Towards God’s own Country

Mother nature has bestowed her most preserved treasure on this land. As my train entered Kerala, lush green farms, golden sunshine, and coconut trees – a little smaller than we see in the landscapes – welcomed me in God’s own country!

Here, train passes from the backyards of small houses, and stops at the stations we used to see in the landscapes or in the RK Laxman sketches from ‘Malgudi Days’.

In fact, the railway travel makes me feel proud of being an Indian! Like in spite of all wrong practices and corrupt politicians; we still feel proud of being world’s biggest democracy; in spite of all poor facilities and irregular services the railway provides; I feel proud of traveling by world’s second biggest railway network here in India. Railway stations situated at frequent distances, and the infrastructure developed at the stations make me feel like being a citizen of wealthy state. The signal systems at railway routes, the way they follow timetable, and the accuracy of trains while stopping at the railway stations – with the particular bogey stopping exactly at its denoted place – everything fascinates me whenever I travel by train.

Kochin, being a harbor, has no individual junction and trains do stop at Ernakulam railway station, situated just a few kilometers away from Konchin. As I stepped down, I found this station quite similar to Nagpur’s one. It was quite easy for me to find out the main entrance gate, where the Jawans of Indian Navy were waiting for us. As journalists participating in the Defence Correspondence Course are the special guests during these thirty days, they receive special welcome from force officials. It is a matter of proud for the scribes to receive a treatment of Commissioned Officers during the course. As our car left the railway station, a small tour of Ernakulam town was in the offing.

Traffic jams are very common features of Kerala. Here, the roads are narrow and the houses are constructed in quite congested way. As we see the map, we see Kerala as a small piece of land, adjacent to the seashore. Adjusting with the land, almost everything here comes in the small package. Houses and huts are small, coconut trees are dwarf, and roads are narrow as a result of which city-buses are also small. As my car was heading towards Wellington Iceland, I noticed one more thing roads and the railway tracks go parallel to each other many times here. This is quite a rare to notice in Nagpur. As our destination was on the Iceland, we had to pass over a bridge installed on the backwaters of Arabian Sea. Kochin Shipyard is situated right around this channel. My eyes saw such a huge amount of water for the first time and they preferred to remain wide open for a while to catch the beauty. The over-bridge from which we passed was the third one constructed on the channel. The first one was quite old and was not in use, while the second one was for the light vehicles. Third was ours, on which almost all the heavy

Vehicles were commuting. There was another one, a parallel railway over-bridge. In all, the look was like the Iceland is being connected with four five different types of ropes to the Ernakulam town. Greenery is very common factor here. A very special feature of Kerala greenery that I noticed is liveliness. Nagpur is India’s second greenest city, but to maintain it green, the administration has to work quite hard. Here, nature itself creates and maintains the green of Kochin. After all, it’s God’s own!