A Train Journey to Madras -I

It was Thursday night 23:45 in Whitefield railway station. Waiting for Cauvery Express, i was nostalgically thinking of my past. Whitefield is a small suburb in outskirts of the city of boiled beans-Blore. The British built the small railway station located at the end of Whitefield. During the colonial regime, all trains from Blore to Madras would stop here briefly. But shortly after independence, Whitefield lost its charm as the predominantly British settlers left the place to rice farmers. Soon, it became a small village county away from the main city. The lush green Whitefield attracted people from Mysore and Madras state as holiday retreat. It was favorite picnic spot and bastion for the poor pensioners who could not afford to buy a house in Blore. We had a small bungalow in Whitefield. I always considered Whitefield as part of Blore city, tough people consider it as a far away picnic spot. Once as a kid, i went to a relative's house at Madras. A visitor there, started chatting with me and casually asked as to where i am from. I said "Blore". With a gleaming smile he further enquired "where in Blore?" , I quickly replied "Whitefield" ...and asked him if he knew Blore. with shrunken eyes he quipped "Whitefield? ..That isn’t Blore.. It's on the way to Blore." He was right, a 20km from downtown Blore would not be considered as part of city, yet, i could not accept his remark. I grew up in Whitefield enjoying being closer to nature till 1991. After that we shifted to Madras, a coastal city towards east of Blore. People would enquire me as to where i came from, and I would say Whitefield, Blore. They would remark "Oh! Whitefield, Its not Blore.... umm, a good place though". Soon the times changed. Madras was renamed as Chennai. I forgot Whitefield, and was busy with urbane life of Chennai and stayed there till i finished my college, in 2004. I got a masters degree in computer science and was hired by a software company located at Whitefield, Blore. By now, i heard a lot about Whitefield. About its IT parks, Call centers, BPO's and R&D centers of big multinational companies. I was quite eager to see a developed Whitefield, hoping that its really a part of Blore city. I was quite excited about this offer to work out of Blore and waited quite impatiently to get final orders from my company. And finally it happened. I boarded the Blore mail on 14th feburary,2005. This train left Madras at 22:45 and reached Blore at 5:00am, the next day. I asked the TTR (ticket collector) whether the train would go through Whitefield. He said, "Yea, but it does not stop." Next morning, at 5:05am, the train arrived at Blore Majestic station. I went to take an auto(taxi) to Whitefield and he charged me Rs300. "Ah! Bull shit!!. I paid Rs200 to come from Madras to Blore and you want me to pay Rs300 to go to a place with in Blore?". I tried in vain, to bargain with him and finally he said "Sir, Nobody would go to Whitefield, Its in the other world. We can do five trips within t he city and make more money. In fact 300 will put me in loss as i may not get anyone on trip back" Finally, I relented and took the taxi and paid him Rs300. I got down before my bungalow and was warmly received by a relative of mine. I had breakfast and took the car to go around and see the changes I heard about.I found that nothing had changed. The British style bungalows in the inner circle and outer circle area were quite intact. The Anglo Indian population, the Xavier’s Church, Churchill’s home, the Whitefield club, central lake and coconut farms… all are the same. The school i studied did not get any new coat of paint. As I came out of ECC road i got the glimpse of new Whitefield, which was hidden from old town by the canopy of trees that surrounded that area. I was mesmerized to see the International tech park standing as high as 100 feet, accompanied by other sky scrappers near by. The imposing Sathya Sai hospital looked like Mysore Palace. I thought the necessary transformation has set in. May be, sooner than later, Whitefield will be accepted as part of Blore. But that was not the case. People in my office would often, remark that commuting from Blore to Whitefield is very difficult. The vegetable vendor would say that he has to travel all the to Blore city and get the load to Whitefield. Once I booked my tickets to Madras from Blore Majestic and boarded the train at Whitefield. The TTR rebuked me and said that as I did not board with in Blore limits the ticket was sold to someone else. I had to really fight with him to get another ticket, and much to my dismay he refused to accept Whitefield as part of Blore. Ah! It hurt me so much and I thought railway people are so greedy and intolerant. Two weeks after this incident, On Sep 1st 20006, the Blore City municipality had announced that five adjoining municipalities near Blore will be annexed with Blore efective from Thrusday 21st september.And Mahadevpura municipality, in which Whitefield is part of is one of the five. I was totally excited and felt as tough i won the Nobel price. Today I am waiting at Whitefield station, again, to board the train to Madras. The train leaves Blore at 23:45pm and would soon reach Whitefield. This time I booked it from Whitefield. I booked it over the Internet and took print out of my ticket. As I was thinking about my past, the train pulled in. TTR opened doors of S10 compartment. As I tried to get in, he asked me for my tickets. I pulled out a sheet from my wallet and handed it to him. I moved towards my berth and found a old lady sleeping. I told TTR that I did not want to disturb a sleeping old women and that I would take some other seat. He carefully glanced through ticket and told that "First of all you don’t have a Valid ticket, then you can think abut donating your seat to some one else." I politely asked him what the matter was? And before he opened his mouth, I told him 'Now don’t tell me Whitefield is not part of Blore. This train is empty..even if u have given my tickets to someone else, I can take an alternate seat" He was surprised and said"I don’t care if u consider whitefield as part of Blore or not. The rule says that you cannot board the train without a valid ticket" I picked the ticket and looked at the date. It said Coach# S10 Berth# 42 Thrusday , 21st sep 2006 . I gave back the ticket telling that it was right one. He said this is ticket for the train that left Blore yesterday.I said, "Oh, that cant be, i booked this on wednesday for todays train" and before i could proceed further, he said "Gentleman, its already friday morning 00:30. This train starts from Blore at 23:45 and reaches Whitefield at 00:30. If you are booking from Whitefield, you should look for Friday morning 00:30 train. I was starring at him helplessly, and he finally said , "you see, you may be right that Whitefield is in Blore, but this ticket is not valid. " This time I happily paid Rs400 (Rs200 as fine for boarding train without valid ticket) and got a new ticket. At last, I found one guy, who agrees that Whitefield is indeed part of Blore.