COLORES INFINITUM
Railway station, in most of the societies,
is an important metaphor of a person’s social extensions beyond his/her
neighbourhood.
It is a regular place to visit, either
leaving the city to keep the social obligations tied to one’s own social
existence or to maintain and build on the sociology’s tenet that says ‘a human
being is, essentially, a social animal’.
And it holds true to the core, even in the
most modern societies.
Anyway, I come from a city that is ‘twice
older that history, tradition and legend all combined’, in the words of Mark
Twain.
Varanasi’s that ‘oldness’ is still a benchmark,
hallmark – but is a sore point as well.
Any Banarasi is proud of its history,
tradition, culture and existentialist ethos. And I am a proud Baranasi.
But a realist one. The city is a living
mess now, pushed to a civilizational oblivion by policymakers. Its fame as
being the spiritual-religious capital of India and one of the oldest living
citadels of the Indian civilization has failed to catch up with the needs of
the changing times.
And when we talk of ‘the needs of the
changing times’, its not about its society or its spiritual-religious of
cultural heritage or its academic legacy, its about its crumbling
infrastructure. The unorganized growth has not yet met its balancing ‘organized
growth’ counterpart.
And, often, the shabby state of affairs
create interesting anomalies to pause, to look at, to stare at, to think, to
muse, to feel bad, to feel satirical, to get irritated, to feel pushed to
express, or to laugh it off with a frustrated smile.
Its railway station is one such place.
Though catering to a much larger and historically important city attracting a
huge influx of domestic and international visitors, the neighbouring
Mughalsarai, with a sketchy road connectivity with Varanasi spread over 15
Kilometers, has all the important trains connecting to the other parts of the
country.
Though Varanasi has many trains connecting
it directly to the other parts of the country, it doen’t have any of the
so-called high-speed end-to-end ‘ivy league’ trains that don’t run late
(usually), save time and offer a better travel experience. The city doesn’t
have any end-to-end Rajdhani, Shatabdi or Duronto train.
With improved air connectivity and
increased flight operations, the air-traffic from and to the city has seen an
impressive jump. Also, people who can manage tickets and if it suits their
schedule, they go for Mughalsarai railway station trains to save time.
My last Varanasi visit was after a long
time, some 20 months. I was tied up here and there and missed the city I grew
up in. But it was some five odd years to my last visit to the Varanasi Cantt
railway station, the main railway station of the city. Obviously, the natural
reasons were the better air connectivity and opting for some East or North-East
India bound Rajdhani train having Mughalsarai on its route.
During my March trip there, I had a visit
to the railway station there to see off someone. While I didn’t go beyond the
platform number one, I noticed some changes in its front hall.
And the interesting aspect was their ‘half
baked’ appeal, like the overall railways infrastructure serving to the city.
There happened to be a stairway going up
through other floors that housed retiring room facilities, other office and one
State Bank of India branch.
And on the immediate road outside of the
campus of the railway station is as sorry a story as it has ever been. If
passing through this road is not necessary or if the railway station is not
your destination, no one would ever take this stretch of the road. Traffic is
perennially clogged here, even if the cuts in front of the station periphery
are blocked to prevent vehicles from making turns.
The half-baked, poorly thought changes that
don’t bring any change in the overall situation. Though I didn’t go beyond the
platform number one, I can say, with my experience of growing up in the city,
that it would be the make for the similar expressions. If the front that has to
carry the responsibility of being the face is so, we can rightly guess about
the rest.
Good days not are yet here.
But the Banarasi spirit says – the day will
come – till then, we will manage with it – with the ‘travel’ alternatives
available.