Journey by Konkan Rail Route–a Fleeting Glimpse

It is a sheer pleasure travelling through Konkan rail route between Mangalore and Mumbai. It was during the first week of July that I had to return from my native place in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, to Baroda via the Konkan rail route. One fine morning, I boarded the Trivandrum-Rajkot Express train at Kankanadi Station at 5.20 a.m., just before the break of dawn. The train was full of passengers coming from the neighbouring Kerala, who were in their various degrees of sleeping and dreaming states. Most of the passengers did not take notice of the arrival of the train at that station nor got up from their seats to look outside the window, maybe for the reason that it did not have necessary infrastructure at the platform like availability of eatables or newspapers, or that their biological clock hinted that time was not yet ripe to get into their daily morning rituals. And even if they got up at that time, what was there to see except the dark landscape looming outside?

The train rattled along, bringing us to places like Udupi and Karwar in Karnataka, Madgaon in Goa, and Chiplun, Ratnagiri, and Mumbai in Maharashtra and, finally, to Baroda where I live now. I sat wide awake all day, glancing through the window the unfolding landscape from morn to dusk till at last the night descended and the artificial lights brightened the countryside and cityside with their ubiquitous presence.

A waterfall on Konkan rail route.

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The train passed through dark, deep tunnels now, giving us a feeling that the line of light would hardly encounter us and, within moments, it took us along the slope of hills dotted with cashew trees. Now, miles and miles of green fields greeted us – women transplanting paddy seedlings in the rain, with plastic sheets covering their bent backs; farmers tilling their lands with their age-old implements and pairs of bullocks; cattle and goats grazing along field-bunds under the watchful eyes of rustic children; tiny tots standing like mute statues and marvelling at the sight of a giant moving train that came from an unknown and unheard-of land; and herons hunting fish in the shallow standing waters of paddy fields, that looked like giant, white mushrooms. The world outside was changing moment after moment, like the shape of monsoon clouds over the horizon.

Green landscape along the Konkan rail route. 

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All through the journey, I could observe the many moods of Nature. At times, she seemed to smile and make us smile, too; some time later, she shed raindrops of tear moved by the misery of toiling farmers and, occasionally, wore a dull, drab look, when the train rushed through the foot of hills which were devoid of vegetation.

A Railway bridge across Zuari river in Goa, on Konkan rail route.

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In sum, the journey gave me an opportunity to leaf through the pages of Nature and enjoy the sights of singing streams, dancing rivulets, swaying palms, rippling lakes, and glistening rivers which are in a perpetual hurry to rush forward and merge with the Arabian Sea. For the first time in my life, the journey made me feel proud of our country which is endowed with the boundless bounty of Nature. Needless to say, what I saw with my eyes and ears during that train journey has left an indelible impression on my mind which longs to travel on that route, mentally, again and again. No doubt, it was a refreshingly memorable journey by the Konkan rail route, which will ever remain green in my memory, as I keep moving on the eternal track of life.