NikonGear'23
Travelogues => Travel Diaries => Topic started by: Somnath Goswami on August 25, 2015, 07:13:18
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Train journey in India from Vizag to Jagdalpur
The whistle of the trains and clanking of steel hitting steel, the slightly metallic voice of the announcements which somehow manages to sound the same across the length & breadth of the country, the smell of human sweat mixed with motor oils, the aroma of the puri-bhaji being cooked at the stalls, the inevitable chat over mobile phones, the rush, the wait , the Vizag station is no different from it’s thousand counterparts all over the country on this balmy July morning , promising as well as a tad intimidating.
My wait is for that slow crawler Kirandaul Passenger ( Train no 58501). The intermediate part of a journey which would take me on to the interiors of Chattisgarh. I have the tickets for First Class upto Jagdalpur for a princely sum of around Rs.500/ per head. The train ambles in and a sort of anticlimax there, a very vanilla train being pulled by a vanilla engine and at the last end of the train lies our coach “FC”. I step into the coach and as if I step into a time warp. The silken threads of lost memories entwine me, is this not the compartment that I have travelled so many times with my parents? The same narrow corridor running through one side of the compartment and banks of coupes lined at another flank, some for 4 and yes a few for a couple of passengers. The muted luxary of a door which can be closed and the ability to create a temporary bubble of privacy but the curtains are missing upon the window as are the bedroll & the cleanliness and I was feeling lost there without my parents. The shoving and pushing co passengers thought that perhaps I am drunk or stoned or both and I neatly land into 2015.
Yes me and my friend, we have got the coupe “C” which is a 2 berth one and the icing of the cake is that the window is a “picture window”, no grills and an unobstructed view. I remembered that I am carrying a camera and one single lens , a venerable 50 mm and I slither past my companion to the window side and root myself there for the rest of the journey.
A quick breakfast if bada/idli and the train starts and we leave the uptown Vizag in a jiffy. The next 9 hours of journey will take us through some of the most beautiful vistas that I have ever seen, the plain red-soiled Andhra-Pradesh slowly transforms into spectacular Araku valley, unknown mountains and rivers fly by us, we traverse through uncountable tunnels in the hills, we leave behind the Bora caves and I long for a stop there but can’t , The highest Broad-gauge station comes and goes ; a mere statistics, a signal plays foul and the train makes an unscheduled stop for half an hour till someone trudges there on foot and repairs it allowing us to have a walk around in the jungle, the blue hills of Koraput comes and goes ; so does the rain , the evening looms and suddenly I can barely see outside. My destination has come, I step out of the train and promise myself that I will never return here because one can never return to a day like today, a day like childhood.
Now it's time to post a few images. These are all taken from running train through the window. Share your thoughts as always :)
A field
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/449/19682237894_f052d97b0e_c.jpg)
A road
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3690/20073608188_2d1eca64af_c.jpg)
A lake surrounding blue hills of Koraput
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/340/20267318061_8e2f6f562e_c.jpg)
From high above , an angry cloud
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3698/20296355052_673f091065_c.jpg)
The speed limit ?
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/361/20296295882_3d6b321ae4_c.jpg)
Step up
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/302/20304813875_a4dda0d905_c.jpg)
The hues
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/303/20310469741_437b97dd9c_c.jpg)
The bridge too far
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3733/20295933772_1d0bfb5ec6_c.jpg)
The broken mirrors
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/457/20305144855_26e5defda9_c.jpg)
Evening with a dash of lime
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/258/20305027755_d664d183c1_c.jpg)
March towards civilization
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/282/20304988585_26d09b7ac9_c.jpg)
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Lovely, makes me want to come along.
Would you have shots of the train interior?
cheers
afx
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Lovely, makes me want to come along.
Would you have shots of the train interior?
cheers
afx
I have , with mobile phone ;D. Will post later. Thanks for your reply.
Cheers
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The colors of the fields in these photos are stunning, Somnath.
Would you happen a photo of your co-passengers from the train?
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What a diversity of shapes and colours in one journey. Thanks for sharing it.
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Thanks Jakov, thanks Bruno.
I did not shot many passengers because we had a coupe and me & my friend were the only passengers their :-)
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Forget the world
take the trip
find yourself
very refreshing collection
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Thanks Frank , any India plans soon ? :D
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Great pictures of a memorable trip... :-) When much younger, my family used to make the Kolkata-Mumbai trip (two days) in wagons (2d Class) where we had a sort of mini private flat with shower and beddings. Meals were asked for at some station, served at another, and cleared at yet another... All that in the sticky sooted atmosphere of those old steam trains ! Alas I've got no pictures of that time.
Crossing India from East to West offered an extraordinary variety of scenery and people crossed at a relative slow speed (chuck-chuck gary :-) )!
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Somnath: I'd love to. Currently I raise two kids, have my company and a lot of housework. Also some bigger and complicated transactions of financial and construction nature to rearrange and consolidate assets, so no travel plans apart from the NG meetup in Scotland next spring.
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When much younger, my family used to make the Kolkata-Mumbai trip (two days) in wagons (2d Class) where we had a sort of mini private flat with shower and beddings. Meals were asked for at some station, served at another, and cleared at yet another... All that in the sticky sooted atmosphere of those old steam trains ! Alas I've got no pictures of that time.
Crossing India from East to West offered an extraordinary variety of scenery and people crossed at a relative slow speed (chuck-chuck gary :-) )!
Beautiful memories Jacques. Thanks for sharing them with us. Hope you return for another trip in India soon
Cheers
Somnath
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Somnath: I'd love to. Currently I raise two kids, have my company and a lot of housework. Also some bigger and complicated transactions of financial and construction nature to rearrange and consolidate assets, so no travel plans apart from the NG meetup in Scotland next spring.
Being a dad of two kids myself , I do understand. But keep India in your future plans , you won't be disappointed :-)
Regards
Somnath
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sure, should I once feel the urge to travel. Might be on the menu of my future job description, depending on the outcome of my current project
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Traveling - oy that is something I can do permanently..
I enjoyed these photos
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Thanks Frank, thanks Elsa :)