Unity In Diversity

My 30-day trip across India when I was an engineering college student in 1977, was my first lesson in unity in diversity of our culturally and spiritually rich country, says RAMESH RAJARAMAN

Travel is always a learning experience. Even though I had travelled to many places in Tamil Nadu during my school days, the first long tour for a period of one month was ventured when I was studying in Regional Engineering College, (Now National Institute of Technology),Tiruchirappali in the year 1977. The All India Tour of our batchmates in college was part of our college programme and was scheduled in the month of November-December.

The start date from Tiruchi was set and the railways had confirmed one three-tier sleeper compartment for us to travel. This compartment would be attached to different trains during our journey to different places. As per the plan, the train was to start from Tiruchi and travel via Madras to Calcutta in the first leg.

Before our journey, a heavy cyclone hit Tamil Nadu and our travel was delayed. Since the train routes from Tiruchi were damaged, we had to reach Madras by road after the restoration of road services. When we were about to start our journey towards Calcutta from Madras, another cyclone hit South Andhra Pradesh and all the trains to Calcutta and Delhi were cancelled. Our trip was further delayed and once the services were restored after three days, our compartment allotted to us at Madras was attached in the first train travelling to Calcutta.

We reached Calcutta after a delay of 8-9 hours, due to slow movement of the train in the cyclone hit area. It was very disturbing to observe the devastating cyclone impact all along the cyclone hit route till Vijayawada. Many buildings had collapsed, and electric and telephone towers were uprooted in many places.

Calcutta, a vibrant City, welcomed us. We stayed for two days at Calcutta and enjoyed travelling in trams, tasting authentic Bengali sweets apart from visiting all the tourist locations.

We next travelled to New Jalpaiguri to board the train for Darjeeling. The journey by the hill train was a wonderful experience. It was the first time, most of us were seeing the spectacular Himalayas. The movie Aradhana and its Tamil Version Sivakamiyin Selvan came to our minds when we travelled by the train.  En route, we tasted delicious Darjeeling Tea at Kurseong railway station.

We went to all the tourist spots by jeeps and were thrilled and amazed with the excellent driving skill of jeep drivers, driving in narrow and steep ghat roads. During the sight seeing, we were lucky to watch the shooting of a song from the Hindi Movie Lahu Ke Dho Rang starring Vinod Khanna and Shabna Azmi.

After the first day of sight seeing, the drivers had alerted us to be awake at 3 AM, next day to take us to Tiger Hill for the view of  the “Sun Rise”. We were dropped at a spot which had only a roof, to watch the sunrise. The bitter cold was biting into our skin and we were all actually annoyed at the drivers who had brought us to that point. But, our wait in the cold weather was justified.

The sun rose at around 5 AM, radiating orange rays of light; it was bewitching. The rays of the sun fell on the peak, Mount Kanchenjunga and bathed it into a golden glow. It was an incredible sight. All our irritation vanished just like fog disappears when the sun rises. We stayed for a longer time than scheduled, watching this spectacular sight and reluctantly left the place.

After descending from the hill, we continued our journey to Muzaffarpur, Bihar to proceed to Khatmandu by bus. Since we had time on our hands,  we travelled by a cycle rickshaw through various streets in Muzaffarpur town. On the way, we stepped into a bank to encash our traveller cheques. It was an interesting experience of going around a small town, 2000 km away from my home town.

The next day early morning, we left for Khatmandu by two buses. We halted at a place enroute to Khatmandu to have a view of Mount Everest. Khatmandu gave a totally different exciting experience for us, such as our first visit to a foreign country, and first time travel in Toyota cars which were used as taxi services in Khatmandu. We were pleasantly surprised when we found an Udupi restaurant in Khatmandu  serving South Indian food. We hadn’t had any South Indian food for 12 days since the time we left Madras.

Next,  we travelled to Delhi and stayed there for three days. Delhi was lush with greenery with winter hovering around and the weather was pleasant. Shopping at Chandini Chowk, bargaining with the vendors there, tasting “Double Seven”  new bottled drink launched at that time, after the exit of Coca Cola were exciting and fun filled experiences.  Our joy knew no bounds when we had delicious South Indian food at Karol Bagh South Indian restaurants.

Further towards North, we halted at Chandigarh. After visiting the key tourist places which includes Pinjore Garden, we proceeded towards Jammu. We alighted at Jammu Tawi, the last station, and took private buses to travel to Srinagar. The travel through the ghat road was a thrilling experience. The mountains, trees, weather, kept us spellbound. We stayed for three days at Srinagar for sight seeing. Our boat ride in the Jhelum River and Dal lake, and visiting Shankaracharya Temple, and Gulmarg were the highlights of our stay at Srinagar.

We returned to Delhi from Srinagar and then proceeded to Agra. We did a round of all tourist places in Agra, before boarding into our compartment for our return travel after a short stay at Hyderabad. 

A trip for around 30 days travelling to key cities in Eastern and Northern India and Nepal, living in the train compartment for around 20-22 days (except our stay in the Hill stations), was an exciting and different experience for all of us. The railways had supported us by attaching our compartment in the respective trains and also ensured the key necessities in the compartment such as lighting, water, cleaning, among other things.

At a young age, the tour was a fun-filled experience, but more than that it was a great learning experience, exposing us to different parts of our country. But most importantly, it taught us the value of determination to go ahead with the programme in spite of delay due to two cyclones. 

Personally, my biggest takeaway was the joy of connecting with nature in a peaceful ambience, during our stay at the hill stations of the Himalayas. Travelling the length and breadth of our country gave me insights into the uniqueness of each place. It was a lesson of unity in diversity of our vast and culturally and spiritually rich country, which has stood me in good stead all through my life.

Though later in my life, I travelled across the globe, visiting many places in different countries, as well as travelled all over India, my first Indian tour is firmly etched in my heart.

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Ramesh Rajaraman with 40 years’ experience in Information Technology worked in leadership roles in top IT companies, and as CIO in a multi-speciality hospital in Chennai. A blogger and trainer, he loves music, trekking, travel and reading.

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