Rolling Coaster Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

 

Rolling Coaster

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Though Rolling Coaster is normally found in an entertainment park, in which mostly children take rides for a fee but I am talking about a rolling coaster provided free by Indian Railways at some of the railway stations of the country. It was observed by railway authorities when people lost their precious lives by colliding with trains in order to change the platforms. To overcome this problem railways introduced Over head bridges enabling people to get across from one platform to another without incurring the risk of losing the life. But the problem did not end with coming up of bridges as the old,sick and feeble people found it difficult to ascend the stairs of the bridge and sometimes got breathless and even missed their trains. So ascending the overbridge was also quite a task particularly for the old and the feeble. To overcome this problem Railways came up with a new plan to put up electric run escalators on the platforms of the busy railway stations of the country.

But while setting up the escalators at the stations Railways did not dismantle the concrete stairs and overhead bridges so that the human traffic at the busy hours can be coped up even in the case of power failure or technical snag that may stop the escalators. At one such station two brothers- Dhemu and Pemu wanted to catch the train in order to go to their villages. They did not belong to this town as they had come here to get the job. By the time they reached the station the train had already moved on the platform. After purchasing the tickets hurriedly they got the information that the train was at right time and would be available on platform no. 4. As they had luggage so they decided to take escalator from the main platform as they wanted to rush to the required platform where train was parked. Ascending stairs on an escalator gave a sense of pride and joy to them as they were using it for the first time in their life. As the stairs started moving taking them towards the top of the bridge and when they came to the spot they landed with their luggage on the firm top of the bridge.

In their joy and enthusiasm they were confused and took the stairs lying adjacent to the escalator as a result of which both of them reached at the same spot from where they had begun. When they saw their train was still quite at a distance from them, they again took the escalator but this time thee kept an eye on the signboard for the platform no 4 and reached their coach just in time when train was preparing to leave the station. In fact they were literally running to reach their coach and by the time they settled down on their seats they were nearly breathless. After settling down comfortably in the coach, today’s incident reminded Pemu and Dhemu of their childhood when the children of the village used to climb behind the trolley to get the free ride though the trolley left them outside the village and they did not grudge covering back the distance of 2 kms back to their village.