Why I undertook a 28-hr train journey from Chennai to Delhi

1. It takes that many long hours. Though one has to admit it doesn't seem that many when you consider it's practically travelling from one end of the country to the opposite—almost like going from one country to another.
2. I have a masochistic streak that ensures I always do what others warn me against, and in the process, end up screwing my happiness. This is a central theme in Irvine Welsh’s (of ‘Trainspotting’ fame) works, and entirely true in my case.
3. This is part of my desire to travel the length and breadth of the country—something I should've done as a student—though I wish the train was a hop-on-hop-off variety, and most stations were air-conditioned.
4. Ideally attempted best by road, particularly if I had to blog about it, I reckoned rail was at least a start. Next in line should be a caravan pulled by an SUV, though I could settle for just an SUV, as long as it’s mean, rugged and macho, never mind its gas-guzzling ways. If anyone’s willing to sponsor, drop me a line.
5. I find it amusing to listen in on Tamil conversations, pretending I can't follow what's being said, when in fact, I can, unless there are numbers involved, where I get hopelessly muddled.
6. I have a good friend in the Railways who unfailingly gets seats confirmed at short notice (well, almost always, God bless him).
7. It's a good lesson in catching up with the real India—passengers, bureaucracy, workers, countryside, smelly loos and a constant pain in the back.
8. It's a good deal cheaper than the not-so-low-price airlines, especially when you're not chasing your own tail in the frenetic corporate world, rushing from meaningless meeting to meaningless meeting.
9. I had all the time in the world, and in any case, who wants to hurry to an empty house. Well, in hindsight, the lure of your own bed, after that tossing around on arbitrary berths is considerable, empty house or not.
10. I needed to clear the cobwebs in my mind, and think afresh about this new phase of my life. OK, also to postpone the new beginning by a bit.
11. I like the crunchy bread-sticks they serve with soup in the trains—as also the yellow butter that I consume without guilt on such rare occasions.
12. With the money saved, I get to log more travel miles on more journeys in my cosmic travel plan, which, it turns out, is dynamically extending in sync with my good health.
13. I get to see so many curtains creating so many fiercely-created private spaces in an otherwise clearly public place that it borders on the ridiculous.
14. Away from the airports, it reminds me of the yet thriving community of TTEs, ASMs, RPF, and countless, faceless others that work tirelessly, and often for a pittance, in ludicrous clothes and practices left behind by the British.
15. It convinces me that despite the rapid strides made by the aviation sector, India is still largely moved by the wheels of her Railways, easily the largest and most diverse network in the world.
16. Frankly, because Delhi was not going to come to Chennai, not only because the Vindhyas came in between, but also the tensions caused by the relatively modern spectre called 2G put together so creatively by Kanimozhi and Raja.
17. It lets you justifiably exist in a fluid cocoon away from the rest of the world for an extended period of time, with selective percolation of only those things you want, via the smartphone. All the while letting you believe that you're doing something worthwhile, as you have a goal you're moving towards.
18. For legitimately enjoying, as an adult, the rhythmic rocking and swaying motion we've never forgotten since our days in the crib, and which can never be duplicated in a car unless its suspension is badly buggered.
19. Perhaps the only way one can actually see parallel lines meet, and quickly disappear into tangents as the train switches tracks, quite the metaphor for life's twists and turns whizzing past, seldom within control.
20. It was the only way I could replay a similar journey I'd undertaken (though in reverse, from Calcutta to Madras, as they were called then) at the start of my work life. The circumstances are similar, though three decades have passed, and as I stand on the threshold of a new career, I wanted this second innings to start in the same fashion, in an attempt to answer: have I really become any wiser?
21. The true Indian character is more on display in trains and stations rather than in planes and airports. Right from loud talking, striking inane conversations with total strangers, displaying undue familiarity via probing personal questions, taking shoes, and other articles of clothing, off in public, eating mannerlessly, travelling with copius amounts of luggage, we Indians are completely at home on trains. This is stuff we can't see on trains abroad, so why not live it unabashedly here, once a while?
22: I feel you're somehow more 'grounded' while travelling on a train, though unlike my wife, I don't feel it's 'safer', if statistics are to be relied on. Of course, because it's a good deal more cumbersome, such adventures are best advised less frequently.
23. I get more time to catch up on my reading, and sleep, apart from updating my blog, The most meaningful, of course, and the one that contributes most to society is the sleep part, as that creates an effective counterpoint to the typical loud behaviour evident on trains.
24. Trains are possibly the only vehicles where you get air blown on your ass even as you crap. Now that, and the unusual noise in the loos might be a source of worry for some like my son, but for me, it's exciting, as it harks me back to my childhood, when I first came to grips with this situation.
25. I don't want to be responsible for any dips in Indian Railways' financial performance, so it's a good idea to give them my custom, though I'd be loathe to sign on as a frequent traveller. After all, it's not just Jet and Kingfisher that should dominate my share of wallet.
26. Compared to both road and air travel, train travel is certainly greener per passenger carried. This definitely qualifies for a big thumbs-up. Now, we could really talk if someone would develop solar power solutions for powering trains—though they would have to contend with the issue of cloudy skies during the monsoons.
27. My grandfather, so the story goes, was found abandoned as an infant in a train compartment, by a gentleman who worked in the Railway Police, who took him home and raised him to be a fine young man, and a Railway Police Inspector. With railway blood running through me it's little wonder I support the Railways whenever I can, though I have to admit I've never considered working for them, even in my wildest dreams.
28. I reckon if 27 reasons are not enough to convince you, my inventing a last one will hardly matter, so here it is anyway: if you've read so far, the Railways' equity and positive word of mouth has already expanded—and that wouldn't have been possible had I not undertaken this journey in the first place!