Page 3 - Seniorstoday December 2023 Issue

Publisher’s Note

Gaadi bula rahi hai,

Seeti baja rahi hai…

I am an incurable railway romantic. I have from station and dropped me back. It was an eye-
travelled many times in my childhood and pre- opening experience, there is something innocent
teen years, through the Hindi heartland of Uttar and simple about people who lived in small towns.
and Madhya Pradesh. Travelling from Bombay I have travelled by British Rail through the length
(now Mumbai) to Jhansi to Delhi to Firozpur and and breadth of the United Kingdom, have also
sometimes to Kanpur and Lucknow. travelled on Eurorail and crossed the channel many
I still can’t forget the sights and sounds. The times. The Japanese railways are super-efficient,
railway crossings in small towns that shut a few but without the romance of the Indian railways.
(or several) times every day whenever the train Many Indian movies have rail stories that become
chugged in and out. Little children’s watching very crucial to the story. In Pakeezah, Raaj Kumar
trains as they would come and go. These were places a piece of paper on Meena Kumari’s feet. In
long journeys where you made friends with fellow Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kajol runs to catch
travellers and for the length of the journey, it all life’s train with Shah Rukh Khan. In Aradhana,
became a large family, sharing foods and other Sharmila Tagore can’t stop giving Rajesh Khanna
stories. the come hither look and many a young man hopes
My grandfather’s home in Jhansi was close to to find his ‘Sapno ki Rani’ on a train someday.
the railway tracks and before the train got in to Lastly, the most philosophical and apt song in the
the station, I was always excited to see the house. movie Dost that says it all
My uncles knew the train time table and could tell Gaadi bula rahi hai, Seeti baja rahi hai,
whether the incoming train Punjab Mail was late Chalna hi zindagi hai, Chalti hi jaa rahi hai…
and whether the Utkal Express was on time. It was
a part of their daily conversation.
As soon as I finished my matriculation, my dad
sent me on a month-long train journey. I travelled
to Nagpur, Allahabad, Bhopal, Sagar, Satna, Vickram Sethi
Sanchi. I stayed with relatives who picked me up Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #54 | DECEMBER 2023 3