Bangalore to Calcutta
Naresh and his father were at the Bangalore city railway station at 7am waiting for the train to come to the platform. When it did they soon found their seats and made themselves comfortable. Naresh sat by the window. The journey started as the train moved off to the sound of the whistle. Naresh thrilled! The train first passed through all the residential and commercial areas. Very soon they had passed the tobacco factory on the left. After the houses became smaller and fallow fields began to appear. Naresh tried to locate things he knew. On the left before the vineyards, there was the NGEF (new government electrical factory) first, after which they came to the ITI or the Indian telephone industries factory. Here the land was all cultivated, with fields of millet and groundnut covering he flat land on their side of the railway track. As they passed Malur he spotted tile factory on the right. They stopped at Bangarpet where they could see the railway line that went to the Kolar gold fields curving through the fields on the lefts. When the train moved out of Bangalore it went southeast. The land was still flat getting dry although the fields still had groundnut and millet growing on them.
They stopped next Jolarpet where they halted for quite a while because Jolarpet is a large junction. This time the train moved off in a northeasterly direction. Naresh could see hills in the distance but the train never came very close to them. Remember that the train was traveling southeastwards. This is because the railway does not run due east but goes south to avoid the spurs of the Eastern Ghats.
When they reached Katpadi, Naresh found that the place was quite hot unlike his hometown, Bangalore. This is because Katpadi is at much lower altitude than Bangalore.
After leaving Katpadi they could see flat land again. This time the fields of millet were interspersed with fields of paddy wherever irrigation was possible, and the Palmyra trees in other places. When they stopped at Arakonam, Naresh could see the workshop where engines were repaired. At Chennai Central they had wait for few hours before they got the next train, so Mr. Parkas took Naresh to the beach. Naresh enjoyed playing in the water and tried to catch the little sand crabs. Back at the station, he found Chennai hotter and stickier than ever because of its humid climate as the city is close to the sea.
The next lap of the journey was by another train traveling north. As the train moved slowly out of the city, Naresh could see a part of Chennai harbor with some ships at anchor, through the window. At Ennore, a few kilometers away from Chennai, they passed the salt works. Here sea water is pumped into factory where the salt is extracted from the water and purified. Naresh also saw salt pans made of sand when sea water gets evaporated by the heat of the sun. After it is well tried, the salt is gathered into piles and it is then collected and stored.
The train was moving on the coastal plain with the sea on the east and the Eastern Ghats n the west of the railway tracks. So they could see the flat land covered with paddy on one side and coconut palms on the other side. Here the coconut palms were planted all along the boundaries of the fields. As Naresh traveled father north he found that the color of the soil had changed from red to black. The fields or rice continued but now they could so see fields of sugarcane. Just past Ongole, the railway line came so close to the coast that naresh could see the ea. And now he found himself on the railway bridge over the river Krishna.
He looked down to see the river far below. The surrounding land was still flat with rice, sugarcane and tobacco growing on it. These crops all need lots of water, alluvial soil and bright sunshine which are amply found on the wide coastal plains of southeast India.
The next interesting stop was Rajamandry. They reached it after crossing the river Godavari. As the train sped towards the northeast, the land was still flat but now far away to the west; Naresh could see the blue line of the hills forming the Eastern Ghats. At certain places the train ran quite close to the coast, close enough for Naresh to se the sea.
Chilka Lake was the other interesting landmark on their journey. This is a large lake on the right of the track. It is big that naresh thought it was part of the sea. The next long halt was Bhubaneswar which is the capital of Orissa. Soon after leaving the town they passed the river Mahanadi. Then a strange thing happened! There were no more hills, no more coconut palms! Just plain flat land as far as the eye could see- full of rice fields. This was part of the vast Ganga plain. Here was Kharagpur, made famous by its engineering collage and industries. This is where you would change trains if you wanted to go to Jameshedpur and Mumbai. At Kharagpur station, Naresh noticed that tea was served in little throwaway earthenware pots.
Now that they were heading for Howrah, Naresh was a bit tired, in spite of having seen so many interesting things. It was two days and nights since he had left Bangalore. As the train neared Howrah he could see the famous Howrah Bridge. He knew immediately that the long journey was near its end. Soon they were at Howrah station. Naresh had never seen a station as large as this. At Howrah, Mr. Parkas got a taxi to take them to new Alipore. As the next crawled along Howrah Bridge, Naresh felt it move like a big spring. Looking to the right, Naresh could see the docks and the big ships at anchor. Once crossed the bridge, the taxi moved quickly and soon naresh was at new Alipore where he had a refreshing bath and a hot meal to celebrate he end of a long journey.
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