This sounds terribly elitist but last night I was in a train, after a long long time. An overnight train.
I boarded the Rockfort express for Trichy from Tambaram station (which is equivalent to hopping in at 'Borivili' I suppose, the train stops just 2 mins). The station was surprisingly clean - the usual stench of you-know-what from the tracks was completely missing.
But the real shocker was that at 11 pm, when I got in, everyone was nicely, quietly and soundly asleep. Now if you have travelled on a train in Delhi-UP side or even Gujarat you'll know how rare this is. Maybe around 1 am... But at 11 there's always plenty of chatter (loudly), folks who want to leave their light on and on Gujarat Mail, the ones who must have their midnight thepla & 'snakes'.
The a/c was also at human, not polar bear levels (a problem I have often faced in Rajdhani!).
Anyhow, I am in Chennai in Tuesday (18th March) and have half a mind to visit Great Lakes Institute of Management. If any reader of this blog studies there and would like to meet up, do drop me a line at rashmi_b at yahoo.com.
