The ride from A'gar to Bhusawal by Puneet Rajhans

The ride from A'gar to Bhusawal by Puneet Rajhans

Having reached Bhusawal in the middle of night, the first thought was to search for an accommodation as the train was supposed to come late in the morning. Queries at the Bhusawal station forged my resolve to look for a place of stay in the vicinity as accommodation was hard to come by given limited options at the station. Post puffs and tea, Swastik lodge was the place to be for the night that had brought me face to face with some touts roaming in and around the station and attempting to stretch their reach to unreachable and developing stations.
The lodgewallah was helpful as he directed me to a room placed atop the adjoining building and how it could be reached and made functional were handed to me in clinical detail. Once inside all that i could manage was a sleep of three to four hours, with thoughts on onward journey encircling me now and then. Quite in contrast to the sleep inducements that i was battling with when i took the train from Manmad to Bhusawal.
Apprehensive that i won't be able to make in time for my onward journey from Bhusawal, the departure from Ahmed'gar was filled with sessions of distress as the Tata magic that i boarded and thereby enabling the driver to let 12 to 14 others board the soft toy. Once the driver was confident at Ahmed'gar that all boarding passes had been issued to all night boarders, he decided to move towards Manmad, replenishing his driving skills with observations on national politics and sarvadaliya baithak (all party meet) in the National Capital and who all had the temerity to take a stand on a resident of Ralegan Siddhi band. Sarvadaliya Baithak was the bottomline of his discussions with those willing/unwilling to be part of his entourage.
The driver of the soft toy magic wasn't soft on trucks ahead of him and despite the innumerable flow of trucks from the opposite side he made it a point to overtake that many trucks going in the same direction. Commensurate with his art of overtaking and his point of stress on sarvadaliya baithak was the sighting of a stranded train which preferred to stand at a particular spot between Ma'd and Ah'gar whether it shined or rained. Because that very day early in the morning another stranded train had been spotted, perhaps indicating the increasing load the single track had been taking. As we reached Manmad with enough time on our card, the driver before parting showed his reflex ranting by asserting that big notes won't be entertained as tv news for the past three days, which totalled 72 hours and the depleting/increasing tv craze, had been bang on target on the tainted big notes that had tainted and rocked big boats. This bit of tv news i hadn't come across but i too have been quite a worried entity whenever machines and banks dole out. My submission that he could check my note thoroughly as i carried fewer of them as big notes are the preserve of big lobbies and votes. After interventions from some other commuters including those going towards Nagpur by Vidharba Express the driver relented and i parted.
The train coming from Pune and heading towards North Bihar was the choice i was given to reach Bhusawal. As the train came, the query to the TTI about the difference of fare between General and Sleeper led him to show the fewer business he had done since the day began. The TTI was upfront: "Mein akela hoo. 16-17 coaches mein nahin ja paaonga. Jo dena yeh yehi de do." Left with no choice i could hardly raise any voice. Problems in full measure were yet to rear their head. As the Sleeper coach was flowing with numbers beyond its manageable capacity, i requested the seatwallahs to make a little space for me. They did it but managed to bring discussion to this level of intimidation that those travelling alone with a lone baggage are under tremendous threat of losing the same as one wink would be enough to see them part with their luggage. That made me more an aspirant of a tribe who has travelled and yet managed to keep his baggage safe. So whatever bouts of sleep i confronted, i took them head on and remained awake for the entire journey duration. As the train reached Bhusawal, i was told that the train won't be coming before 10 in the morning. And here i was in a lodge to renew my energy to continue my onward journey.