TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
Few may still remember, others might have forgotten that over half a century ago, when the very first train was introduced from New Delhi to Pathankote, it was named “Srinagar Express” possibly to symbolise the fact that at that time Pathankote was the northern-most rail head of Indian Railways and this train carried large number of tourists travelling to Kashmir who would get down at Pathankote to take the road route to Srinagar. Many years later, the rial link was extended upto Jammu Tawi and the same train was renamed as “Jhelum Express”. Today, with installation of the country’s longest rail tunnel connecting Jammu and Kashmir across Pir Panjal, the providential moment has perhaps arrived to introduce a long distance train to Srinagar with rechristened name “Srinagar Express” which hopefully would not be a misnomer like its earlier version which too called itself “Srinagar Express” but stopped short at Pathankote.
In the context of India’s culture and its multifaceted social milieu, a train journey has traditionally symbolised too many things all together at the same time. It symbolises speed, it symbolises onward movement to undiscovered destinations, it symbolises prospect of union or reunion with loved ones as also the pain of separation from dear ones left behind. It symbolises march of times, march of age and march of destiny. All put together, it symbolises romanticism at its best with all the flash-backs and dejavus rolled into one. And for that matter……what could be a better train destination than the Vale of Paradise, the pictureseque serenity of Kashmir!
To the list of innumerable tourist spots in the Valley, the Pir Panjal rail tunnel itself deserves to be added as yet another tourist point and an essential shooting location for many a film unit. Long before there existed a rail track in Kashmir, Joy Mukerjee had climbed down the Nishat Bagh steps wooing damsels with melody call ‘‘……..Thaam Lo Jigar…Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon!’’ If the same sequence was to be reshot today, the hero might prefer to add a pinch of ‘‘rail romance’’ like Dev Anand sitting atop the roof of a train running up the Shimla hills in the background of ‘‘Jiya Ho…Jiya Ho Jiya Kuchh Bol Do….’’ or Rajesh Khanna in a Jeep driving alongside the Darjeeling train with hills echoing “Mere Sapnon Ki Rani Kab Aayegi Tu!’’. And, for the romanticists of a different genre whose romance with ‘‘Azaadi’’ is sometimes marked by fancy slogans like ‘‘Chalo Muzaffarabad,’’ the updated slogan could be a call to board the ‘‘Train to Pakistan’’ which incidentally also happens to be the title of a famous novel by Khushwant Singh.
A train across Pir Panjal is a welcome new landmark happening during our life times even though most of us were not lucky enough to board the inaugural train ride like the bubbling young Chief Minister of the State who went ecstatic to admit that he would never in his life forget having travelled through the Banihal tunnel in the company of ‘‘Chairperson’’ Sonia Gandhi. But then, as poet Sahir Ludhianvi wrote, a have-not commoner is also entitled to his share of passion even though he may not be blessed with the dynastic lineage of monarchs. Umapathy may have failed to make it because of being resourceless but why be unfair by accusing him of being untrue to his passion, argued Sahir when he said ‘‘…….Kaun Kahta Hai Sadiq Na The Jazbe Unke?’’
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