We gave a name to this Train!

As the first instalment of summer vacation has started for my grandchildren and all the students of CBSE, I am reminded of my school vacations during which we children named a Train and had lots of fun travelling in it. This Train was named by us ‘The Lambadi Express’!

In the 1960s most students studying at St. Mary’s High School, Kothagudem, in English medium, had to shift to other schools as the school did not offer middle school education. Higher education was possible at St. Mary’s only in Telugu medium. So, most of the English medium students shifted to outstation residential schools, the boys to St. Gabriel’s High School, Kazipet, and the girls to St. Fatima Girls High School, Kazipet. And some of us shifted to the Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad like some of our seniors. Here in the Twin Cities, we were no longer in Missionary/Convent schools but in popular private schools, and our tri-annual vacations matched.

Those days the best way of travelling to Kothagudem from the Twin Cities was by train from Secunderabad Railway Station. The name of the train was Secunderabad-Puri Passenger. Only two compartments of this train were assigned to go to Bhadrachalam Road Railway Station which is Kothagudem. One compartment had half of it as First Class accommodation and the rest of it for unreserved Ladies and the other compartment was for the unreserved general public. It used to start at 8.30 pm.

As our holidays commenced at the same time, all of us from different schools known to one another and travelling to Kothagudem were happy to meet on the platform at Secunderabad Station and travel together. We addressed the seniors by their names affixed with the title like akkaiah (sister) and annaiah (brother), like Madhu akkaiah, Mani akkaiah, Chandu akkaiah and so on. And the others by their names. We all got comfortably accommodated in these unreserved seats and berths as there never used to be a heavy rush to Kothagudem in those days. After the initial pleasantries and chit-chatting we all rested. It was a very slow passenger Train with about 30 stops between Secunderabad and Kothagudem. At about 2:30 am the train used to reach Dornakal Junction and the (our) two compartments destined for Bhadrachalam Road were detached there. These two compartments used to be left aside with no power up to about 5:00 am. And the rest of the train used to proceed to Puri in Odisha. And from about 5:00 am after a lot of shunting and changing of tracks our compartments were attached to a Train from Dornakal/Vijayawada to Bhadrachalam Road and brought to a platform from where it used to leave for Bhadrachalam Road at 6:00 am.

Fresh at dawn, after last night’s rest and happy to be soon with our siblings, parents and childhood friends and all the entertainment that we missed, we all used to be in high spirits, enjoying ourselves. This stretch of the journey was of 2 hours and most enjoyed by us. Everyone was looking out of the windows enjoying the cool early morning weather and the beautiful landscape and looking forward to the five in-between Railway Stations, Pocharam, Karepalli, Chimalpahad, Tadakalpudi and Bethampudi. At all these Railway Stations the train just stopped for about five minutes and there used to be hectic activity. At these Stations there used to be a small crowd with pots and buckets at the Steam Locomotive to collect the hot water let out from the boiler, courtesy of the Loco Pilot.  And the passengers, 90 per cent of them were Lambada ladies in their colourful attire and ornaments trying to board the train with their merchandise like firewood, broomsticks, Muggu, fruits like Woodapples, Custard apples and so on to be sold at Kothagudem. As most of them were ticketless travellers they used to tie their merchandise to the outer side of the Train windows and loiter within the train to escape being caught by the Ticket Examiner. And the naughty amongst us were not allowing these passengers to get into our compartment by telling them that it is a reserved compartment.

And as this train used to get filled up with mostly Lambadas in these intermittent Stations we called it the Lambadi Express. This name became popular and continued amongst us until we all finished school.

In the early 70s too, while at College I travelled by this train. From Mangalore, via Madras, I used to reach Dornakal Junction by 2:00 am. Get down from this Hyderabad-bound train and then board the Lambadi Express to reach Kothagudem. And the environment along this route remained the same, the only difference was that I was travelling alone, but I still enjoyed the journey.

The return journey from home, back to School and College was not exciting even though it was in the Lambadi Express.