The romance of railways

I find this public domain picture of manpowered railway inspection trolley from Wikimedia Commons fascinating. It was taken in the North West Frontier Province circa 1903. Even today, a century later, you can see the same scene except for the Western clothes, all over India. What intrigued me was why this simple vehicle has not been mechanized even in the 21st century.

Last night at a dinner party I met an old friend who retired as General Manager of Southern Railway. He gave me the answer. They do have motorized inspection trolleys. But those are classified as ‘trains’. To use them on the tracks other scheduled trains have to be stopped and that is a complicated business. Push trolleys do not have this problem. They are light and can be taken off the tracks to allow trains to pass.

The former GM did not say this, but I think that another reason could be to retain the labor strength. The worker’s unions are not likely to agree to any manpower reduction. Lalu’s management miracle is filling the railway coffers so why cut corners?

There is a romance about trains, like ships, which is something that the airplanes lack, for whatever reason. This is particularly so in the case of the Indian Railways. So much has been written about this massive organization, its historic trains and the committed people who man them.

Given below are two links related to the subject. You are likely to find the articles interesting.
http://angloindian.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/anglo-indians-contributions-to-indian-railways-by-v-anand-gm-southern-railway-2003/
http://maddy06.blogspot.com/2007/01/those-were-days-train-rides-part-1.html

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Also see: Travel: A round trip by train

Britain strikes back at the Empire

Recently there was an interesting news item. The British retail chain Marks & Spencer is planning to sell curry in India through franchise shops. Soon Indians can taste 'British' curry without visiting the Curry Houses of that country.

The word curry is said to have evolved from kari in Tamil. In Malayalam also the same name is used. It means different types of culinary products in different parts of the world. But basically curry is a side dish or secondary dish eaten with rice. It could be made with meat, sea food, eggs or vegetables, the common factor being spices.

During the Raj, the British became enamored with curry and rice and took it to their country where it gained great popularity. Whether the sahibs got on to the curry habit from the Anglo Indians (AI) or vice versa is not clear. Without doubt, the AI cuisine is excellent.

The best AI chicken curry I tasted was in Delhi in January 1954. To remember it after half a century is sufficient testimony for its excellence. I was traveling to Ludhiana as a member of the Mysore University hockey team to play the All India Inter University finals against Punjab. We had a two day break in Delhi.

My hostel friend Eric Perriera had insisted that I should visit his parents. His father was a civilian officer in the Defense Department at the capital. Eric’s mother gave me a lunch of chicken curry and rice. It was superb. I lost touch with this good friend of mine. Some one told me later that he had migrated to UK and joined the RAF. I would be grateful for any lead about him.

Talking about Delhi and food reminds of an ‘Indian’ dinner we gave a General Tires (Akron, Ohio) delegation at Ashoka Hotel. This was in 1972, after signing an MOU with them for technical collaboration for Apollo Tyres. The Americans were keen to try Indian food. Many foreigners do not know that India has so many different cuisines. The meal served that night consisted of mulligatawny soup, tandoori scampi, butter chicken masala with roties, and kulfi.

Mulligatawny soup, as far as I know, is an AI adaptation of the South Indian rasam (sometimes wrongly called ‘pepper water’). It is normally served hot. But when The Taj (Bombay) opened Tanjore Reastaurant in the 1970s they used to serve chilled rasam as appetizer. It used to be excellent.

To conclude, here is a Raj story I read somewhere. A sahib traveling by train was having lunch at a railway station restaurant. As he was relishing the chicken curry and rice, the train left. On realizing that the passenger was still at lunch, the upset station master rushed to him and said, ‘Not to worry sahib, take your time. I’ll call the train back.” He did.

Ah, the Raj days!

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Also see: Bangalore memories