodation for 10 people which was similar to having side upper berths on both sides. We occupied the seats at the Howbagh yard itself, as did several other people, and selected berths 1 and 2 as these were opposite the door and would provide us with a clear view of the outside even while lying down. By the time we located the TTE several of the seats had already been allocated by the TC, however we were lucky enough to obtain the two berths required by us.
For those planning to journey along this route, a point to note is that even though the train officially starts from Jabalpur, seat allocation is done at the Howbagh yard itself before the train is shunted to Jabalpur. Interestingly, one can officially travel in the rake shunted from Howbagh to Jabalpur by purchasing a Howbagh-Jabalpur-Howbagh return ticket.
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End of Part II.

Part III
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Ghosts, Cannibals and a TTE
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Main line traffickings were forgettable, but to enter a branch line carriage was to arouse a sense of adventure and open a door to the unknown.- Bill Aitken in 'Branch Line to Eternity'
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The chief asked the assistant to slow down at a particular spot as he had witnessed a group of ladies dancing in the middle of the night in the middle of the forest at an earlier occassion. Sure enough, at the promised spot, a group of ladies clad in black were dancing away, swaying wildly to the accompanying music. By sheer coincidence or maybe by design, the time was 12 o clock at night. The handycam was working away capturing this eerie event but as I was half expecting, no ladies or music got captured, all that came on tape was darkness, the sounds of the wheels of the train and the whirring of the ZDM3 engine :-)
Nainpur, the great NG junction with 4 lines emanating out in 4 different directions arrived at 2 a.m. The loco-pilots had told us of the presence of a steam loco at Nainpur, however it was difficult to go looking out for it in the middle of the night. The train rumbled on through the countryside and eventually reached Chhindwara Jn. at 8 a.m. At Chhindwara, most of the passengers got off and the SL coach remained empty for the rest of the journey. We were joined by an enthusiastic and friendly TTE, who seemed to be a character straight out of a RK Narayan novel. He was full of interesting anecdotes about the area we were travelling in, held long discussions about various aspects of railway matters, and at enroute stations would bring local specialities for us to eat or point us to a tea stall which would serve exceptionally well made tea.

Chhindwara is (presently) also a terminus for the broad gauge, and we witnessed the arrival of the Indore Chhindwara Panchvaley express in the morning. The TTE advised us to take this train upto Amla from Chhindwara in the future, as it passes through some very beautiful scenery and dense jungles adjoining Panchmarhi. He told us that the tribals of this area used to dig and live in burrows in the ground and were so isolated that they had tasted salt for the first time only in the 70s. At an earlier occassion the britishers had one sent a team of priests to 'civilise' these people. They never returned as they were promptly eaten up by these tribals. Sadly, what the british could not accomplish, the Indian government successfully implemented and the once independent, self-sufficient and proud people have effectively been reduced to the status of poor beggars. Rubbing salt on wounds is a favourite activity of politicians and the broad gauge would only be displayed as an investment for the 'progress' of these poor people, as per government propoganda, while its real purpuse would be to deplete the region of its natural resources in favour of industrialists elsewhere. Thats the way the 'civilised' world works.

The TTE told us of some good experiments (eventually abandoned) made by certain people on the Nainpur-Chhindwara-Nagpur sector. Trials had been successfully carried out at 65 kmph and 5 ac coaches had been readied to run an all ac superfast express, so much is the estimated traffic on this line. A 'Palace on Wheels' type of NG train was also ready, however with no interest from higher-ups, most of the coaches seem to be converted into salloons for the benefit of the top officials.
Further, the TTE informed us that the timings of trains on the JBP-NGP sector have been revised from 20th July onwards, and wrote down the new timings on a sheet of paper. The new time-table is based with an MPS of 40 kmph for all trains, and it seems officials are no longer interested in proper upkeep of the NG sector.
Eventually Nagpur was reached at 15:20, thus bringing to an end a fantastic journey.
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End of Part III.








End of all parts