K...A...N...K...A...V...A....L.....I...........S...T...A...T.....I....O...N
Tiny stations like Bhoke, Adavalli and Kankavali pass by. Against a backdrop of verdant greenery, a single narrow platform bordered with a fence painted a demure white but often draped with bright and boisterous bougainvillea flowers. A small white board with ‘Welcome’ written on it in red letters greets all who disembark. You realise how hot it is outside when you notice people using the taps placed at regular intervals on the platform. A young banana vendor, after he has worn himself out walking up and down the length of the train in the hot afternoon sun, sets his basket down by the tap and gulps down mouthfuls of water before splashing some on his face. The rivulets of sweat running down his face are replaced by large streams of water.
The train goes through a lot of tunnels – the route passes through difficult hilly terrain and is testimony to the engineering and organisation ability of E. Shreedharan, who is also known for building the Delhi Metro. This article from 1996 documents the difficulties faced in building this railway, while this and thiscelebrate its completion and the awarding of a Padma Vibhushan to E. Shreedharan.
On one section of hillside, I notice a wire mesh pushing back the rock walls – like a security barricade pushing back hordes of groupies when a film-star walks by. Well, why not, the Mandovi Express is no less than a star amongst other trains ! Suddenly this poem by Robert Frost pops into my head; how strong this wire mesh must be to hold back an entire hill full of boulders from smashing on to us !
Our train clatters past a patch with some barren fields bathed in the mellow four p.m. sun. The fields have clearly demarcated mud boundaries and resemble a patchwork quilt in shades of mud-brown and grass-green; except for one small plot which has a host of sunflowers nodding their yellow and brown heads sagely.
A few fields away my eye is drawn to a shiny undamaged auto, with no signs of human habitation or a road visible, wonder how it got there. The yellow and brown of the auto matches the sunflowers - quite a quirky tableau.
It makes me wonder about pretty-but-ruthless mutant sunflowers that start their campaign for world domination by stealing autos for travelling in; resolve to look out of the window and investigate the next time I hear an auto bleating ‘praap praap’ at night. Then resolve not to eat so much chicken biriyani for lunch – all the oxygen seems to have rushed to my stomach, starving my brain of vital oxygen needed to fuel logic and reasoning.
Two hours later, I alight at Karmali station in Goa, which recently won an award from the Union Tourism Ministry as ‘the most tourist friendly station’ (see this article and this one) . Set in the middle of verdant greenery, it has a natural lake on one side of the platform. On the side of the platform opposite the lake is the Station building which is low, long and has a tiled roof with a structure like the bell tower of a cathedral in the centre.
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One platform has regular street lamps on it, the other has lamps in old-fashioned quaint shapes. The lake has a lot of ducks and other water birds; when I alight in the evening, they are quacking and cheeping away – a good omen for a birding trip.
It totally convinced me that my last minute decision to dash down to Goa and join friends on a bird-watching trip was the right one.
By,
Zen
p.s. This blog has a very nice account of a train journey through Goa
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