55 hours

Nowhere in the world can you find trains connecting most parts of a country like the nerves on the back of your hand than in India. I’ve traveled so much across the different states of India, but there is one particular travel that I can never forget.

55 hours and 2564 kilometers!

Yes, it took around 55 hours to reach my destination. Assam is a vibrant state that perches to the north east of India like a queen and is famous for its tea. I travelled from the south Indian city of Chennai to the capital of Assam, Guwahati, for a chess tournament.

I don’t remember every instance of the travel of course. But certain images are deeply engraved in my memory. Like the begging children in almost every station, the sight of the long rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra, disabled people with creative talents, a huge Buddha statue, the image of pigeons pecking the ground as I took my first step down the train and into the fringes of Assam and the wonderful climate.

You can spot kids in ragged clothes almost everywhere, in every instance of your travel. It is as if hungry children are everywhere, and it will give you tears as you see their innocence cripple in hunger. I began to wonder what these kids would become. There’s a saying in our place that the colour of poverty is red. How many of these children will resort to crime to feed their hunger? How many would find the much needed help and education? Only God knows.

At Kolkata, I had a pleasant experience. I was able to make some of them smile.

About three or four street kids wandered happily across the rail lines. The train just halted. I took a peek outside the window… There were so many kids like them, and even a few families.

Their look was identical – torn clothes, shabby, dirt all over them. Some bag or a cloth bundle to wrap their belongings.

My friend and I had just bought our lunch, and just as I opened the first box (little paper boxes were used and our meal usually came with a couple of boxes) a kid came next to our seat and cried as if in pain “I didn’t eat for many days. I’m hungry, brother, please help me”

I couldn’t help but sob within. I packed the box neatly and handed him the four or five little boxes. He happily accepted it, went outside… and to my amusement, he didn’t eat everything alone. There were many kids outside the train, each picking a box and they all went off happily!

My friend though was furious. “What are you thinking? It is your lunch. You must be crazy “

“His hunger is ours’ too. I can get food elsewhere, but not him” Defended I.

He went back to munching his food, and I did get another food package later that day.

[I discovered this piece of writing in my old computer folders. I wrote this as an assignment for this fun coursera course]