Local people will be aware but many of us do not even notice that like Mumbai, Pune also has a local train network. It may not be as extensive, but still for the areas it touches, it is pretty good and helpful. I recently had a chance to use a local train boarding at Pune Junction and I was highly impressed with how efficient and time saving the service is.
Below is a scene from a local unreserved train bogie:
The local trains have separate reserved bogies for women as well as physically disabled. The trains start at fixed time and reach each station at their designated time. Most of the local stations are small and less crowded and give an "old world" feeling, which is a luxury these days.
Below is a screenshot showing some of the stations, as taken from NTES website:
I have travelled in a local train on a weekend and hence I am not aware of how the traffic is during the weekdays which are working days for the employed.
During the years I was in Mumbai, being a student as well as afterwards, I used the local train network extensively. These trains are not designed for comfort but are highly efficient and time saving mechanism.
While traveling through a local train in Pune, I noticed that a parallel Metro Rail line was almost getting completed. I do not have information if local train network will be dismantled after Metro lines are fully operational on the same routes, but it is not a bad idea to do so.
And I must add that I travelled about 10 kms on the local train and the train fare was "₹5"! I could not believe my eyes if someone can still travel 10 kms for ₹5 in today's India.
I won't say that I recommend local trains to anyone, because these days such rugged experiences are frowned upon by the status conscious society, but if you appreciate varied experiences or want to have a feel of old world of Railways today, you can give it a try some day.
I was returning from my village after a trip, and my
vehicle took a different route than usual, passing through a neighbouring village
instead of directly approaching the ‘main road’. I have gone through this route
a number of times in the recent past and I have always been a bit more curious,
since this is a different village and hence houses and places are different.
There is a big banyan tree at a turning, covering entire road under its arms.
There is a school, painted as usual in pink, which government of Bihar has
chosen as its favourite color for children. The road undergoes several steep
curves, and I have wondered how everyone is always safe despite those steep turns.
And there are two honeybee farms in that village, especially during the time of
litchi and mangoes, and I have always feared for safety while passing nearby
those.
This time, while midway through the route, as my
vehicle passed through, I noticed an unusual old man walking on the road. He
was going towards the ‘main road’. His arms were very-very long and appeared to
be almost reaching his knees! This immediately transported me to childhood when
mother told stories of some gods from Hindu mythology being “ajanubahu” (one
whose length of arms reach his knees). Was this old man some god? He definitely
looked like a sadhu or a spiritual person! When I reprocessed the flicker of
glimpse in my mind, I noticed that this old man’s both arms hanged from his
shoulders like trunks of a thin tree. I don’t think there was any deformity,
but it seemed that since the man had become too old, his body had become weary carrying
the weight of his mighty arms and hence those looked dropping from his
shoulders. I also reprocessed his image in my mind to recollect if I could get
his face, but I realized that he had put a towel (gamchha) over his head,
as if to protect his head from the sun, and his face was totally invisible in
the ensuing shade.
With no face visible and two long arms dropping to the
knees, the old man definitely appeared as a ghostly figure.
Nothing miraculous happened in the following days, if
you are curious, and I tried to tell myself that the old man was just an
ordinary man and not really a god or a ghost. But this was the first time I had
seen an “ajanubahu” and hence it has become etched in my memory.
Afterwards, I tried to search on the internet and got
to know that Bhagwan Ram is known to be ajanubahu; many Hindu gods, saints
and kings have been so too, and even Gandhi ji was one such person. Being ajanubahu
is certainly considered auspicious. For this reason, I felt happy of having
seen someone of such a virtue.
I met with a small accident recently, and after that
my unconscious mind has run through the sequence of events to analyze what
happened and hence, I thought about writing about it to get it off my
conscience.
It started with me not getting good night sleep for several
days. On the weekend, I had caught up with sleep, but from Monday, the routine
broke off again due to office work till late evening. I had got about three
hours of sleep for two consecutive days. On the fateful day, I woke up with a
bad mood. I had watched a ‘viral’ road rage incident video from Badlapur/Ambarnath
near Mumbai on the internet the previous evening and that morning when I logged
into internet, again I happened to watch it. I was not feeling very well due to
lack of proper sleep but decided to go to office.
I left office on my bike an hour earlier than usual.
When I go to office a bit late, I find less traffic on the road; but that day
the traffic was also higher. While riding towards my office, I noticed a lady
on scooter who overtook me once and after some time I overtook her and then at the
next crossing, she overtook me again. Due to all this overtaking business, I
was riding my bike at a higher speed as compared to the usual.
After a while, I reached a ‘chowk’ where about 500
meters of traffic was standing still waiting for green light. The road did not
have a divider. All traffic was on the left side of the road and the right side
was completely empty. I knew that if I rode overtaking the cars from the right
side, I shall be on the right side of the road, and it could be risky if a bus
or a big vehicle suddenly came. But since the traffic was completely still and
right half of the road was completely vacant, I decided to take chance. I was
at higher speed than usual in order to cross the row of cars as soon as
possible. Several other bikes were moving in front of me too, although there
was a gap between them. All of a sudden, from in between two standing
cars, a scooter came in front of me from 90 degrees. The scooter
was not visible earlier since it was going in the gap between two cars.
Ideally, the guy should have stopped after reaching that point, looked to make
sure no vehicle was coming from the right-hand side and then moved; but it came right in front of me. I tried to apply the brake abruptly,
but I could not stop it completely and banged into the scooter. After the
collision, my bike stopped. I saw that both me and the other guy were unhurt,
though I had a little hurt on my knee, hand and fingers. The guy also had a
pillion rider. When I realized what had happened, I got angry and shouted at
the guy asking why he moved from in between two cars like that. He accused me
of riding too fast, but I said the other bikes which went earlier than me were riding
too fast too. One more onlooker came to support the guy on the scooter and the
car before whom we were shouting made a sound, so I decided to move on.
Before that incident, my bike’s horn had stopped
working but I was yet to take it to the service center. But after I met with this
accident and moved on, when I pressed the horn out of habit, I found that the horn
had started working fine now! It was funny to find that the horn got fine due
to the accident. It kept working for that whole day which was a nice surprise and hence I thought of cancelling my planned visit to the service center. But next day
when I took out the bike, the horn was back to holiday mood again.
This concludes 360 degrees review of a small bike accident.
