The National Rail Museum : Childhood Re-lived

Hold! Hold! Hold On! Let me clarify the story behind visiting the National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri last Saturday (11th Jan 2014).

Once upon a time, a young 12-13 year old boy with glasses that were bigger than his face, hair combed to one side and living under an assumption that he looked cool, went to the Rail Museum for a national level Drawing Competition. The topic, as expected, was trains. He sat beside an old black Steam Engine along with his fellow schoolmates, excited and ready with his thoughts. Just like every other participant, he gladly began to draw whatever his mind had given shape to. An old engine, lot of people and a train station. Everything general. 20% of the drawing was complete, until he peeked into his arch rival's drawing board.....

(wanna know what happened?? crawl till the end if you remain interested throughout).

 First of all, a big thanks to Roll Roll Roll-cee, the one-of-a-kind friend who can talk non-sense, enjoy every bit of moments no matter what the place and biggest of 'em all, she can laugh and make you laugh. Truth is, growing up is a choice. I am proud to have a friend like her who dint choose growing up as a major option, unlike the other chunk of people I know or knew. To be a Besharam, you got to be a "Besharam". And she will agree, hands down.

About the Place

• National Rail Museum (Click this link for Wikipedia history) isn't a Jurassic Park. Its right next to Bhutan Embassy and doesn't takes up space as much as Malls in this Era do.
• You need to pay a mere Rs.20 to get in (per person) and an additional Rs.20 to be part of a short Joy-Ride, a little cute steam engine attached to little cute bogies. Middle finger to Pacific Mall, Rajori, Crowns and Select City Walks.
•  The place is clean, calm and peaceful. You will find families and their little kids opening their small mouths to ask "ye kya h papa" "wow" or "mujhe chadao ispe". Believe me, you don't let your kids miss a place like this.
•  Locomotive engines are enough to tell you a short history about this country. Somewhere inside, I am really thankful to Britishers for pushing Railways to the forefront in India. The engines, coaches and the stories are really beautiful.
• The word "Engineering" will strike your mind throughout the visit, not over-hyped IIT or its Degrees. Cherish the beauty of these oldies, admire the Engineers of those times and gaze, gaze as much as you can at every single Machine standing there. If you are one of those real "observers", I bet you will feel 1800s and 1900s come alive. #YouKnowWhatIMean

 

Support for AAP...everywhere everywhere

While Roll-cee got busy on her phone, I went over this huge Steam Engine parked right in the middle of the park. I climbed onto the driver's  step, went in the cabin where the driver must have stood and saw that huge steering. Just imagine, how can you drive this bulky machine with that big steering bar, lot of pipes in front, coal at the back and yes, no front panel of glass to let you view whats in front. That job must have been one hell of a roller coaster ride. How precisely a driver would have calculated the angle of the track's turn! Its something you can leave to your imagination.

A few special mentions. The Roger Lumley Engine is the best looking machine present here. At the front, it resembles a straight faced ticket collector with a Cap. Climb up, peek inside the driver's cabin and you will feel like this is a ghost train that will suddenly start running once night falls. I am not sure which, but a scene from a Hollywood movie came alive in my head. The train is passing through snow capped mountains, a loud thumping of the engine and fear. Can anybody tell me which movie am I referring to? I cant remember, seriously.

Thomas and Friends...anyone?

 Stroll through the park and you will find green, yellow, red, blue, black and white colored steam engines, diesel engines (looks like a road roller). One major attraction is the Patiala Tramway Car, a semi rail coach that ran on a single track. I mean, just tell me this, what kind of vehicle is this? Running half on a single rail track and other half on road. All hail the Maharaja of Patiala who financed this and the guy who created this. He could have financed a new brand of luxury cars and who knows India would have had its own Rolls Royce type of company today!! Creeps.

Money Waste

 While all this continued, we both had a pretty detailed discussion about our personal lives. The bye-bye part of the Joy-Ride, with foreigners, families and little children staring at her gestures of Good Bye with "pagal-hai-kya" expressions (and waving back too) was the craziest of the whole trip. One more thing, Maggie Cuppa Noodles are disgusting. Make sure you have your own food because the cafetaria guy told us that it has been closed because of some maintenance work.

Now the story...
Rajat drew a full page of Steam Engine and sketched it so beautifully that the little guy's brain went upside down. He looked again at his drawing and compared. It looked grim, shady and unfortunate against Rajat's. Jealousy had slammed his creativity right in the middle of the ring. With no sense of imagination left, he sat blank, helpless, staring at the engine right in front of his eyes. With a bowed head, he left the place for the school with a though to return one day, to explore it all. 

This is Me, right next to where I sat while drawing and the same black engine I stared at while doing so. And it will be my favorite one, the Tough Steamy Guy in Black. 
 

Right at my Spot

 "Earn Some, Save Some. Burn Some. Make sure you keep doing Some"