Darjeeling :
The ‘toy train’, puffing along the Hill Cart Road, has been such an intrinsic part of the Darjeeling experience of yore that no back-to-school programme here is complete without a glimpse of this legacy of the British Raj.
Former students of St Paul’s School, here to celebrate 150 years of their school’s coming to Jalapahar, did one better – they took a ride on a train pulled by one of the oldest engines here. For some, it was truly a ride down memory lane because the ‘toy train’ and its ridiculously small compartments were what used to bring them up from the plains for their nine months as boarders at ‘SPS’.
Saturday’s journey, undertaken by many with their families, was only as far as the Batasia ‘loop’ and back; any trip longer is powered these days by the quieter and more efficient diesel engines. With time allowed at the ‘loop’ for photo-shoots and another clear day offering the Kanchenjunga as a breathtaking backdrop, it made for a memorable morning.
At Batasia, the driver revealed that the engine was 130 years old. “Oh, it’s still far less than our school,” someone quipped.
“We had just one holiday, and it began before Christmas. The toy train journey would start at 1.20pm and it was six hours before the train pulled up alongside the waiting metre-gauge train at Siliguri,” said Joe Hammond, who used to live in the school compound because his father was a teacher. “In between, there would be this stop for tea at Kurseong,” added Hammond, who now lives in England.
Julius Mirza, who came from Iran to be part of the celebrations, recalled when he first came up in 1947, he was surprised by the size of the compartment.
Lunch at Keventer’s, Glenary’s and the many restaurants they would swarm as students on the rare outings to town heightened the nostalgia before the ‘Old Paulites’ went up Jalapahar for that final hurray.
‘M-n-M’, a professional band from Mizoram, enthralled the audience with retro numbers that began with the 1960’s giving way to recent songs. School students and some ‘Old Paulites’ with an inclination for music took the stage too.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Arup Chatterjee, TNN / November 01st, 2014