Sunday, December 4, 2011

Reliving a train journey


I am travelling to India in a week and have a lot of work to complete before I go. So I won't be writing much today. However, I'll try to make up for this quick post today by posting a mid-week update and then two posts per week thereafter.

Recently, there was a post on The NRI written as a train travelers’ guide to the country. The post can be found here
. The points made in the post are in fact things each and everyone of us can connect with; in particular the “five minutes of hope” that all Indian males aged 17-29 practice religiously just before boarding the train.

The post made me nostalgic about train journeys back home. In comparison, Amtrak is so dull. There’s one memory that comes to my mind when I think of a train. This is something you can never do on Amtrak - standing by the door, holding the hand rails, facing out and enjoying the strong wind blowing on your face.

Maybe I am being nostalgic here, having missed this part of a train journey for over 2 years now, but to be honest, the freedom and exhilaration of being able to lean out of a moving train stands out in comparison with skydiving. One more week and I can relive this nostalgia. Have I built it up too much in my mind? Hope not.

4 comments:

  1. I can understand the 5 mins of hope;) We love to hate rails in our country but we can't ignore that each one of us has atleast a memory of it. American trains look more like trains in Yash Chopra movies but with no Raj or Simran...

    Have a great trip:)

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  2. haha i must admit, standing by the door does make you feel like a super hero :D

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  3. Have repeatedly done that over the last two weeks. Can't get enough of it :)

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