The news: ‘NZ train shuts outdoor carriages in the heritage trains as tourists risk their life & limb for selfies’.
The picture shot in the Times of India of date reveals the extent to which a kiss can kill a couple hanging on the footboard of a hill train in Sri Lanka.
My brain started running back to the days of the film ‘Aradhana’ wherein Rajesh Khanna in a jeep and Sharmila in the Darjeeling hill train and how romantically the picturisation was done. In those days the song ‘ meri sapnom ki raani kab aayegi thu’ written by Anand Bakshi for the tune of RD Da and completed by SD Da was a craze and it created a goose bump effect. No selfie era. Only a window seat love.
Then came the film ‘Dil Se’ in which Shah Rooh Khaan and Malaika Arora Khan exhibited their body language for a full length of 5 minutes to dance on the roof top of Nilgiri rail line . The rain created a chill for the song ‘Jinke sar ho ishq ki chaaon ….chayya chayya chayya’ by Gulzarji and tunes by ARR became a hit. A convolution of the wheel and connecting rod became like a selfie to match the dance.
In between and before that there were many train songs that appeared and vanished partially creating impact in the viewer’s mind.
So sitting inside the train and popping out through the window and later reaching out to the roof were like a slow motion era.
Then came the song of Vaali and IR combo in Tamil ‘ VaLai Osai kalakalavena kavithaigaL padikkuthu’ for the film Sathya in which the scene changed to footboard of Pallavan bus. Hanging out and in and getting squeezed in between the song written by Vaali and to the tunes of IR became a hit.
Travelling with parents in train was a thrill during those childhood days and getting the window seat was considered as luck. The camera was a luxury and was in possession of one in a thousand or even more.
Father used to select those seats which look to the opposite side of the direction of destination. The reason being the coal dust flying out from the black horse which is pulling us should not get trapped in the eyes.
Getting in and out of the train was a ritual as there won’t be platforms to cover all the carriages.
Standing near the door was totally out of bounds for fear of slipping and falling out. In those days the doors used to open out. Later the design was changed for inward action.
I got my first experience to stand near the door when I started travelling alone. Then I also had a camera
Sitting near the window seat I used to take snaps of the train when it takes a steep curve so that I could see the engine.
With that shutter bug camera one has to be careful in getting a still without a shake. Once clicked the frame is gone.
The technology has leaped forward with mobile phones and one can take his own photo, get fascinated over it and erase and repeat a million times before his death.
Stretch out the hand with the rectangular phone and get a selfie with your near and dear in cluster and feel proud of has become the present era trend. Everyone is a photographer in his/her own right.
Of late it has become a dangerous move as youngsters go to cliff and try to take a snap. Not knowing where they are standing, they forget the surroundings and the danger of slipping.
The selfie ultimately turns into a death trap, like the game Pokomango, the blue whale etc.
I used to wonder the involvement shown by the youth in the using of mobile phones. They could connect the world with internet. But they walk on the road clicking and typing and talking sometimes totally forgetting what is in front of them.
‘If the amount of involvement and concentration the youth of today are ready to show for the building of this country, we could have connected all the rivers and lakes’.
Thank god the bullet trains are designed in such a way that it will never start till the door is closed.
All selfies are inside the carriage only. I do not know how the Indian Bullet Trains will be!
In India the emergency windows are without the grill and glass! It is to jump in and out of a very long distance train from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari to avoid suffocation and to jump in and jump out to ease out on the way and to have coffee and tea.
In the same filmie style, it is
Jis ke haath mein selfie mobile ho
Us ke sir mein soch vichaar nahi ho
Voh yaar se baathen karthe karthe
Pyaar ko pakad kar chum chum dekar dekar
daankna daankna daankna
khidki se daankna daankna daankna
Selfi se kheenchna kheenchna kheenchna
ladkaake kheenchna kheenchna kheenchna
thasveerEn
kheenchna kheenchna kheenchna
Tomorrow even a newborn baby will come out of the womb taking its ten month’s gestation and its life in a video. ‘From blastomeres to breathing baby, the selfie of a newborn’. Beware to get astonished!’
By Sundareswaran Date: 17th April 2019.
My Cranky Writings 