What I Discovered By Travelling 6,000 km across India By Railway
An interesting anecdote of my recent long-distance travels
Two of my previous articles of mine, which you can view here and here, were about my experiences I had while I was searching for my summer internship. However, we’ve heard that old adage, “The journey is more important than the destination”. Well, in my case, it turned out to be actually true.
Although it was quite funny that I travelled more in September 2018 alone than I had travelled during the entirety of 2017, it also turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences in my life that I had never expected. It was born out of necessity at first, but it quickly grew into an intense period of knowing oneself, and after a long time, enjoying my own company, which I believe is highly underrated.
This mammoth journey that covered nearly the length of India was composed of three separate journeys, as described below.
1. From Kolkata to Delhi; Total Distance of 1,458 km; Travel time of Approx. 18 hours
This was a unique trip before it even started, as I was travelling with my while batch of friends from my MBA institute. Although I have travelled with some of my friends in the past on short trips, this was of a completely different magnitude altogether.
Naturally, I was a bit apprehensive, but for the most part, I was excited about the journey itself. And, boy did it turn out better than I expected!!
Of course, I spent about 3 hours before sleeping on studying for my upcoming interviews and group discussions, but the rest of my journey was spent interacting with my friends about all sorts of topics. From advanced finance topics & tech jabber to movie critiques & swapping of hilarious tales, I’ve had some of the best group conversations in those cramped passages between beds inside the sleeper coach that we were travelling in.
Although the excitement quickly died down as soon as we reached Delhi, as we knew the challenges we were about to face, it was still a really enriching journey for me, personally.
2. From Delhi to Trichy; Total Distance of 2516 km; Travel Time of Approx. 40 hours
Getting the offer for the summer internship was still quite an unbelievable event for me, and thankfully I had this journey ahead to figure out what this would mean in the future.
The fact is, I was always under the impression that I would struggle a lot to get what I wish for, but only partially. The simple reason was that because I was never very lucky. But getting this offer was still predominantly because I got lucky. I mean, big time lucky.
It was actually overwhelming, and I had to take a step back and figure it out. The journey itself was quite comfortable and I spent most of time sleeping, or playing Sudoku. But I also did a lot of thinking, and I started figuring out that this had become my big break.
With this, I could finally start believing in myself, and start trusting the process and start accepting what fate would have in store for me.
And, for the most part, I have been able to keep up that attitude, and it’s working out well so far. Of course, there are going to be issues in the future, but I now believe that I will figure out and will find a way to solve it.
3. From Trichy to Kolkata; Total Distance of 2003 km; Travel Time of Approx. 35 hours
Preparation for this was quite extensive, as there were a lot of stuff I needed to take so that I could better customize my hostel room. So the luggage was actually a little bit heavier than what I could manage, plus there were 3 bags overall, which itself was quite a load.
However, with a lot of planning and a little bit of tenacity, I was able to manage the luggage and bring it back to my hostel from the Kolkata railway station, and that taught me a lot about personal and luggage safety, which I don’t think any manual would’ve sufficiently covered.
It was especially hard, carrying this much and keeping safe at 3 am in the morning (yes, really!), but in the end, I guess I had enough awareness to get myself back to the hostel comfortably.
There were a few moments I really felt like a small child lost in a mega-size warehouse, but at the same time, I felt that rush of adrenaline, the excitement of going through it on my own, which made me alert and aware.
Although I’m not sure I’d want to go through this again, it was nevertheless, a very important experience in my book, as travelling alone where there is less technology and more uncertainty carries with a particularly unique set of experiences which cannot be replicated by any other situation.
Conclusion
When I returned back to my hostel at Kolkata at about 7 am (I think), after 5,977 km and approximately 94 hours of travelling spread over the span of about two weeks, I felt an exhilarating sense of completion and an all-pervading sense of satisfaction.
I never thought that I would enjoy travelling this much, but in the end, it turned out to be one thing that I was happy I was wrong about.
As I write this, I can’t help but wonder when my next major trip would happen and which places it would cover. Guess I’ll let life surprise me again!!
