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.............

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