#17 The delicacies of suburban trains
June 30, 2022•377 words
I love electric trains. Even though the correct term is suburban trains, we call them "electric trains'. I traveled in electric trains for a year and a half when I was doing my master's degree. The distance from my home to the university was 62 km by train. So, I traveled 120 km every day (that is four hours in commute).
But, I never got bored. Suburban trains are a world unto themselves. They take you in and put you in a state of trance. The two hours in commute will go by looking at people; Constantly moving around inside the bogie to give way for the crowd, and enjoying the snacks sold by vendors who sell by moving from one bogie to another whenever the train stops at a station.
The snacks are the favorite part of my commute. With Rs.500 a month in pocket money, I relied on railway snacks to beat my hunger pangs. The delicious ghee biscuits, onion samosas, peanut chikki sold by blind people, red rice puttu with scrapped coconut and sugar, the beach style 'sundal', wheel chips, onion rings, cut fruits, and a ton of amazing things.
In an electric train, the chances of you getting off hungry are zero. Before your station comes you'll bump into at least one of the vendors and you'll be able to eat something. And, what you end up buying depends on which compartment you get in. So, every day was a surprise.
And, I never had to worry about money. With the average price of a suburban train ticket being Rs.10, the snacks were also sold at the same price. All the above-mentioned snacks fell under the same price range. The system was powered by small vendors who sold these food items to lower-middle-class and middle-class workers. It was an efficient system, and it worked. But, the pandemic has changed it all.
What happened to those vendors? What are they doing now? I can't help but wonder. But, I'm sure they'd miss the trains more than I do. All I'd want for after all this is over is to listen to the voice of the sellers and enjoy the smell of those delicious ghee biscuits from the window seat of a busily crowded bogie.