On a train? Not me!

I think I had spoken too soon.

About how unsafe it was increasingly becoming . Travelling by train, that is. And that was with regard to what thugs on trains could do to you. They now have a free rein on trains, particularly when the trains are passing through Bihar. This has been that way for far too long now and we've more or less come to expect the worst when trains enter Bihar.

But what thugs can do to you pales to insignificance to what can happen to you or the entire train if just a few nuts and bolts or a fishplate go missing from a part of the tracks.

The scale of mayhem and disaster that can happen and as happened, twice on the same day, leaves the country gasping in utter disbelief. The twisted bogies lying helter skelter with untold dead and dying, limbs torn from bodies flung around like so much ghastly waste is numbing to the senses.

And when, quite understandably, the nation's psyche seeks an answer and a person in power to turn to, he plays truant like a schoolboy cutting school and hides behind a plethora of lame excuses. What a sorry state of governance we have!

And then when I know that the Pujas are on the way and people would be travelling I shiver in fear thinking how many more such gruesome accidents are waiting to happen. Just around the corner.

In fact my wife and I are already booked to travel to Delhi to holiday with my son and daughter-in-law. Should I cancel the train tickets and get air tickets, I wonder. The first knee-jerk reaction that comes to my mind when I think of travelling is what? On a train? Not me!

Safe trains! When?

Railways are becoming an increasingly unsafe method of travel.

If the Maoists have'nt removed the fishplates and caused a derailment, instantly killing and maiming hundreds of innocents, there are any number of train robberies and harassments caused by thugs from Bihar. Why is it that these thugs have a free rein when the train is passing through Bihar? No other state is this unsafe for a train traveller. Even the railway police turn a blind eye when looting and harassment of women passengers take place. This is shameful for all Indians.

Now that Lalu, the clown has been replaced by a sensible CM in Bihar, is it not fair to expect that the thugs and unsavoury elements from Bihar be reined in?

Also now that Mamata Banerjee is in control, not only of West Bengal but the Railways as well, we should expect to see a firm hand in dealing with the railway police who are oftentimes hand in gloves with these rogues running loose in the running trains.

When will travelling by train be safe and a joyous experience again? As it was, I remember, in my childhood.