Ever since the pandemic began in
March 2020, I have usually confined myself to my house with restrictive travel,
that too in personal vehicle or with my friends. No cabs, buses, train or
flights was my mantra as I was and am scared of Corona, especially looking at
the plight of people infected with the disease.
When I decided to travel home to meet my
parents after a year in 2021, I preferred to travel by car than train. (Had it
not been the pandemic situation, I always prefer train journey for short
distance). In the first quarter of 2021 I was not even vaccinated so had to
extremely cautious about my travel.
I had to travel to Bangalore,
just for a week for some work, since the duration was short, I ditched car for
train, had it been a long stay, I would have preferred car. I was little
confident now because I was partially vaccinated then and I was well aware
about the SOPs adhered by Indian Railways.
Courtesy pandemic, now other than
train tickets, one also need RT PCR negative report. Equipped with all these
things, I entered the railway only to be informed that now only passengers can
enter the platform and relatives will stay back at the entrance of station.
This time luggage was less so no issue, I managed it by myself.
I booked myself in second AC
expecting less people in the coach but it wasn’t the case, may be because of the
day I travelled. First thing I did after reaching my birth was to sanitized the
entire birth with wet tissue and sanitizer, for my own happiness, even though the
coach was pretty neat and tidy. Till the next 5 stations, I was almost alone in
the coach, it gave me a royal feeling. Never in my life till date, had I have
travelled in a relatively empty coach, so it was relatively new experience for
me.
Travelling in 2nd AC
is no fun these days, as we don’t get blankets and bedsheet from Indian
Railways so we have to carry them ourselves. Due to this, luggage is increased
a bit otherwise, it was like stepping into a hotel and moving out after using
hotel amenities.
Over period of time, few passengers
entered the train some became my co passengers it the journey ahead. There were
few things which were common among us, firstly all of us used to sanitize our
hand at regular interval and secondly our topic of discussion was whether we
have covid negative certificate with us or not. As Karnataka government had
made it mandatory only a day ago. Even the ticker collector also enquired about
it while checking our tickets.
Conversations between passengers
were very restrictive as it was difficult for people to speak much with the
masks on, so people preferred to remain silent. I was glued to my phone,
talking to friends, listening to music with my headset on, as I didn’t want to
bother others.
One of the best thing, I have
noticed while travelling by train all these years is, people wait for someone
to open his/her dinner pack for others to follow. Earlier I used to wait for
someone to open their food packets but not anymore. The moment I feel hungry,
immediately wash my hands and have my dinner, don’t care much about the people
around me then.
By 8 pm I opened my food pack and
all people from my cabin as well from other cabin rushed to the wash basin to
wash their hand and then the aroma of food dominated the coach for some time.
Some people slept immediately after their dinner but I waited for an hour
before sleeping.
I was carrying 4 N95 masks and 2
cloth masks for night. I changed the mask after 6 hours and for night while
sleeping switched to cloth mask. It was too irritating to sleep with the mask
on but when I turned around, saw people sleeping comfortability with N95 masks
on. I had to no other option but to sleep with the mask. I hardly slept for 2-3
hours that night, as I was finding it difficult to sleep with mask.
I was awake from 4 am onwards but
didn’t get up from my birth, rather laid back on seat as everyone was sleeping.
By 5.30am few people started waking up and turned on the lights of the coach, I
think they were about to get down at the next station. By 6 am all passengers
in my cabin also got up and started packing their blankets.
I too climbed down and packed my
blanket and took over my jacket as it was little cold. At night AC’s temperate
was moderate so we didn’t feel much cold.
By 7 am I was at Bangalore and no
sooner did the train stopped at platform, porters came inside the coach looking
for people seeking assistance. Once porters left, I too stepped down of the
train to get the feel of Bangalore’s air.
I was really scared to travel by
train but after this trip, I can clearly say if we take all precaution set by
the government, then we can keep the virus at bay and travel safely.
