Epic Train Journey

Madras to Tirunelveli

South Indian Railways Class T (Steam Locomotive)

Distance: 624 km (18 hr)

Madras (Chennai) to Tirunelveli, over 600 km journey

I was on my 'four months' sabbatical entourage with the Tablighi Jamaat soon after getting my Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Glasgow. This was a period of time, before I came back to Malaysia and supposedly having to serve the Government (it's contractual) as I was one of their Public Services Department scholar.

That, was 'some' decision to make. But then again, I thought that if I missed this window of opportunity, there's no way I could find another, especially once I started working. Not to mention, what my parents would have said and reacted.

So there I was, in the middle of nowhere. Riding on a narrow gauge train with steam driven locomotive. This was still in the early 1990s anyway. The Indian Railway, even though it has become the backbone of the country transportation, it was not yet fully modernised.

This Madras (now Chennai) to Tirunelveli train was really a long journey, even though not as arduous as the trips I took before i.e. from Delhi to Madras or from Karachi to Lahore where I was riding in these express trains practically in days. Those long train journeys really had me occupied in deep thoughts about the my purpose of life, about my long lost GF, and about everything else for that matter.

For whatever reason, all the coaches on this steam train were all individual wagon type. Meaning, you can't move from one coach to another coach. Once the train is moving, you will be stuck in your own coach.

Somewhere about halfway during the journey, the train stopped at a station named Tiruchirappalli. I asked my fellow traveller who's an Indian, 

'So, brother. How long this train would stop here?'

Obviously, I had to make that famous Indian-head-wobble (head-shake) together with my query, just to prove a point. In fact, I've already mastered this gesture ever since I landed in the Indian sub-continent two months back. This head-wobble, I tell you ... it's very infectious. 

In fact, nothing seems to be complete without it. I observed that this head wobbling thing, can be used to express appreciation or thanks as well as to acknowledge someone's presence (especially if you see someone you know across the street but can't shout out to them). This delicate movement of the head can also be seen as a gesture of kindness or goodwill. For example, when suddenly someone sits down next to you on the train even though you have paid for the whole seat / sleeping berth, you just have to wobble your head. I had many of those occasions during the Delhi-Madras trip.

'I estimated ...' 

My travelling Indian brother begin to response. By now, you could imagine he's already talking in his thick Indian accent while his head started to wobble.

'... this train will stop about 10 minutes, as a minimum.'

He said it with such confidence, along with his head wobbling to prove his point.

'Thank you brother.'

In my mind I did have some doubts though, but I just gave him some benefits as I felt a little bit hungry.

So, I got off the coach and went to look for some food. It seems that, the food stalls were somewhere at the end of the platform, and I had to walk a bit.

I managed to buy some freshly prepared tosai together with its idli condiment. Oh yes, you can never get more original tosai than this, not even at the Indian Banana Leaf stalls near the Ipoh Padang, which I'm used to, after each cricket match with the Royal Ipoh Club gentlemen during my school days.

Suddenly, I heard the train sounding its loud horn. Almost immediately, it started to move.

'Ohh sh**,'

Soon after I realised that I was in fact in a religious journey (well, sort of),  I then said,

'Astagfirullahalazim,'

I ran as fast as I could to catch the moving train. There's no way I could get back to my coach as it's at least 50 m away. I just boarded the nearest coach and managed to safely get into the moving train. The scene was just like in the movies.

Steam train with individual coach wagons

The coach that I boarded was meant for ladies. Yes, it's a ladies coach. To make it even more dramatic, the coach was full of nuns. They were a bit as surprised when they saw me. There was an empty seat near the door, and I quietly sat there. I did try to explain with my hand gestures, head wobbled and all, but they were just smiled, as if saying,

'Such a foolish young foreigner, what a pity.'

I saw the nuns were in a jovial mood. They were talking and chatting happily to each other and sang along the way. The next stop was Madurai. That means, I was in that coach full of nuns for about 3 hours.

I thought it was just like another movie scene.