A memorable journey...short essay
Answers
Life is a continuous journey. Some journeys are short and some long. Some journeys are sweet and pleasant while some are sour. Some journeys are too memorable to be erased by the sands of time. I had one such experience. The memory of this journey continues to flicker, on and on, in my mind even after several years.
Being born and brought up in Meghalaya, a state without railways, I had no opportunity to see a train or to travel in one. Therefore, when my school organised an excursion to New Delhi, our National capital, I was one of the first to join in.
We reached Guwahati on 9th Dec., as our train reservation was for the following day by North- East Express. We reached the station early in the morning, the next day and boarded the train. The train started off at 6.00 a.m. I sat by the window and enjoyed the passing scenery. The sights of numerous rivers, bridges, countryside, evergreen paddy fields, lush green tea gardens, vast plains, etc. enchanted me a lot.
In the late afternoon we reached New Jalpaiguri station, which is the gateway to Darjeeling and Sikkim. Some of us got out of the train to have a look at the station. The hustle and bustle of people moving about, the coming and going of trains and the enticing sights of the various stalls of the station attracted our attention and we too moved about the platform enjoying these sights. We didn’t realise how quickly the time had passed.
Suddenly we saw our train moving. We were at the far end of the platform and ran with all speed and might to catch the train. I was the last to notice the movement of the train and so the last to run. I too ran after my friends to catch the train. But the train was moving fast. Within moments my friends managed to get in.
As I was about to reach the train, I slipped and fell on the platform. I saw my train speeding away before my sight. I shivered with fear. My friends were shouting at the top of their voice asking me to run faster.
Answer:
My most memorable journey till date is my visit to the blue hills in the year 2001. It was my journey from Chennai to Udhagamandalam with my family. We left Chennai in the late evening on 1st June 2001 on Nilgiri Express.
It was a long hot 9 hrs. journey. Our compartment was close to the carriage door.
The compartment curtains were wafting as people walked by & opened the door. It made us irritated so we decided to pin up the curtains together with safety pins to maintain privacy. As it were the hot days of summer so none of us was able to sleep properly that night. It was like bumping into the desert in the wrong direction.
In the morning we reached Mettupalayam. As we stepped out of the train we saw a lovely chaos of the rural India. We heard the guy shouting “Coffee coffee coffee..” We had coffee and headed towards our journey up to Ooty (over the Nilgiri Blue Mountain railway) by raw steam power. The place was full of tea plantations and cool breezes. The journey was fantastic.
We took photos of that natural beauty that was seen by all of us for the very first time. Nilgiri hills were surrounded by cool green forest which added more to its beauty. The hazily warm environment filled with intoxicatingly cool breeze refreshed all of us and we forgot our tiredness.
As the train moved further we saw neat terraced plantations & banana palms.Though we were safe inside the train but we felt the surreal & wild as the bananas were surrounded by thick spider webs. The spiders were big in size. That was the first day of our journey. We all enjoyed a lot.
I was very curious to see that’s there in store for me on the 2nd day because it was supposed to be a lot more than the first day. We started our journey. On the way I saw many rivers surrounded with big hairy tress. The tracks passed over high bridges. Thos bridges were very scary because they did not have the sides.
Nobody dared to peep outside the window. After sometime we stopped at a station written “calamity in 1993” which killed hundreds of people. It was a landslide on the tracks. Then the train headed towards Ooty. We crossed many beautiful gardens & cool breezes.