Train :: Reflection of Society

It was a fine evening, I was burning out my calories on the roads around the play ground of IIIT-Delhi. There was nothing funny that happened but something attracted me to have a cycle of thoughts and provoked me to write this article under the column of “Evening Walk” after the experience story “DinnerBox“. Hope you guys will enjoy the post and keep commenting.

A railway track runs at a distance of half a kilometer from the edge of the north-eastern boundary wall of IIIT-Delhi. But with the rush of busy study life, I probably have never noticed this and used to get surprised with the whistling sound of the train during the midnight chat with my girl friend. On that day just before this thought winked out from my brain, I invented the close existence of the railway track while I could see a running train through the clear passage between two trees outside the boundary. It was nothing like I have never seen a train earlier. As a common man from a middle class family most of my long distance journeys have been attached with some beautiful and some horrible train experiences. So a running train was definitely not expected as a miracle in front of my eyes but on that day actually it was. I realized something, looking at it which seems to be very simple but have never realized it with deep thought.

Observing the train on that day could become so special because of the narrow passage through which I could see it. The gap between the two trees could open up a realization for me on that day within a span of 30 seconds. This was the first time in my life when I could see a single bogie of the train at the same time as both the trees did not allow me to expand my vision beyond one bogie simultaneously. So I got the opportunity to observe each bogie of the running iron horse very closely. There I found within 30 seconds the whole class of our society appeared instantly and vanished suddenly from my sight. And the topic “Train :: Reflection of society” took birth then and there only.

AC 1st class, AC 2 tier, AC 3 tier, sleeper then general, all passed away one after another. Suddenly I realized the class division of our society is there inside the moving train.

In general AC 1st class in Indian trains accommodates four berths inside a kind of a room known as the most luxurious journey facility. Less people in more space, brings the impression of royalty from outside the train, the outer world has the least accessibility to this zone but the reality is that this zone has the least ability to live with the society. This is how the upper celebrity class people of our society are.

Ac 2 tier and AC 3 tier come next to AC 1st class one after another. AC 2 tier has six berths in a compartment while AC 3 tier has eight. In general a Indian train has two AC 2 tier and maximum four AC 3 tier bogies. These two within themselves represents the next two upper class society one after another. we can consider the 2 tier as the business class people in society who are little near to the general public in comparison to the celebrity class but loves to have their own personal space. AC 3 tier can be considered as for the class 1 job holders though 90% of the berths in 3 tier are usually booked by the software engineers now a days  😉 . 3 tier has the same structure as sleeper class but with the additional advantage of AC and bedding facilities. The most funny thing about the 3 tier is that it is close to sleeper bogies and sometimes people from sleeper class enter into the nearest 3 tier bogie in the ignorance of the TTE to enjoy the AC and to use the comparatively cleaner washrooms. At that time the reaction of the passengers from 3 tier with the attitude of “behaving the sleeper class passenger as a Acchut” is really funny. They usually forget at some other day they were also on the other side of the situation. This is how society changes when people starts earning more and feel themselves as a part of upper class.

Now coming to the sleeper class, the demoted version of the AC 3 tier, usually claiming the maximum numbers in most of the trains. This represents the middle class people in our society. This shows the struggle to live a better life but still the never ending dilemmas. This opens up the dreams to promote to the next upper level AC 3 tier but at the other hand also drags behind to lose yourself in general class. This shows, this is how life is; never ending dreams, challenging paths, frictional frustrations but still the unchanged life till the end.

Last but not the least, the story of general class, which can really give us goosebumps. General class 😳 ; from its name only people in the AC bogies start raising their eyebrows. Least space allowed to the largest number of lives; no matter in train or in society. It is the class where struggle for survival is an everyday story. Struggle to get a seat in the train and struggle to get a bread in the society. Nobody cares whether the general class is moving in the other part of the train or living in the slum area. Its the bare truth, nobody cares what the hell is going on there with the tag “General Class”.

With all these thoughts I was just searching out myself where am I, in which so called society class 🙄 . Suddenly there was a rewind in my thought. Yep, I forgot to discuss about the most important portion of the train which ran away in the very beginning; the “engine“. the controller for the movement of the train. Now the twist comes. Why all these drama of society classes; while all the bogies are controlled by the same engine, no matter whether the bogie is AC 1st class or the general class. The engine never asks individually that what is your destination point. All being the part of the journey have a single destination; to reach somewhere. Being a different class the destination never gets change.

Funny society!! Could never classify the air while breathing it in but always ready to classify the bogies of train with different social classes!!