2115 UP: Missed the train

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Missed the train

I was sitting on the bench on the platform of Sitarampur railway station. I liked this place and whenever I felt for a refreshing atmosphere I went to the station. A railway station has a peculiar distinctiveness. It’s not a place in the sense a market or a sea-beach is a place. The very sense of place is absent in a railway station. The far from every side of the world effaces the local. It never allows a sense of stagnation and repetition in the psychology of one when he or she enters or waits in a railway station.

Slowly the Sun dipped behind me leaving his magical hues for the clouds in the western sky. Suddenly I remembered that it was 17 th April today. Aye –I had come to Sitarampur exactly on this day five years ago by 2115 UP. Five years had gone by and Sitarampur had nothing new for me. No corner of this small town lied hidden to me. But five years ago when I had got down on this very platform the place had had a queer and exotic look.

The signal was given for the coming 2115 UP.

The train entered the station. I stared and was watching from head to tail of this nonchalant train –just waiting with a restless tension. Sitarampur was just any other station to it.

Suddenly I wanted to board it and to be one with it.

Sitarampur was a world of everyone. 2115 UP knew none.

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SITARAMPUR RAILWAY STATION AND 2115 UP

Sitarampur is a small railway station in Bihar. There are thousands of railway stations big and small in India. Bihar is bounded by Nepal in the north and by Jharkhand in the south. Very few people know about this place outside the district of Rohtas, where falls this small town of Sitarampur. However The British liked this place perhaps the surrounding of Sitarampur was picturesque. The climate was healthy. There was a deep forest near Sitarampur. The Englishmen camped here frequently for hunting. And there was beyond the jungle a mica mine. The mine was owned by the British. So –quite naturally the local people of Sitarampur were accustomed with the white sahibs and they liked them also. It was because of the British- railway line was laid through this place and the Sitarampur station came into existence.

The British have gone and also the old people with them, who knew many things about Sitarampur. They were fond of their past and tales. So we heard many stories that still hang around the air of Sitarampur.

It’s a calm place with greenery on every side. I love this place and especially the railway station and enjoy strolling on the not so crowded platform or sitting on the bench under a tree to think about impermanence of life as the station is not a permanent destination of a train.

There is one passenger train running through this station. This is 2115 UP and 2116 DN. But like people of Sitarampur –I’m also accustomed to know it as 2115 UP. I love trains still like a child who loves to watch the driver of the engine with awe and wonder.

So if you ever feel to visit Sitarampur, just start for the place Sitarampur by 2115 UP and leave your destiny along the rails. Wish you a happy journey.