Fasting on trains

Some of us fast on particular days or during select festivals. On similar lines, how if we can fast when we travel by trains? The benefits are manifold. This goes against our DNA, the market forces and a lot else - especially given that for many of us trains are synonymous with munching and snacking. But I will risk sharing my thoughts on the benefits of this.

Grandmothers, mothers, sisters, wives, and those rare specimens of males, who take up the tasks of planning, cooking, packing, and in some cases also delivering the food will be saved all the trouble and hassle. Their lives will be easier and their blood-pressures in check.

Those traveling by premium trains, that provide food, can sleep in peace without being handed over trays at regular short intervals. Their bodies that will get little exercise, if at all, during the journeys may not need all the food as well. The space used to heat and store the food can be used by the coach attendants to rest; they will be in a better frame of mind during the journeys. Above all, food wasted on these trains is humongous. This too will be saved!

Image Credit: Apurva Bahadur

The often-heard complaints about bad food quality will come down. There will be no risk of food spilling over and messing up clothes and documents. Time and mind space vacated due to absence of food may be taken up by board games, or stories, or silences or else. Noises and smells associated with food-selling and the aftereffects of food consumption, read farts and burps, will come down. So will the risk to the lives of food-sellers who many a time jump on and off moving trains! Travellers can look forward to fresh local food at the destination rather than to scout for a toilet.

The railway ecosystem generates significant trash. Most of this is food packaging. Fasting will bring down the trash generated significantly. The railway coaches and spaces along the railway tracks (especially just before or after junctions where a lot of trash is dumped) will be cleaner. Our journeys will not only be healthy but also more pleasant to the eyes. The railways can focus on getting the trains to their destinations punctually and safely.

The benefits of fasting have been discussed enough and a short break from food, during these journeys, will only do the bodies good. (Of course, those under medication need to take due care).

In our country, on an average, more than 12 thousand trains run each day, carrying more than 2 crore people. Try to figure the impact this fasting can have!

Thanks Apurva Bahadur for yet another stunner!