this is a travel post but not your typical one. while our destination is home. this post focuses not on where we are going or where we have been but on the journey itself. on the train ride last February from Mumbai to our home in a small seaside town in the south of Maharaashtra. the railway traversed was the Konkan Railway which runs along the west coast all the way to southern Kerala but our train ride was only a section of that. about 10 hours, according to the schedule that is..
this post has little to do with the conditions on the train, like comfort, experience with fellow passengers, food, toilets etc. those are all worthy topics of attention but here i am solely concerned with the scheduled and unscheduled prolonged stops, causing delays. in particular i am presenting scenes from the life at the stations and places where we stopped.
there are express trains that are less prone to delays but they are almost always fully booked far in advance and most do not service the small station we need to get off at. so we invariably end up on the trains that make many stops at such stations and get delayed. as we want to get home as quickly as possible all these stops became tiring, especially the ones waiting for a crossing train which itself was delayed making our train even later than before
there are several options to avoid becoming frustrated and bored at the longer stops adding to our delay, such as sleep, debark the train and stretch my legs, talk with the other passengers, surf the internet on my phone etc.. i've tried them all and i'm sure they are familiar to fellow travellers. this time i tried something new. i took out my phone and began taking shots of the people on the other side of the tracks.
the light was harsh so i tried editing the photos and soon found that often the most interesting way to deal with that was to stylize the photos. this gives a more relaxed appearance. it also shifts the focus of the image from details of specific individuals to a more sketched universal theme of people in general. their actions, postures, behaviors, moods etc
which is appropriate because i took these shots without the people's knowledge or permission. they are all candid shots at different stops along the way
while most of the shots are people on the platforms but this is the only one of a woman on a train going the opposite direction. next time i will try to take more
there's a lot of waiting involved, especially when the trins are delayed, which is a definite possibility
passing time on a cell phone is the new go to option all around the world but it wasn't always like this. India is a very socially oriented society and striking up a conversation with strangers comes naturally. the widespread us of cell phones has changed this dramatically and people keep much more to themselves than in previous times
food vendors stand ready for when a train pulls in. all sorts of beverages and fast foods are sold along with a surprising variety of other items
we had a long wait at Ratnagiri station, one of the larger towns on our route. i liked how the image of the people painted on the train behind lined up with the people sitting on the bench. at first i thought they were playful smiling children
but of course they were politicians
when that train left the station it revealed a freight train on the next track. meanwhile somebody sat down in the empty seat in the middle of the bench. the original occupants seemed rather disinterested in the newcomer
time passed and the woman left her seat but it didn't take long before somebody new came along. as often is the case it seemed like there was not much to do except wait. after all this is India
sometimes the trains stop in the middle of nowhere. maybe a technical issue, maybe they are filling water, maybe a crossing train. who knows?
