After my branch training at Baroda (now Vadodara) during probation, I was posted to Una for agriculture branch training. Another batch-mate in Baroda was posted to another ADB. He went to enquire at the local bus depot about the connections to that place and the person at the counter was not at all aware of the place itself. On being told that it is near Rajkot, my colleague was told that in that case he should go to Rajkot and then make enquiries there.

I was luckier. Una was connected by train and I could travel into the comfort of a first class compartment. Someone was able to guide me properly. I was to take a train to Ahmedabad and from there catch another train to Veraval. From Veraval there was a once a day narrow gauge train to Una.

I reached Ahmedabad by train well in time to catch my next train and decided to have an early dinner before I boarded the train to Veraval. At the railway canteen on the station I got temped to order for a chicken curry. After finishing my dinner, I boarded the train for my onward journey.

A few hours into my journey I started feeling severe pain in my stomach accompanied by nausea. I started vomiting repeatedly. Every time I would drink water, I would vomit. I exhausted my all the water I was carrying, my co-passenger’s water stock and was now being provided water by the coach attendant from his ‘mashk’ (or ‘mashak’, a water container made of goat skin. Train conductors/attendants used to carry them and hang them outside the train window to cool the water).

There were tens of people peering through the windows of my compartment

The vomiting continued unabated and somewhere along the way I fainted. When I woke up, the train had stopped at a station and there were tens of people peering through the windows of my compartment. I was barely able to open my eyes and was feeling very weak. After a few minutes the train conductor came accompanied by a man walking on crutches. Turned out he was a local doctor. I was later told that after I fainted, a telegram was sent by the conductor requesting for a doctor at one of the next stations. It was already way past midnight and the doctor took a long time coming, since it was a small and remote village. Probably his handicap added to the delay too. When the train made an unscheduled and a very long halt, the passengers became restless and that’s why all those peering eyes.

Anyway, the doctor gave me some tablets which I gulped with water. He told me that I should feel better in a while and advised me that I should go straight to the Railway doctor on reaching Veraval. And that is exactly what I did as I was feeling very weak and miserable. The railway doctor told me that it was a case of severe food poisoning, gave me medicine and put me on a total liquid diet for next ten days; strictly no solids.

I was probably the first person he was selling a first class ticket to Una

After consulting the doctor, I went to the booking counter. When I asked the booking clerk for a first class ticket to Una, he stared at me and asked me which company I worked for. I asked him the reason for the enquiry and he told me that I was probably the first person he was selling a first class ticket to Una.

The train was already at the platform and I got into the first class coach. It was a half ladies’, half first-class kind of coach i.e. one half was a ladies’ compartment and the other half was a first class compartment. The first class had cushioned sleepers on three sides of the coach just like in old Shammi Kapoor movies. The fourth side had a wash basin and a toilet. It was my first travel in such a coach.

In the past lions have entered the coach

About one hour into the journey, at one of the stops, the ticket checker got into the coach. After checking my ticket and before leaving he cautioned me to keep the coach door closed as there were incidents in the past when lions have entered the coach. I immediately went to the door to lock it. However, it would not even budge from its position despite my best efforts. On closure scrutiny, I found that the damaged floor in front of the door had been repaired by plastering it with cement (yes, with cement). This raised the height of the floor making it impossible to move the door. You can imagine the state of my mind during the rest of my journey. Just to be on the safe side I kept the bathroom door open to jump into it at the slightest hint of a lion. Fortunately, however, I did not have to take recourse to my fall-back plan.

Incidentally, after that food-poisoning ordeal, I was off non-vegetarian food for several years.