Daily Times

When I was young, which is a very long time ago, a train journey had a romance about it. It usually occurred during the summer holidays. People in my age group, which are said to be less than 40000 in the country now, may remember the ‘holdall’ or “Bister Band”, prepared for the journey. The usual routine was to spend summers at a hill station. I am talking of middle class of the society. Other classes of the society had other reasons, like business, employment etc. But a ‘hold all’ or a similar ‘thing’ was necessary. For those who are not familiar with ‘hold all’ it is better that I explain. It was a specially designed bag of canvass material with pockets for clothes, blankets, shoes and other necessary things that one may need during the stay at the destination. The hold all was packed and rolled and tied up with leather straps. It thus became a baggage roll that a ‘Qulee’, ie a railway porter in the red uniform, could carry for you to the compartment where you had reserved your seat. Families booked complete compartments. Since there was no air conditioning in those days a tub was placed in the compartment with a block of ice in summers. The affluent travelled in the first class usually and a ticket was bought for the ‘servant’ who had a separately designated compartment. The British had set up systems for the comfort of ‘Sahibs’. There were indeed a lot of ‘brown sahibs’ following the system. The servant would come out of his compartment to check if the sahib or his family needed anything when the train stopped at any station. Some stations were famous for some merchandises. For example Wazirabad for knives, Multan for clay work, Nagpur for oranges and Mathra for ‘paera’ sweet and so on. The families, particularly children looked forward to pass through such stations and get the novelties of their choice. The station products were acquired as gifts for the would be hosts as well. The journeys were usually long and at an average for 24 hours. Therefore games of cards, ludo and ‘paratha’ and ‘shami kabab’ were the most popular games and snacks to be carried. It was a long ‘picnic’ and romance was added by the landscape, river crossings, jungle greenery, and large green fields.

The “Shaikhees” of the Minister Shiekh will not suffice. Railways are a key transport system in a country. There are hundreds of reasons including cargo transportation, defense uses, and usual public movement. The whole thing needs to be carefully improved

Now it is different and those who have travelled then and now would know the difference.

Trains have now become much faster throughout the world and some of those are extremely comfortable and have a new level of romance. I have travelled on some in Europe and USA.

After almost 40 years or so I had an urge to experience the train journey in Pakistan once again and see the difference. The ‘renewed’ Railway Minister, Sh. Rashid makes a lot f noise but also does some work. Especially so, in the Railway department. So in January this year I decided to go to Karachi by a much hyped ‘business train’ from Lahore. Booked my seats, made no conventional holdall ie. “bister bund” or tiffen career of paratha and shamis, becaue it was said that Air-conditioning was provided and there was ‘dining car’ with the train.

So, looking to renew a romantic adventure we arrived at the historical Lahore Railway station. This historic railway station, where the film” Bhawani Junction” was made starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger, was in a sorry state. It had no discipline or decorum of the past. It was not clean and jumping on to the railway line and crossing to the other platform was a routine.

We waited for the train which seemed to have been delayed from the scheduled arrival time. Finally it arrived. We could not identify the section we were holding tickets for, but the ” qulee’ knew and shoved us into a compartment and announced that it is a make shift train. The original train was stuck at Rohri station and this ‘contraption’ was put together by the Railway workshop to serve us, poor ticket holders. We were also informed that the air-conditioning is not likely to work and there will be no dining car and therefore we should buy our food from the khokha at the station.

So this was the first leg of the ‘romantic’ journey. On the way we were treated by the ugly sight of city waste throughout the journey on both side of the track. The colour of the kachra stacks slightly changed with the size of the town around. We realized that Pakistan Railway track was providing useful service of ‘kuchra dump’ through the country. The Kuchra was dominated by plastic bags, generally known as “shoppers”. We were happy to have survived the experience and decided that this ‘once’ was enough.

So a month later when I needed to go Karachi, I opted for air travel. But on return my options got limited. There was a sort of an emergency situation because of Indian adventurism and air services were not available. So instead of indefinitely waiting for the political situation to normalize, it was important that I be with the family. A friend arranged a train ticket and I had to be back to the Karachi railway station. The train was a little better this time although it was no model of comfort or luxury. I got a seat in a compartment where there was no one in the beginning but later a few persons walked in. They seemed surprised to see me as one occupant. It was later found that this particular compartment was meant for the Manager of the train and his colleagues. I felt a bit awkward but the Manager seemed very hospitable and wouldn’t let me go. He insisted that I stay. It was exceptional hospitality and I was personally looked after by the Manager who had recognized me and my background. He shared his home food, prepared breakfast for me and arranged comfortable bedding. Indeed I deeply appreciated the gesture. However the railway department does need to improve substantially. The “Shaikhees” of the Minister Shiekh will not suffice. Railways are a key transport system in a country. There are hundreds of reasons including cargo transportation, defense uses, and usual public movement. The whole thing needs to be carefully improved. Railways were the first disciplined department of the government during British Raj which had public service as its base. All systems started from railways even a standard amount of ‘rishwat’ for some favours. The waiting rooms were clean and the Qulees courteous and well trained. The platforms were clean and nobody crossed the railway lines and instead used the designated crossings or bridges. I am sure that the Minister remembers all this and is also capable of raising the standard. The Manager gave me an astonishing and pleasing inside news. He said that since last six months, all employees have voluntarily rejected taking ‘rishwat’ because of a call of conscience. I was most impressed. All does not seem to have been lost. There is some hope.

In short the service needs improvement as a routine, Train compartments should be made comfortable, toilets given a lot more attention and the landscape on both sides be improved and ridden of the waste. From a tourist point of view train is the best excursion for seeing the country landscape. No doubt we have a lot of beauty beyond the mountains of city garbage around the railway lines. Let the beauty be enjoyed by the train travellers.

The writer is Pakistani theatre, film and television actor, scholar, public speaker, columnist, teacher and dramatist