Traveling has been my hobby right from my younger days. Fortunately I was a member of an International Youth Organization and it gave me lot of opportunities to travel all over our country. I was traveling to organize local groups but it thus took me to remotest towns which I would not have traveled. This traveling inculcated in me interest to see and know the places. Perhaps I was destined to see major part of our beautiful country.
I have a German friend whose hobby is also traveling. She is a much more experienced traveler than me. This friendship took us to several countries. We resolved to see our country which is very large and I also wanted to travel the length and breadth of this country. In those days, traveling was not an easy joke. Communication was not easy. One had to travel by train and bus and now due to the various developments that have taken place in India especially because of speed trains or cheap air flights, we have several choice.
My friend by inviting me to Germany had shown several European countries. We traveled there in a buggy (Volkswagon). But I could not do so and hence I thought of novel method and invited my German friend to come to India and told her that I would show her the entire country. She could not believe it. Yes, she was justified in expressing her surprise because going round this vast country was not a joke. It required both time, proper transport, accommodation and time. I had adopted a novel method.
Let me explain the same. I looked up the Indian Railway guide. There they said that one could go round the country with a round ( paper )ticket, as they called it at that time, and the only condition was that one should not travel by the same route again under that ticket. The ticket was very cheap because the fare was fixed on the basis of the number of miles one traveled. The said round ticket was also called as a paper ticket because we ourselves had to prepare our itirinary and submit it to the Railway Authorities to issue the ticket. The Railways would issue a ticket on a sheet of paper showing our travel route with stations enroute our The only condition was that one should always go forward and should not return back to the station on the same line One could always break the journey. Then take up any onward going train. In the ticket there was a direction to the station masters to give us place in the retiring rooms on priority basis. The Ticket Checker was also directed to give a berth on priority basis without reservation. Since there was a foreigner with me, the direction was that I should be given two berths as foreigners had the right to take a guide along with them!!
We started from Bombay ( now Mumbai) as my friend landed in Bombay from Germany. We started the journey by proceeding from Bombay to Aurangabad ( Ajantha and Ellora)- Ahmedabad – Udaipur – Jaipur – Agra – Delhi – Amritsar – Jammu – Delhi – Lucknow – Patna – Varanasi – Siliguri – Darjeeling – Kolkatta – Puri – Konark – Hyderabad – Bangalore – Madras – Madurai – KanyaKumar- Trivandrum – Cochin – Mangalore. It took 28 days for us to complete the trip. We travelled always after the sun set so that we could see the places of interest during the day. This saved us room rent also!!!
I do not think I can ever forget the excitement experienced by us at that time. Number of freinds we had made during our train journey. Number of TCs who became very close friends of ours. Even TCs were amazed to know that we would be travelling round the country.I will be sharing my expereinces in the days to come.
I wonder whether the present day youth go for such adventurous trips. I think the Railways themselves have made some Circle trips around the country. I do not think it will be as interesting as our trip which we ourselves prepared and travelled and completed. I saw our country from various angles and was stunned to see this ‘incredible India’. What a wonnderful and incredible is our country – India !!!