A trip to the Railway Museum!

June 23, 2007, Chankyapuri, New Delhi

It was a sunny-shady day by turns. A mix of suggestions and willingness culminated into a picnic programme to Rail Museum at Chankyapuri that preceded by an auspicious visit to one of the frequented Jain temples.

The tranquil ambience of Lodhi road Jain temple consistently echoed sounds of giggles and screams throughout our stay. I could literally identify with the pleasure, as Vasu and Darsh relished the spacious, quiet and neat surroundings. They ran about the hall, followed each other upstairs downstairs, took turns at snooping with a standing switched-off fan and even fed on some dried-coconut cubes from two platters that lay aside sprawled with routine pujan samagri (containing a mixture of rice, dried almonds, dried-coconut cubes and cloves).

I tried to pray with these ants-in-the-pants for company! I literally had to shoo them away from the platters every now and then and signal disapproval for everything else they ventured into – be it meddling with the fan or sneaking down the staircase or prying into the cupboard housing loads of religious books - they simply made a game out of everything that seemed to annoy me. I just had me ready for such frolic and took it easy. I prayed my bit as good as I could and even insisted them to follow the suit… Just did not stress for perfect behavior, much against my natural instincts! I hurried up prayers on my part to limit the damages to minimum. We drank some cool tasty water served by the caretaker of the temple, dressed our feet all over again and made a headway for a three-wheeler to go to the Rail Museum.

The rail museum, by all means, proved to be an ideal choice for a picnic spot for the three of us. Vasu and Darsh were ecstatic to find the small and big models of steam locomotives very much within their reach. Both looked so excited to be able to touch the icons of technology that they just waved ‘bye-bye’ until now.

The inlet to the railway auditorium opened to a whole collection of attractive tiny train models, each put protected within a glass shield on a circular table. I supervised kids diligently to prevent any damages or a possible voice asking us to behave ourselves.Vasu and Darsh sought to touch and move certain models with all their might. I tried to invite Vasu’s attention to each train model, while Darsh treated his curiosity himself. There was an origami workshop lined up in the adjacent room that we did not disturb and ventured into the other adjoining hall.

The second hall displayed various models of steam locomotives and wagons – the mercantile wagon, the goods train model, the crane model, the passenger train model - all miniature but big and strong enough to handle the curious hands of toddlers and kindergarteners. Vasu and Darsh manhandled the engines to their fill, pulling whatever that they could grasp of them, trying to push engines back and forth on their given short stretch of railway lines, pressing buttons that could be pressed… I joined them here, just kept a vigilant eye for any possible trouble. This was also my first ever visit to the rail museum!

From the reception inside the museum, we bought ourselves tickets for the famous joyride outside. Vasu took care of the ticket as we progressed towards a cute small train of blue coaches decorated with colorful cartoons. It was standing on its miniature station, tastefully fashioned with a NBT bookshop (in the shape of a cut off light blue color train coach) and painted metal seats, just like a real-life railway station in India. Interestingly, the dustbins also sported the look of a wagon from the mercantile train.

Ahead laid a long elliptical stretch lodging numerous colorful and huge steam engines (with or without their coaches), as if resting on respective railway stations. There was a man-made pond in the center in the shape of eight I guess that offered the pleasures of rafting, kayaking and canoeing to the children. There was a snacks bar right in the middle of the pond, in the air, serving light drinks and snacks only. The track of the small train outlined the entire ellipse to give us a glimpse tour.

The joyride was visibly found amusing, but not too enthralling, as I had expected. It was only me who was making all the noise throughout. After the joyride, we went inside the museum once again for tickets to rafting. Vasu insisted on exploring the steam engines instead, but I diverted his curious attention to an air-filled black rubber boat being steered by two boatmen. As soon as we boarded the raft, Vasu attacked the unattended oar while boatman busied himself facilitating new boarders. The oar fell into the pond as Vasu was called by me to settle himself by my side. He incessantly started demanding an oar from me. The boatman-in-charge was kind enough to readily oblige. Now Vasu was in possession of a brown wooden oar.

I helped him row the boat, while he tightly held the oar and settled again and again to do it conveniently. Whilst, a cute kiddo of Vasu’s age, sitting perpendicular to us, subtly demanded his dad that certain kid’s mom should rebuff her kid for not behaving himself.

Unwary of what Vasu was doing, Darsh stood firmly in between my legs, with his hands spread across each of my leg, experiencing a unique floor experience. I hoped that both kids must be hungry and took them to the snacks bar as soon as we got off the raft. Too eager to touch the steam engines, neither showed any interest in food.

Indeed, the standing full-size steam engines looked very captivating and tempting! Without wasting time any further, we went ahead and boarded them one by one. We pulled all movable levers, pushed weird handles and chains inside and peeped inside the trailing coaches for traces of history. Of course, history, geography or science did not make any sense to either Darsh or Vasu. I deliberately cut short the oval shape of our coverage, as it was purely on foot and I could not expect my little one to sustain walking for long. Even lunchtime was drawing nearer… I had to be wise. However, Vasu did not miss an opportunity to board and touch almost each and every steam engine on the way. It was hot and humid and we all were thirsty. Thank God there was a water cooler just ahead of us.

As Vasu had his fill of touching and boarding all colors and sizes of steam engines, the toy train again came into his sight and he demanded another joy ride. I tried to persuade him into giving up the idea but he started crying – a typical children stunt! I had to give in to his wish and we again bought ourselves a ticket to the joy ride. This time we occupied the last boggie with no facing seats, so no chances of co-occupants.

Vasu grasped his packet of chips from me and started munching out of hunger. As the train started moving, Vasu got up and stood by the door to imitate Zack of the Polar Express.

That moment was touching as I recollected his utter fancy for trains when he was barely two plus and used to watch ‘The Polar Express’ daily on demand!