Courtsey : Livemint.com
I wake up to a cacophony of cell phone rings. A Bihar Military Police (BMP) jawan rudely nudges me to give him space to sit. Planning to go back to sleep, I feebly tell him that it is only 7 am. He tells me in no uncertain terms that as it is already daylight; I do not have any right to sleep on the reserved berth for which my office paid Rs1, 363. Other contestants for space on the same berth include an Indian Railways clerk, who claims she can travel without reservation and a college student who given his age should have been a professor.
The ticket-checker is playing the perfect host to these regular local passengers and is even telling them about the unoccupied berths, in an attempt to pre-empt claims by paying passengers. I am also presented with a passenger feed back form by the coach attendant earnestly asking my opinion about the food, service and quality of my travel (read travail).
It is 8 am and B1, my AC three-tier compartment has become a thoroughfare with vendors selling merchandise such as eatables, dolls, honey and live birds. With the state capital Patna gone by 6 am, the gloves are off. Vikramshila Express has turned into a passenger train stopping at every station (I counted 27), though it is scheduled to stop at only 15. This extra time rejuvenates my traveling companions, who start comparing the electoral prospects of Hindu and Muslim candidates across constituencies.
Apart from issues such as development and caste, they argue that religion will play a major role in constituencies such as Bhagalpur, Kishanganj, Katihar and Darbhanga among others. According to Krishnanand Yajee who belongs to Bhaktiyarpur district, the Muslim vote will be fractured and will be divided among Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congres, Janata Dal United and Bahujan Samaj Party. The issue of Varun Gandhi’s speech polarizing Muslim voters in favour of RJD crops up. While some argue it will wean away Muslim votes from JD (U), Shailendra Kumar, a junior engineer working at the railways workshop in Jamalpur is of the opinion that Nitish Kumar’s pro-development credentials will do the trick for the engineer chief minister.
The local dailies have put Lalu Prasad Yadav on the front page for his late evening tête-à-tête with Pronab Mukherjee about the former still being a part of the United Progressive Alliance government and the possibility of rejoining the coalition in future. Finding his Muslim Yadav equation going haywire the veteran Yadav leader has started stoking the Babri Masjid demolition issue by blaming Congress for mishandling the entire episode.
I see a woman vendor selling mineral water. While this may sound innocuous in any other state, this was impossible around two and half years ago in Bihar (when Lalu was in power) as women vendors were simply not to be found due to safety concerns.
It is 3 pm and the train has stopped.
The ticket-checker is playing the perfect host to these regular local passengers and is even telling them about the unoccupied berths, in an attempt to pre-empt claims by paying passengers. I am also presented with a passenger feed back form by the coach attendant earnestly asking my opinion about the food, service and quality of my travel (read travail).
It is 8 am and B1, my AC three-tier compartment has become a thoroughfare with vendors selling merchandise such as eatables, dolls, honey and live birds. With the state capital Patna gone by 6 am, the gloves are off. Vikramshila Express has turned into a passenger train stopping at every station (I counted 27), though it is scheduled to stop at only 15. This extra time rejuvenates my traveling companions, who start comparing the electoral prospects of Hindu and Muslim candidates across constituencies.
Apart from issues such as development and caste, they argue that religion will play a major role in constituencies such as Bhagalpur, Kishanganj, Katihar and Darbhanga among others. According to Krishnanand Yajee who belongs to Bhaktiyarpur district, the Muslim vote will be fractured and will be divided among Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congres, Janata Dal United and Bahujan Samaj Party. The issue of Varun Gandhi’s speech polarizing Muslim voters in favour of RJD crops up. While some argue it will wean away Muslim votes from JD (U), Shailendra Kumar, a junior engineer working at the railways workshop in Jamalpur is of the opinion that Nitish Kumar’s pro-development credentials will do the trick for the engineer chief minister.
The local dailies have put Lalu Prasad Yadav on the front page for his late evening tête-à-tête with Pronab Mukherjee about the former still being a part of the United Progressive Alliance government and the possibility of rejoining the coalition in future. Finding his Muslim Yadav equation going haywire the veteran Yadav leader has started stoking the Babri Masjid demolition issue by blaming Congress for mishandling the entire episode.
I see a woman vendor selling mineral water. While this may sound innocuous in any other state, this was impossible around two and half years ago in Bihar (when Lalu was in power) as women vendors were simply not to be found due to safety concerns.
It is 3 pm and the train has stopped.
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