Travelling in General coach of Indian Railways

In India, if anyone wants to commute from one city to another then the Indian railway is the best option because it is comfortable as well as the cheapest. Apart from this, another thing which attracts people like me to travel by train in India is the exciting journeys. One can never get bored by travelling through train, doesn’t matter you are travelling in the general coach or the sleeper one and for a short distance or a long distance. One should always be ready to experience the thrill and crazy incidents that usually happen, as the ride is not a normal one.

A few months back, I travelled on a train and it was obviously an experience to remember.

It was the time of January 2019 and I was planning to visit home (Agra) after a span of around 2 months. From the past 4-5 years, every time I travelled by bus as I used to travel from Noida and bus was the best mode to travel from that place. This time I decided to travel by train from Delhi as my mother asked me to bring some stuff from Mausi’s home and she lives in Delhi. So I took the stuff and proceeded towards Nizamuddin Railway station. I had already booked an online ticket in the Taj express. Luckily, this time I was on time and reached the platform before the train arrived. There were a few minutes left, so I decided to have tea at the platform itself. While I was sipping tea, suddenly I saw that one woman started beating a man. Everyone started staring on them and onlookers assembled. After some time, I came to know that the man was her husband and he was drunk. Then the train arrived and I rushed to get on the train. There were so many people who were boarding during that time as it was the weekend. The platform was full of people.

So I was on the train now and the challenge was to reach my seat. The coach was full of travellers. There were people (including me) who had their reservation and there were people who didn’t have any reservation and they were still travelling in that coach. It was impossible to shift those people in the general coach as the coach was already full. The TT was also present in the train but we already knew that TT would not be able to move due to deadly rush and by somehow if he tries to move then it would take him more than 4 hours to check all the coaches and the journey was of only 3 hours 45 minutes. Lol. So we made up our mind that there was no TT in the train. Back to me, after struggling for around 20 minutes, I reached my seat in which I had to push several people several times, had also stepped on few person’s legs and hit few people mistakenly by my bag. I checked the number and there was my seat on which somebody was sitting already. I called that man “hello”. He ignored. I called again “hello”. He ignored again very easily. I gave one more try and said “hello” loudly by waving hands. Finally, he listened and asked, “what happened?” I said, “this is my seat”. He asked me to show the ticket and I did the same. He moved and gave the seat to me. I settled and now I could travel comfortably. I observed the scene from my seat. The train was so full that no one was able to move from his place except few legends, train hawkers. In that crowded train, they were moving and selling items. Then there came one man who had a mic and a speaker and was struggling to get a space so that he could stand properly. He got the place and now everyone was settled. I had nothing to do so I closed my eyes and decided to take a nap.

After 5 minutes, I heard an echoed voice “hello, mic testing 1 2 3”, opened my eyes and there was this man who was ready to sing. Most of the people were sleeping and they woke up irritatingly but couldn’t do anything rather than abusing him. So now we were ready for a live concert in the running train. The man started with a bhakti song followed by “pardesi pardesi jana nahi” . Some people were making fun and disturbing him again and again while he was singing. They used to call that man and ask “bhaiya, can you please give that bag”. The funniest thing about that concert was the background rap added by train hawkers. In the middle of a song, the train hawkers were coming by chanting “chai lelo coffee lelo” :p He continued the concert up to Mathura station and then he wrapped up. I thought now I could sleep for at least half an hour and then a family having 2 kids boarded the train. They came and stood near my seat. The family included two kids aged around 8 or 9 and they were too notorious. Those kids were playing doremon game and while playing they hit on my face several times. Initially, I was controlling my anger but after the third time, I shouted on them and I was about to slap them but I controlled myself.

Finally, I arrived at Agra and deboarded the train and the train journey ended. It was sometimes tough and sometimes irritating too but I also enjoyed. Every Indian should experience a ride in the general coach of Indian Railways for at least once. I bet you will have a quite different experience.

Incredible India