Life In Kerala, India

The train journey from Madras to Quilon was not all pleasant. The steam loco was damn slow. It took around twenty four hours to travel from Madras to Quilon (720 km) No safe drinking water available in any stations enroute, leave alone food. All compartments were sprayed with fine char coal from the loco engine. Those who got seats in the compartments near the engine suffered a lot, and many of the travelers were soaked in coal, looking like coal mine workers.Eyes were to be protected from coal dust otherwise one might suffer permanent damage to eyes. No reserved seats available. But fortunately those days people never used to travel long distance and compartments were not full. The seats in third class were horrible with wooden planks.We travelled in second class and seats were not very bad.The first class compartments were generally four seated and having four berths.The third class compartments were later abolished in all trains in India In the evening around five we reached Quilon.

Already we all were tired when we reached Quilon. We caught a bus at Quilon to reach Karipuzha. The bus of those days were of open type on the sides, and petrol driven. The sides of the bus were not covered. There was no place to stand inside the bus. The foot board was extended and people used to stand on the footboard, from one end of the bus to the rear.The roads were horrible without black topping with pitholes everywhere. No where in Malaya I saw such roads or bus like that.The passengers looked very neat and polite. The bus driver and conductor were good people. They helped to load and unload our baggage . We reached in our house in night at ten. Grandfather ,grand mother and some other relatives were in Karavallil to receive us.