Many long years ago, I had an experience as a child which has never faded from the slate of my memory. Every time that I have remembered it, it has appeared to me in lovely, bright colours. This experience was a trip to Moradabad and lucknow in a salon carriage arranged for my father by the Northern Railways. It was the first time that I heard of a salon carriage, a special carriage of a train that has all amenities of a comfortable home. My brother and I were extremely excited and could not wait to begin our journey! The weather was lovely as it was the month of February. We packed a lot of story books and indoor games in our bags, looking forward to our extraordinary rail trip.
When we entered the salon, we were really in for a surprise. There was a dining area, a little drawing room and bedrooms. It was decorated beautifully and gave us a feeling of warmth and comfort. I think those few days that we stayed there with our parents are among the most vivid and beautiful memories of our childhood. Our salon home became very dear to us and we wished that the journey would go on.
Our little home stood on the tracks while the rest of the train moved on. The sights and sounds of the station became so familiar to me. The Wheeler Bookshop ensured that our supply of books, comics and magazines was unhindered. Despite my mother’s instructions, I would slip out of the salon and savour all kinds of goodies being sold on the station stalls. Bread pakoras, samosas, tea in earthen kulhars and poori-bhaaji were among these.
However, we looked forward to the meals we used to have in the railway refreshment lounge. The English style breakfast of eggs, toast and cutlets was the most interesting among these followed by thalis having various combinations for lunch and dinner. During the day, we would go to various parts of lucknow, visiting the sites and the well-known bazaars, exploring the town’s history under the eyes of various guides. These guides, I recall, were very interesting characters and I found it more entertaining listening to their chaste Urdu than the historical places themselves! Nobody can blame me. I was only ten years old and the beauty of the Urdu language fascinated me far more than the forts and monuments. Honestly speaking, it is no different for me now!
I have enchanting memories of Hazrat Ganj and Aminabad. The variety of supaaris that we found at Aminabad was amazing. I have not been to lucknow for many years now and wonder whether the supaari bazaar is as flourishing as it then was. The chikan kurtas and the supaari are the things I remember mainly. The little restaurants in the lanes and by-lanes, the mithai shops and a general atmosphere of good things happening come back to me when I think of that special journey to the city of Nawabs. The collage of memories is a very colourful one as far as this visit is concerned.
I wonder how I managed to read so much during those days. Till midnight, I would be immersed in the magazines and books. I discovered a variety of Hindi film magazines at the railway bookshop which I had never seen before this. They gave detailed accounts of the personal lives of the film stars which greatly intrigued me. Rajesh Khanna was the king of the film industry in those days and I read all that was possibly available on him. My parents were not too happy about all this but they overlooked it as part of the holiday fun. I was close enough to becoming a gossip queen by the time the vacation ended!
The waiters in the Refreshment Room became our friends, the book shop boy at the station was our best friend and even the chai wallah said he would miss us once our salon moved back to our home town. The very thought of the holiday ending would move me to tears and I expressed my desire to settle down there to my parents who would just smile at the idea. My brother would explain to me that it was not possible and would wipe my tears away. Both of us often look back on those days and agree that it was a magical time that can never come back.I still miss you, our salon carriage.