The Hindu Business Line : A journey through time

Long, long ago, the British laid a single-track, metre-gauge line from Hyderabad to Jaipur wriggling through Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It could possibly be one of the longest lines operated by the Indian Railways.

"BAPU, do not send me to a city/Bapu, do not marry me to a city-dweller;/Bapu, let me be in my forest/for birds, trees and Santhals live in trust." It is a snatch from a Santhal poem about a Santhal girl that my friend, Dinesh Kothari, had read in a Hindi newspaper. On one of our trips, Dinesh had mentioned the poem to me, as the anguish of the Santhal woman is real and felt by the tribals tricked of their lands and lives by modern India.

The poem has been with me for quite some time and surfaced on my recent rail journey from Akot at the southern tip of the Melghat Tiger Reserve to Indore. Long, long ago, the British laid a single-track, metre-gauge line from Hyderabad to Jaipur wriggling through Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to move forest produce (mainly timber) and raw cotton. Now, the Meenakshi Express starts from Purna in Maharashtra, with the last halt being Jaipur.

It could, possibly, be one of the longest, single-track metre-gauge lines operated by the Indian Railways, and Kishor Rithe wanted me to make the trip as the train passed by Melghat Tiger Reserve and cut through the Wan sanctuary. "It's a green run and a one-way ticket costs Rs 200," he told me though he could not make it.

Kishor, Nishikant Kale and myself started late from Amravati and were relieved to learn from the stationmaster at Akot that the Meenakshi Express was running late. Against the scheduled time of 11.30 a.m., the train touched Akot at around one in the afternoon. On the run from Amravati to Akot we passed the village and the school where Kishor had spent his early days. At Akot station, which is not particularly clean, we had a relaxed lunch on home food packed by Kishor and Nishibhau.

Between Akot and Raver, a small station on the Mumbai-Bhusawal route where one gets off for the Yawal sanctuary, Raver is cleaner and wears a lost look with an occasional train halting through the day; the booking counters at Akot and Raver are not computerised, with travellers issued card tickets.

After much ringing of bells by the railway staff, the Meenakshi Express, running on diesel, moved in, with the train driver exchanging an old cane key for a new one with the stationmaster. The cane key is the size of a tennis racket without strings and reminded one of the days when one travelled from Madras to Kottarakara on the metre gauge on smoky, steam engines. A new cane key is a message to the train driver that the track till the next station is clear, explained the stationmaster at Akot.

The train jangles loudly as it runs across the Wan sanctuary with the Wan river flowing by. Copious rains in August had helped the teak forests sport a deep green tunic and one was reminded of the lines by Vikram Seth: "The afternoon light and the jolt of the rails/provoke the familiar nostalgia of travellers." On this stretch, the track climbs to a height of 750 metres and then loops back (like the digit 8) to drop to 450 metres and one can see the railway engine curve in and out of two tunnels before touching Wan Road station.

At Wan Road we had a cup of tea and were surprised there were no crowds. A middle-aged trader, with his 20 year-old niece, kept up a continuous chatter with Nishibhau while one memorised the forests that the train was passing by at medium pace. The train does not rush and gives the travellers a chance to look around. "You are lucky as this train is always over-crowded," remarked the trader.

After Wan Road the train halts at Tukaithad station, on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border before moving on to Khandwa station. We had entered raw cotton-soyabean territory and, from there, the next halt was Omkareshwar on the Narmada, flowing full and brownish. Here the Satpuda mountain range ends and the Vindhyas start, with the valleys watered by Tapi and Narmada, explained Nishibhau.

Our trader-friend prayed as the train crossed the Narmada river still intact with an ancientness. "On festival days the station overflows with pilgrims and it is hard to enter any train," informed the trader, who was going to Jaipur. At Omkareshwar station, one saw a passenger train with men and women on the roofs proceeding to Akot and thanked our stars for the comfy ride.

At Kalakund station, double engines were fitted to our train to make the climb to Patalpani, and at Mhow, they added coaches to take the rush at Indore and Ratlam. Mhow decoded reads Military Headquarters of the World going by local lore as the British thought they would always rule the world when they set up an army centre at Mhow. We touched Indore on time at 9.30 p.m., where Dinesh met us as promised.

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