Mode of transport

Train compartments witness bonhomie among strangers.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Frequent travellers, which mode of travel do you prefer? Train or bus?

If the answer is “Sometimes bus, sometimes train”, “It all depends upon the situation” or “As the case may be”, you are wrong. Because you belong to one or the other category, and there is a reason for it. Most of us are either bus travellers or train travellers, unaware of why we are predisposed to one in the first place.

Until recently, I preferred bus. My defining moment came the day I had to travel from Mangaluru to Bengaluru.

First, my cousin suggested I try the train leaving for Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru from Mangalore at 11.30 a.m. Later, my friend showed me the train schedule on a mobile app. He advised me to take a bus to reach near the Mangaluru junction railway station. Just when the bus reached the stop, I almost leapt out of it in haste, fearing that my vacillating mind would pull me back to the bus. And I never looked back. I took a rickshaw from there to the station and bought the ticket nervously, gripped as I was by a fear of the unknown. 

Until I threw myself onto a single seat, I felt I was a stranger to myself. The first thing I did was call and thank my cousin and my friend for suggesting the train.

As the train chugged along, I felt everything falling into place. Bus journey suits pretty well those confined to their comfort zones. Sloths, introverts and those wary of changes, challenges, risks and adventures, settle for buses.

You go to the bus terminal, spot your bus and board it. It’s as simple as that. And what is a bus terminal? Laidback and tranquil, one of the least happening places. A railway platform is a beehive, while a bus terminal is a termite hole.

Now here come the train travellers. Organic, dynamic go-getters, daring and dashing fellows loving to navigate new landscapes. They embrace change, welcome challenges and take risks. They are extroverts so jovial and zestful. Can you recall bus passengers, all strangers, starting a conversation unlike in train compartments that witness bonhomie among strangers?   

On a train journey, the adrenalin erupts from the word go. You must be fully alert. You can’t help it. You must keep checking for the platform, train, and compartment. A momentary lapse may cost you too dear. And later it dawned on me that it was this anxiety only that used to stop me in my tracks when it came to train journeys. What if I land on the wrong platform? What if I board the wrong train? What if I miss my station and alight at the wrong one?

A train journey is not just about economy or comfort. It’s action-packed, whereas a bus journey is in slow motion.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” How I wish I had been living up to this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nowadays, whenever I board a train, I feel relieved, having bid adieu to those lackadaisical buses, and raring to join a movement propelled by the kaleidoscopic train.

sathyakamasharma@gmail.com