Independence Day 1999 @ South India : Part 2 - A Pandemonium @ Bangalore City Railway Station

 

This Blog is dedicated to the memories of my Guide, Mentor and Class Teacher in 10th Standard, Sir Sanjay Choudhary who left for the Heavenly Abode in April 2021 due to Covid-19. I owe a lot to him for whatever command I have over English language.

Those who have not read the Part 1 of this Blog, please find the same here :-https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2021/04/independence-day-1999-south-india-part.html

India was witnessing a strange political circus as it was preparing for Lok Sabha (Parliament) Elections for the third time within 2 and half years. Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had just lost a "Trust Vote" by 1 vote in Lok Sabha in April 1999 and there was no alternative to a fresh election as no other party or coalition was able to stitch a majority. The person responsible for the defeat of Vajpayee Government was none other than a lady from Chennai, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa. Prasad had no good words for Ms. Jayalalithaa or those people of Tamil Nadu who were considered as her supporters.

The more the train kept going away from Chennai, the louder got Prasad's voice against the political understanding of the people of Tamil Nadu. Soon we two became a center of attraction in the small General Compartment of 'Vrindavan Express'. After venting all his frustration for about 2 hours, Prasad started talking about great 'political maturity' of the people of his own state Karnataka. He declared that all 28 seats of Karnataka were going to Mr Vajpayee in the elections next month and he was very proud of his state joining the national mainstream politics leaving behind regional parties.

After Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Prasad soon shifted his focus to Andhra Pradesh. According to him, the Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu deserved nothing less than a 'Bharat Ratna' for supporting Mr Vajpayee. After getting enlightened by him for over 3 hours, I asked him about his views on the politics of Kerala. All his enthusiasm suddenly got vanished and he just made one statement - 'People of Kerala and West Bengal are from different planet'.

Thankfully, my question made him change the topics and for next 1 hours I got to know about the difference of food, spices, sarees, and dances etc. among the 4 states on South India. As we de-boarded at ‘Bangalore City' Railway Station, we made a final 'good bye’ to each other. Since there were no email IDs, Mobile or WhatsApp Numbers, we knew that we had a very rare possibility of meeting each other again. As Prasad went to another platform to catch his next train, I came out of 'Bangalore City' Railway Station to get awestruck by the sheer brilliance in the design of the 'Majestic Bus Stop’. With my previous experiences with buses at Howrah Station (Kolkata), I had never imagined that a 'Bus Stop' could designed so meticulously with a series of Flyover Bridges for pedestrians with each bus allotted a specific bay.

I checked into a nearby hotel called 'Hotel Anmol' with a tariff of Rs 300 for 24 hours stay. One of the teachers from my School, Ms Usha Rao had given me the phone number of her father and brother who stayed in Bangalore that time. Obviously, they were the only people whom I could reach out in the city in any emergency.

They invited me to their house at NR Colony as soon as I called them. After spending comfortable 2 hours at their place and learning more about the city and the venue of the interview, I took a leave and went to MG Road/Brigade Road for some window shopping. The glitter in that area made me realize immediately that India is getting ready for a 5th 'Metro City' with the sunrise of a new India which was undergoing a transformation to become a hub of Information Technology with Bangalore at its epicenter.

The venue for the interview was a small English Medium School named 'MES Convent' in the outskirts of the city at a place called 'Canara Bank Colony' on Nagarbhavi Road. I reached there about 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 9:00 am and found that there were about 30 boys from across the country waiting for the interviews to start.

I realized that every candidate there was accompanied by either of their parents or uncle or elder brother. I was the only daredevil to reach there alone travelling for more than 1200 km. Another thing I realized was that absolutely no one there was aware of my city Raipur . Every time I introduced myself to anyone, I had to explain that Raipur was in Madhya Pradesh about 24 km away from the gigantic 'Bhilai Steel Plant', I saw a bit of confusion on those faces. Some of those candidates and their parents finally settled with an imagination of Raipur being a suburb of Indore/Bhopal/Gwalior/Jabalpur as they had heard only these 4 names from Madhya Pradesh. The third observation that I made was that there were no girls selected for the interview. Before I could draw any conclusion about girls being unable to clear the written test, I saw 4 girls dressed in same school uniform enring the arena. All those girls were from one school in Bhopal and were accompanied by one female teacher who was wearing very big spectacles. Finally, I got to meet 5 souls who knew where Raipur was :-)

The interview format was like a Viva Voce in Science Practical’s. They were randomly picking 5 candidates and evaluation them together for 30-35 minutes in the interview room while the others kept waiting outside. It was the 3rd batch around 11:15 am when I was called with other 4 candidates. The other 4 boys were from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Sholapur (Maharashtra)

As we 5 stood in "Attention Position" in front of 5 panelists, we realized that one of those was the Principal of the same school who was probably sitting there just to enjoy the show. As they started with their first question on 'The relevance of current Indian Education System', the guy from Mumbai started hitting like Sachin Tendulkar. He was awesome fluent in English and was able to speak out his views clearly. The Kolkata guy soon realized that he had to perform like Sourav Ganguly if he intended to challenge any Tendulkar there. His views were strikingly different from the Mumbai guy, but he was able to make an equally remarkable impact. The guy from Hyderabad spoke equally good with his ideas with his English having a typical 'South Indian Accent' before the faces of the panelists turned towards me. That moment was a horrible moment for me as I realized that I didn’t have any idea nor views and absolutely no interest in the topic of 'The relevance of current Indian Education System'. Secondly, I realized that I was the worse among the batch when it came to express something in English.

I had won multiple 'Speech Competitions' since Primary-School days, but all those laurels seemed useless there as those competitions always gave some time to prepare on a specific topic while the topics were put instantaneously by the panel in the interview. I was struggling, and I realized that the guy from Sholapur was struggling a bit more than me. The next few questions were on topics like 'Child Labor', ‘Importance of Sports in School', 'Effect of Satellite Television' etc. I still remember the irony I was going through with those question one after other. The 3 'Big Guns' were miles ahead of me in terms of answering those questions in fluent English. I didn’t have any content on those topics which could make me unique and neutralize the advantage of better English that my competitors had. Although I could read the writing on the wall, I somehow kept saving my wicket and kept trying to delay  the moment of a 'Brutal Defeat'. Halfway into the interview, when the 3 guys were still fighting for the top spot and the guy from Sholapur had already given up, I saw ray of hope with the next question which was on the 'Kargil War' which had taken place just few months back. After listening to the stereotyped answers from the 3 'Big Guns' the panelists gave a reluctant look towards me to know if I had to say something. They faced a surprise when I first started to speak on 'Kargil War' with the viewpoint of Pakistan. I took them into the nitty-gritties of internal establishment of Pakistan, both political and military and explained them the reason for the unwanted adventure from Pakistan. Later I spoke about how the Indian Army used unconventional techniques to win back the Peaks. I realized that for the first time I was being taken seriously as the panelists allowed me to speak for 5 minutes without interrupting. Also, for the first time I saw the 3 guys getting nervous.

The next question again proved to be a 'Goldmine' for me when they asked about - 'The importance of Transport Infrastructure in India'. Once the 3 guys took turns to speak on entities like Local Trains, Metro Trains and Bus Stops etc, I smelled a possible victory for first time.I just had to remind the panellist that we need to start thinking like a 'Central Government' and not like a 'Municipal Corporation'

I spoke on need of upgrading National Highways, River Interlinking with Water Transport, Uni-Gauge Rail System. Slowly I drifted the topic to be more specific on Indian Railway Network. As the panelists loved my views and again allowed me to speak for more than 7-8 minutes, I saw the discomfort growing on the other 3 faces.

We realized that we had been there for 45 minutes as the panelist wished us luck and asked us to leave. All the spirit of completions was gone once the interview was over. All 5 of us spent about 15 minutes together and visited a small Ganesh Temple just besides the school. We felt very nice to know more about each other and I got some opportunity to explain them the exact location of Raipur in the map of India.

My train 'Chennai Mail' was to depart at 00:10 am (technically next day - 17th August 1999) and make me reach 'Chennai Central' at 7:00 am. I was lucky to get the last available AC-2 berth using my father's Green Pass. Since there were no trains to Raipur from Chennai on that day, I got an AC-2 ticket to Nagpur in 'Grant Trunk Express' scheduled to leave around 5:00 pm from Chennai on the same day.

It was 3:00 pm and I was sipping a cup of tea while sitting on a bench at Platform No 4 at 'Bangalore City‘ Railway Station, I saw a 12-13 year old boy sitting with a disappointed face on a bench in front of me. His clothes suggested that he was not a beggar and his face suggested that he was in trouble. Maybe, he had got separated from his parents and didn’t know where to go. When I went near to him to enquire, the first thing he asked me in imperfect Hindi was to give him some food to eat.

After feeding him with a 'Masala Dosa', I got to know that his name was Prasad and he was from North Karnataka (what a coincidence!!). He had run away from his house about 10 days back as his stepmother didn’t treat him well. He worked for 7 days at a small eatery in Bangalore before being kicked out 2 days back.He wanted to go home but didn’t have money to buy a ticket. Without wasting any time, I took him to the ticket counter and bought him an unreserved ticket for his hometown. Also, I ensured that he got into the passenger train which departed around 4:00 pm. The smile in the face of that boy was absolute precious when I gave him a Rs 50 note along with some 'Gyan' before his train departed.

I decided to walk inside the AC Waiting Room as I was very tired and also dint want to meet any more 'Prasad'. The AC Waiting Room at 'Bangalore City' in 1999 was much better than the waiting lounge of the old HAL Airport Bangalore (which I visited once in 2006)

There were about 20 people sitting in the Waiting Room with most of them busy reading or talking. But there was a father-son duo who were very particular that they kept at least 6 feet distance from any other passenger and that no one could dare to speak to them. They looked and behaved like real VIPs while everyone in the room felt awkward due to their rudeness.

As I was feeling suffocated, I left the waiting room around 8 pm and spent the next 3 hours roaming all around before reaching Platform No 7 to board the train at around 11:30 pm. I got down to have some coffee after putting my bag on the berth as we still had 20 minutes for departure. Before I could buy a coffee, I heard someone shouting on top of his voice near the adjoining AC-First Class coach. Soon I recognized him as Mr. VIP (Father) who was sitting in the waiting room earlier. Their names were not on the 'Reservation Chart' and the man was not willing to listen to anyone. He was threatening the TTEs of dire consequences if they didn’t arrange berths for him and his son. Soon, some senior railway officials rushed to the spot to understand the reason for the Pandemonium.

As Mr VIP was trying to call someone from his Motorola Mobile Phone, the junior most of the TTEs pointed out that the VIPs had bought a ticket for the train departing on 16th August 1999 and that their train had already left the previous night. Realizing the blunder, Mr. VIP started requesting for berths instead of shouting. But then it was the turn of the TTEs to be rude. They gave the father-son duo just 5 minutes to get out of the Railway Station as they didn’t have any valid tickets.

Chennai looked much brighter and more attractive on 17th August 1999 as I ventured out walking in the city after taking a bath in the AC Waiting Room and putting my bag in the 'Cloak Room'. I walked till the Marina Beach and was facing the Sea for first time in life. The endless Bay of Bengal made me realize how big the country and the world was. I reached Nagpur at around 11:00 am on 18th August 1999 and immediately got a connecting train 'Mumbai Howrah Mail' for Raipur. The TTE, Mr Majumdar got a berth in AC-2 for me within 5 minutes as he was an old friend of my father.

Reaching home around 6:00 pm, the first thing I did was to call my Captain Ms.Sangeeta Rathi to know about the fate of the Independence Day event in our school which I had missed. I was happy to know that everything went well and was unhappy to know that no one had missed me in that function.

The same sentiments were repeated by my other friends who all declared that all the 'Functions' in Desh Bandhu School were going to be 'Super-Hit' if the so called 'Head Boy' is kept out of the matters every time.

 Ending Lines-

 

•   Mr. Vajpayee did win the elections in 1999 and also got good number of seats in Karnataka while his allies (DMK and Telugu Desam) got great support in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
•  I did get selected for AITSE Scholarship after the interview and so did the 3 'Big Guns' from Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
•  With more air travels, I got an opportunity to visit 'Chennai Central' Railway Station only once in 2010 which brought back vivid memories. Though there was no trace of the STD Booth (no other shop too on that spot)
•  With more air travels, I never got opportunity to visit 'Bangalore City' Railways Station though I had once visited Majestic Bus Stop in 2014. Hotel Anmol still stands at its location
•  During an official trip in 2014, I made a visit to the MES Convent School. Though the school building remained same, the small Ganesh Temple had become a huge one in 2014
•  Bangalore-Chennai Mail starts around 10:00 pm now and hopefully there are no more confusing dates on the tickets
•  With the creation of Chhattisgarh in 2000 and subsequent developments in Infrastructure and boom in Iron/Steel/Power Industry, most of the educated and aware people in India know where Raipur is. And those who still don’t know, will get to know sooner than later....

Independence Day 1999 @ South India : Part 1 - My 1st Encounter with 'Chennai Central'

 

It was about 6 am on 14th August 1999 when I opened my eyes and found the train standing at Nagpur Junction. The Bilaspur-Trivandrum Express which I had boarded about 6 hours back at Raipur Junction was all set to chug off from Nagpur and take me into the territory of what we called 'South India'. I still had some time to abort my journey, get down at Nagpur to take the next train/bus back to Raipur as being a 17 year boy travelling alone to Bangalore with a scheduled change of train at Chennai was perceived as more of a risk than an adventure that time. But before I could make any decision, I found the train already out of Nagpur Junction. For the first time in my life I was travelling on an unknown route in a train. Also, it was the first time that I was in a situation where none of the train staff was a 'friend' of my father. In those days, all Railway Employee from Howrah to Nagpur knew each other by name or by face irrespective of their departments and they all ensured to help each other’s families whenever needed, in their official or individual capacities. It must have been the same for other Railway Zones in India too.

As the Sleeper Coach had just 50% of its berths filled, I wondered why my father got me a ticket for Sleeper Class instead of AC-2 even when we had a Green Pass.Maybe it was my mother's fear that the AC coaches may make me catch cold and hinder my success at the AITSE Interview at Bangalore.

As I took my lunch at Warangal Railway Station, a young man in his early 30s introduced himself as Virendra Kumar. He was working for a mid-sized trading company at Raipur which used to supply Herbal Products from Kerala to shops in Eastern Madhya Pradesh (Chhattisgarh was not created) and Western Odisha. Next few hours were spent comfortably talking to him and witnessing the train crossing 2 giant bridges on Godavari at Rajmundry and Krishna at Vijayawada. The train was running a bit late and it was almost sunset when it left Vijayawada. Now it was the last leg of the journey on the East Coast of India and I was supposed to reach Chennai around 1 am. As the train zoomed past stations like Tenali, Chirala, Ongole and Nellore, I found Virendra Kumar preparing his berth for sleep after dinner as he still had to travel until the next afternoon to Ernakulam.

I waited eagerly and cautiously as the train approached 'Chennai Central'. My father had told me, that if I was not comfortable getting down at midnight then I had an option to continue for 5 more hours in the same train till Jolarpettai Junction and get a train from Bangalore from there. As I was carrying an All India Rail Timetable, I decided to get down at 'Chennai Central' itself as it was going to be easier getting a current reservation in ‘Vrindavan Express’, which would start from 'Chennai Central' at 7 am. The Railway Reservation Office at Chennai was any day going to be bigger and more friendly than that at Jolarpettai.

 As the train entered Platform No. 5 of 'Chennai Central Terminus', I did put on a brave face and braced myself to put my first foot on soil of 'South India' at 2:30 am. With no STD Booth visible on the platform, I started walking towards the exit of the station building when I encountered the first taste of Chennai.

I was surrounded by 3 men, all speaking in Tamil, who had already got the idea that I was an outsider, young boy, unaware of the city or the language. As far as, I could make out, one was trying to suggest me some hotel room while another guy wanted me to take an autorickshaw ride with him. The 3rd guy was just keen to know if I understood any of their suggestions. Terrorized to core by their forceful gestures, I decided to walk back to the platform and get into the train and continue till Jolarpettai. Unfortunately, the train had already started moving out by the time I reached the door of the same coach from which I had got down. With no other option, I spent about 15 minutes on a bench at the platform itself before I encountered another guy speaking in Tamil who wanted me to buy a lock set from him for my bag. He was so adamant in selling the piece for Rs 50 that I had to literally run away from there to avoid his salesman skills.

Suddenly, I realised that I needed to call my parents at Raipur who must have got worried by that time. I mustered all the courage and started walking back towards the exit. This time those 3 guys (hotel-autorickshaw agents) didn’t approach me even though they watched me from a distance. I quickly realised that they didn’t want to create any nuisance in presence of a policeman whom I saw standing there. I quickly made an exit and was lucky to find an STD Booth just outside the gate while the guy trying to sell locks did follow me till the exit gate. I saw an elderly gentleman in neat white lungi and kurta sleeping on a wooden bench at the STD Booth. He got up as soon as he realized that someone had entered the Booth. I made a call to my parents and appraised them that I had reached Chennai. My father advised to get a reservation for Bangalore immediately at the 'Current Reservation Counter'. The man at the STD Booth was a sweet gentleman. He had realized the situation and tried to convey to me in Tamil-English that I should not worry at all and that Chennai too was as friendly or unfriendly as Delhi or Mumbai. He convinced me that there were more helpful people than troubling morons just like anywhere in India.

After paying and thanking him, I moved to the Reservation Counter only to find that there were no seats available in 'Vrindavan Express'. Seeing a Green Railway Pass with me, the reservation counter guy advised me to get in touch with the TTE just before boarding the train at 7 am.After roaming around and seeing different parts of 'Chennai Central', I decided to sit at one place and rest until morning. It was about 4:00 am when I found myself sitting on the steps of the main entrance of 'Chennai Central' while there were very few people going in or coming out. Although it was not the best place available, my filmy mind made me feel like a Bollywood Hero sitting on the steps of the entrance of a Big Railway Station.

As I started to relax, I found some 20 people suddenly rushing at the open space in front of the gate with 3-4 tankers of water. Suddenly the whole area was washed and cleaned. Then I saw a truck full of flowers arriving at the scene. Amidst all the excitement and anxiety, I had forgotten the fact that it was 15th August. It was the Independence Day of our beloved Country and the Rail Authorities of Chennai were also preparing for the flag hoisting ceremony in their station campus.

The idea of Independence Day also brought a wave of thoughts in my mind and made me realize how eventful that week was for me. I was not supposed to be sitting at the gate of 'Chennai Central' or trying to get a train for Bangalore on the morning of 15th August 1999. As a student of Class 12 and 'Head Boy' of the school, I was supposed to lead the mission with my classmates (with support of teachers) for organizing a grand function of Independence Day at the campus of Desh Bandhu English Medium School, Station Road, Raipur. Not only was it my last year in the school, it was also the 'Silver Jubilee' year of our beloved school.

Just 4-5 days back, I was working like a Joint-Captain along with a team of sharp and energetic friends to ensure a memorable Independence Day celebration in our school. We had planned every activity and had distributed the responsibilities just like a professional team. It was 11th of August when I was informed by my all-time favourite teacher Ms Alka Sharma that the school had received a letter from the organizers of 'All India Talent Search Exams' that I had cleared the written test which was organized about a year back (in previous academic session) and that I was required to attend an interview at Bangalore on 16th August 1999 in order to clear the last round. As it was a matter of great honor and a very rare opportunity, our Principal Sir B.B Shukla was very keen on me going and attending the interview.

My parents too were very happy, and my father asked me whether I was ready to travel alone to Bangalore as it was not possible for him to get leave at such short notice. Once I gave him the confidence, he immediately arranged for the Green Rail Pass along with a reservation till Chennai. The responsibility of getting the reservation for journey back home was left to me as we were not sure if the interview would take a day or more.

It was about 6 am when I realized that I needed to get up and move towards the 'Vrindavan Express' which was supposed to start from Platform No 10. The flag hoisting at the station was supposed to take place at around 8:30 am and I was certainly going to miss it. After having light breakfast at Railway Stall, I approached a TTE who told me that all the seats were full and that he was ready to allow me to travel standing in a reserved coach of the train which had all 'Chair Cars' and he would give me a seat in case some passenger didn’t turn up. But he also advised me that may be getting into the ‘General Compartment’ would be better as it was more likely to get a seat as it was a National Holiday. 

As I was in a dilemma on choosing the coach to get in, I again encountered the guy who was trying to sell me a lock few hours back. This time he was more in a 'pleading mode' than 'forcing mode' as he folded his hands saying something in Tamil. I realized that his sales were not that good and that he desperately wanted to sell some locks to get some money. Finally, I bought 2 locks from him for Rs 100 and I still remember the happiness on his face and hope in his eyes.

I got into the ‘General Compartment’ and was able to put my bag at a safe place while, I preferred standing near the gate when the train started moving. Though the compartment had some empty seats, I was reluctant to sit as I never liked sitting away from a window. As the train picked up speed, I was amused to see so many gentlemen wearing neat formal shirts while having a lungi wrapped around their waist. This kind of formal attire was something new to me. 

As it was about 7:30 am, my mind again took me back to my beloved school and I was sure that my friends were doing their best to make the last Independence Day of our batch a grand success. As the access to mobile phone was still limited to very few people in a handful of cities in India and there was nothing called 'Facebook' or 'WhatsApp', the only means for me to know what was happening in my school was to rely on a mix of assumption and imagination. I was very sure that our 'Head Girl' Ms Sangeeta Rathi along with some of our enthusiastic friends like Mr T.N Abhishek and Mr Naval Agarwal would surely stretch themselves to make it a grand success even in my absence.

 I was enjoying the cool breeze from the gate of the coach when I realized that my legs needed some rest and thus, I started looking around for the best possible seat for myself when I suddenly heard a voice saying 'Hello Brother'. I saw a young guy in his early 20s, wearing a jean and a t-shirt just like me, sitting on an upper berth alone. He was waiving at me and was inviting me to climb up and join him there. As he helped me to pull myself up, I finally got some comfortable place to sit and stretch my legs. He introduced himself as Prasad. He was an MBA student from North Karnataka studying in a college of Chennai.

I was happy to be finally heading towards my destination Bangalore, the next 4-5 hours spent talking to Prasad gave me some real insights of the lives of people in 'South India' including their social and political inclinations and the tussle among those 4 states.

The next one and half days spent in Bangalore were certainly one of the most memorable episodes in my life and the interview of AITSE was a lifetime event for a 17-year-old boy.

I will write about my Bangalore experience in my next Blog.

To be continued.............

https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2021/05/independence-day-1999-south-india-part.html