Mahalaxmi Express 2019
Genre – Fiction
Sub-genre – Road Trip
Length of blog – 2200 words
February was the last time Neel had visited home. He wanted to go to his native place, but he was waiting for Lucky’s company. They were best of friends and always coordinated their way home.
“Book Mahalaxmi Express for next week”, Neel messaged Lucky.
Neel was a railway employee and he knew Lucky would book his own ticket. On Friday, before 9 p.m., Neel called Lucky to see if he had arrived at Thane railway station. He was courteous and disciplined man.
“The train has left Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and is on time. Are you getting it?” Neel said.
Neel stayed at the railway quarters near CST. It was better to get onto the trains he was assigned to do his shift duties. CST formerly known as Victoria Terminus was one of the biggest railway stations in Mumbai. Thane railway station was the stop in the neighbouring city.
“Yes, I am on the platform waiting for the train. I left early cause of the rain”, Lucky continued, “Are you on duty?”
“Yes, but I have taken a half day”, Neel said.
“Of course, or else we will miss our destination”, Lucky said.
The train rolled into the station and Lucky navigated his luggage to his berth. As he settled down on the top most tier and became comfortable in the sleeper, Neel
helloed from the gangway.
“Are you ready to party”, Neel said.
Lucky turned towards the uniformed policeman smiling at him. He beckoned Neel to come up which the latter gladly obliged. Both tried to hug each other as much as the confined space allowed them to. They exchanged pleasantries, their jibes and jokes poked at each other made all around them understand that these were old pals and to let them be.
“My duty has not yet started yet”, Neel said, all too loudly.
Neel had purposefully said the last part very loud so that the last of the passengers who were looking at them gave up interest in them.
“How many night shifts are you doing?” Lucky said.
“Only this week”, Neel continued, “Last month I had two weeks of night shifts. Comparatively speaking, July is being kinder. Not much to highlight in my
reports” “What about you? Which shift were you in?”
“I was in the morning shift today and tomorrow I had to apply for leave, you know”, Lucky said.
“Yes, coz of our party plans. Does Smita know?” Neel said.
“Yes, she knows I will be reaching tomorrow evening, after our party”, Lucky continued as he winked at Neel.
Smita was Lucky’s wife. They had done this earlier, reached their destination early, had a small party and then carried on towards home. This time they an excuse too – their train reaching at 3 a.m. Both were married and had decided amongst themselves to take timeouts whenever
they could. This was what made them such good friends.
“Do you want to see the bottle?”, Neel continued to open his bag. Then decided against it and handed over the bag to Lucky.
“You keep my luggage with you. Open the first zip and its standing on the side”, Neel said.
“That’s fine, I’ll wait until we hit the hotel. I need to catch up on my sleep. These morning shifts, you know, they drain you”, Lucky said.
Neel departed to fulfil his duties. He looked at his watch. He would relieve his second shift guard and see if anything required immediate action. His reliever would get on at Pune railway station around 2 a.m. He had informed his reliever that he would be leaving his post one stop early. That was what he liked about his job, the mutual help and understanding amongst his colleagues. It was always one of the basic emotions required to keep the Indian Railways guarded – all 70000 Kms
of it. He had indiscriminate respect for the administrators who prepared the shift rosters for the different staff. He considered it an art form – to prepare a roster for such a huge amount of employees, including vacations, sick leaves, new train additions, etc. It had taken him a couple of years to get a hold of the grand scheme of things, but now eight years down the line, he understood not only were good observation skills required, but also important to look at things from a bird’s eye view, to be a successful Railway Police Force-man.
He made his way towards his guard berth which was central to the train. On the way, he kept a vain eye for troublemakers and vagrants. There were few in this train compared to some he had been on. Probably, because this train hit all the major railways stations enroute at wee hours of the night. Also, maybe because, this
train had no pantry car – the train starting its journey near dinner time and ending by breakfast. The wet weather had helped too – kept all the last minute vacationers at bay. The mild discipline he had noticed in this Train-number 17411, had always made him find a new respect for the people of the train’s destination – Kolhapur.
He looked at the feet of the people, whether they all wore Kolhapuris, a world-renowned open pair of leather slippers. He smiled as few straightened themselves at his gaze went to below the seats. They would see him doing his duty of checking for suspicious packages, but he was looking at their footwear. Most of the people
were already sleeping. The doors and windows were shut too, thanks to the rain outside. He checked the latches of the doors that were shut, making sure that at least one door, in one compartment was not safety-latched from the inside. He hated someone missing their train in the middle of the night due to a closed door, especially in this weather.
The train had halted for a few minutes now. He had relieved his colleague who cursed the weather and got off at Kalyan Jn. The train was already one hour
late there. Neel was not bothered by the delay; the railways had a way to make lost time. But now again the train had stopped mid station.
“Train delayed due to rain”, his walkie said.
The engine driver was communicating to his staff onboard the length of the train. By the time it was 2 a.m., the train had moved slowly at times, but mostly had halted a lot. And they had not yet reached Karjat railway station yet where he would’ve started his 10 p.m. shift duty.
“Where are we?”, Lucky said.
Neel had strolled over to Lucky’s berth who was eating his dinner. One omelette sandwich which he offered Neel.
“Not yet crossed Karjat and the train has to still start its climb over the Lonavla plateau”, Lucky said.
Lucky looked at his watch.
“Cool, more time to sleep, wake me when we are about to reach Satara”, Lucky said. He covered himself with a blanket and turned on his stomach.
Lucky got up a couple of times and checked his watch and never did he feel the train move. At around six o clock, he heard the train abuzz with voices. He uncovered the blanket from his face and peered onto the bunks below.
“The train hasn’t moved since two”, one person said.
“There is water all around us”, another person said.
Lucky put his head back under the bedsheet and slept.
“There is help on the way, please do not get off the train”, Lucky heard a familiar voice that stirred his sleep. He put his head out of the blanket to see Neel making the announcement over a toy speaker.
“Which child did you rob?”, Lucky said.
“Someone suggested that I use it to keep everybody calm”, Neel said, his mouth away from the microphone. He looked calm. Almost wanting to laugh at himself. He continued his journey, “Please stay in your seats, please save water. Please look after the elderly and other dependents in and around you.”
Lucky got off his bunk and followed the few people following Neel. He offered Neel water.
“Its good that I did not open the whisky bottle last night, else I would’ve used this water”, Lucky said.
Neel waved Lucky off.
“All onboard are taking care of each other, there is no pantry car, so ration the water. People are beginning to feel hungry now, as all would’ve expected to arrive at their destination shortly to some breakfast”, Neel said.
Lucky looked out one of the open doors. The water was flowing against the direction the train was supposed to be going. Its level was two rungs below the ladder on the door. The last two rungs could not be seen.
“We need to panic if the water comes over the last rung”, Lucky said.
“The water has not yet entered any of the compartments. The last few compartments have no power. Two are airconditioned coaches and the
people were feeling stuffy but have made themselves comfortable by shifting to other coaches” Neel continued.
“Where are we?” Lucky said.
“Midway to Karjat, where my shift would’ve actually started, if the train was on time”, Neel said.
Both laughed.
“Oh! we are far from the foothills of the plateau”, Lucky continued, “I thought we got stuck in the water coming downhill.”
“We would have made it, but the engine broke down”, Neel continued, “The engine-driver was quite confident we would’ve made it to higher ground above the rising water level.”
“A dam was opened due to the excessive rain”, another person said. They all looked towards the left which looked like a river. The right hand side had a few trees on what could have been farmland. But no one could say anything for sure because all of it was underwater.
“Any other trains in front of us?” Lucky said.
“No, and none behind us too”, Neel said.
The party turned south. Lucky went back to his seat. There were nine pregnant women and milk for a few new-borns had been collected from few of the other passengers. Neel was doing a good job. Lucky got all this information from one his bunkmates.
“You slept well, all through this”, another person said.
“I have learnt not to panic”, Lucky said.
“We are on the news”, another person said.
“They are sending helicopters to help us”, another person said.
Lucky could not believe it as all the passengers’ eyes turned towards the right hand side. In the distance – on a mound where the farmland, now under water, ended – they saw a helicopter hover low, a orange inflatable thrown out and few men shimmied down a rope onto it. Another inflatable followed. Everyone on the train looked in amazement as the boats to come towards the train – the trees underneath did not help. It took them an hour to reach close by, but still they were twenty yards from the train. A couple of personnel from the NDRF swam with ropes around themselves and setup a rope-pulley so that water bottles could be sent to the stranded train.
“Please do not hurry into anything”, Neel said. He was back with Lucky. He was relieved off his duty, as per the message he received on the walkie.
“I have provided all of the important information to them, now the ball is in their court”, Neel said.
They watched on as few passengers were led over the rope-pulley towards the waiting boats, but the water was chest high and few bags were seen floating off.
“Let’s wait”, Lucky said.
“Yes, no need to panic, we are on holiday”, Neel said.
An hour of seeing people struggle, after which they got news that the villagers nearby had shown the NDRF a better route for evacuating the passengers. Lucky and Neel were amongst the last to leave. One uniformed NDRF-man saluted Neel and told him not to worry and carry on, while he would see that all the passengers are off the train. He headed towards the engine while Lucky and Neel proceeded towards the tail end of the train. They had to proceed southwards along the tracks in the ensuing rain for half a kilometre. There were people distributing water bottles and biscuits to the passengers.
After the ten-minute walk they had to leave the submerged train tracks towards the right onto knee-deep water. This too looked like a farm, and there was rope zigzagging along it which one had to hold with one hand and luggage in the other. At intervals, there were volunteers to guide people keep their wits about themselves.
“Argh! My slipper got stuck in the mud”, a person behind them said. He was unsuccessful in retrieving it.
A few more minutes of struggle and they were on a road. Buses were leaving for Kalyan where a train was kept ready to go back to CST. Also, an alternate train via a different route was made available to those who wanted to complete their journey to Kolhapur. Lucky and Neel sat in the free bus ride eating their free biryani. The railways had arranged for it all. Lucky got his ticket money refunded too, and guided his fellow survivors to do the same.
“Did you see the train on the news”, Lucky told his wife, relatives and colleagues at work, “I was in it.”
— THE END —