My Trip to Aligarh

Last November in 2011, my classmate Irshad, who is an alumnus of Aligarh University,  told me of his plan to go for the annual day celebrations, also called Sir Syed Day, at Aligarh University. He asked if I wanted to come along, to which  I readily agreed.

We decided to go to Aligarh in the morning of November 8th. I met Irshad in his room at the Jamia Hostel. Our train to Aligarh was at 4:30pm.

We reached New Delhi Railway Station at around 3 pm. I could see agents selling tickets, hawkers selling biscuits, novels, key-chains and so on; nothing had changed in the last ten years. The journey to Aligarh  was  to take  about two and a half hours, given the 124 km distance from New Delhi.

We bought two tickets for the Farakka Express, unaware of the fact that there were two Farakka Expresses – one being Farakka  Express and the other, New Farakka Express. After buying some eatables we boarded the New Farakka Express at 4:30 pm. We stretched and made ourselves comfortable and were all set to enjoy the journey. In about hour and a half, the train passed Ghaziabad. We were rather surprised at having crossed a station that didn’t normally feature on the Delhi-Aligarh route. An anxious looking passenger checked to see if  the train was bound  for Aligarh and we confidently replied that it was. After having travelled for three and a half hours, at around 7:15 pm, we reached Moradabad. On checking with hawkers at the platform, we were told that we had indeed boarded the wrong train – New Farraka Express in place  of  Farraka Express. In a bid  to hastily disembark from the train, Irshad’s spectacles fell off his face and broke.

We then happened to meet some of  Irshad’s friends from Moradabad who were on their way  to Aligarh. They told us that the journey by road would take 10-12 hours as the roads leading to Aligarh were of  very poor quality. When asked, the station master told us that there was  one last passenger train for the day which was heading to our destination, at 8:30 pm. Left without a  choice, we boarded the  train. There was barely any place to stand and we were made to undertake the  six and a half  hour journey standing  on one foot  amidst  people who didn’t smell all that great!  After an hour and a half of this, our legs began to ache. We now got some place to sit, huddled together with our co-passengers, with  no breathing space at all. However, what was heartening to see  was  passengers being courteous towards ladies and making  sure they had adequate place to sit.

After three and a half  hours, we got better places to sit in. Luckily I was carrying two novels, one of which I gave to Irshad while  I read the other one. Irshad  however kept blabbering about  things and I was too exhausted and uncomfortable to even listen to him, but I  found myself helpless and having to join him in this endeavour of his. We went on and on, quite like Basanti in  Sholay, as we don’t have  any alternatives to pass time.  In passenger trains people just don’t seem to care about anything. Also, engine drivers with the Indian Railways will stop  trains anywhere, for as long they please. It felt as though time  had stood still. When we were just three kms away from Aligarh,  the train stopped running and remained in a stationary position for an hour, for no apparent reason at 2 am.  This irritated Irshad and me to a great extent. Finally we deboarded the train  at 3 am.  Once at Aligarh, we took a rickshaw to get to the university. One  thing I noticed  was that the rickshaw had no  plastic roof,  unlike the rickshaws in Delhi. My friend  told me that that was the reason for Aligarh’s rickshaws  being  ideal for flirting with girls! Finally, we reached the university at 3:30 am, 11 hours after we began our journey from New Delhi Railway Station (something I shall never forget!).

Just as we were  entering the  university campus, we  saw huge hoardings bearing images of Mayawati.  Irshad told me that it is considered a crime to call Mayawati by her name here,  only “behanji” is what she is referred to by. After “seeing” Behanji, whilst enjoying the cold weather that  Aligarh had to offer, we spent some time in Irshad’s brother’s room at the hostel.

Some of the interesting things I found on campus  included the tradition of suffixing a person’s name with “bhai”,  for example Nayan bhai, Shahid bhai etc, and  the norm of knocking on the door before entering a room, failure to do so makes a person eligible for punishment. Also, at Aligarh University, it is  considered sinful to wear only the shervani, one can wear the same  only by adding a kurta and a pyjama to the attire.

Before we set out on our journey, we had planned on doing many things once at Aligarh. What we only ended up doing was  eating  some good food at the annual day. We had also planned to roam the famous market at Aligarh but as we were very tired from all the unnecessary journeying, we spent a few hours roaming  the university campus instead before going off to bed.

We wanted to spend quite some time there–the peaceful and open environment  in Aligarh university is  rare to find in  Delhi. However, what I  noticed was that  in that sort of  an environment , one can develop  lasting  friendships, which can be a very special thing, indeed also people  there were very helpful and caring.  The next night, we left for Delhi; we had professional commitments to take care of. We finally reached Delhi on the morning of November 10th. It was a memorable journey.

[Naveen Kumar Sharma is a postgraduate student in the Department of Commerce and Business Studies. He can be reached via email at: neo.abm [at] gmail.com]