Malakwal Junction

In the 6th Class I at least knew that Junction meant a railway station where various trains came from different directions and where passengers changed trains for their different destinations. Once I asked my father, “Our train has come from Lalamusa Junction, and now we will be going to Khewra from where we will trek to our village. But where has the train gone in which we came?”

He told me that it had gone back to Lalamusa. I said, “Then it can’t be called a Junction. Why did not the same train go direct to Khewra and then turn back?”

My father realised my point, but he had no answer. He, however, felt that he must satisfy my curiosity. Without telling me, he went to the Station Master, and after some time told me that it was a Junction because a train from this place also went towards Garibwal. “But where is that train and where are the passengers who are waiting for catching the train to Garibwal just as we are waiting to catch the Khewra train?” I asked. I was shocked to learn that the train going to Garibwal did not carry or bring passengers, but only stones. What a foolish thing! Train to carry stones!

When we put our luggage into the Khewra train, I went to the other end of the platform to examine the train, and my surprise knew no bounds when I found that in the whole train, which stretched about a furlong beyond the platform, ours was the only compartment in which passengers were sitting, besides the one which was closed and which, I was told, was meant for Sahibs only. All the rest of the train was meant for salt-loading, except two bogies which were closed from all sides and looked like big trunks.

The train moved very slowly, like a sick person. Anyone could get down for passing urine and then catch the train. If someone had to answer the call of nature, the person naturally missed the train. But I was told he could catch the train at the next station, Sody, where the train halted for about two hours and the distance one had to walk was only 2 or 3 miles. I naturally thought that Sody would be a big station, with a very long platform crowded with all kinds of people — the passengers, railway officials, coolies, hawkers and so on — and humming with noise and hustle as one found at stations like Lahore, where trains stopped for a pretty long time. But when the train steamed into the Sody Station, there was another big shock in store for me. What to say of a big station building etc., even the platform was missing. And instead of passengers running helter-skelter, I saw a crowd of about a hundred village women, each carrying two and even three or four pitchers on her head, briskly moving towards the train.

What sort of a station was this? I felt greatly amazed. Very soon the women started filling their pitchers from the two trunk-like bogies. What? The train producing water? It was a strange sight. But then my father explained to me the ‘mystery of the water’. The water available in that part was saltish which was more suitable as a purgative than to quench the normal thirst and hence the train fetched water from other areas. “But why the hell people live here at all?” was my spontaneous reaction to this revelation.

There were still more surprises awaiting me. A short distance away from Sody, there was another Junction called Chalisa, where there was neither any structure nor a platform. What is more, there were no passengers and no tickets were issued to the passengers either. “And it is still called a Junction?” Yes, I was told, it was nevertheless a Junction because it was a crossing and the trains went in three directions from there. The Station Master in charge of this Junction was always a person who was sent there by the Railways by way of punishment.

During the long wait at Sody, I asked my father whether there were very few people in this part of the country, as there was only one small compartment for passengers as compared to the full and crowded compartments of many trains which we had seen at Lahore and other stations. Father explained that the life and economy of the villages were self-sufficient because their needs and requirements were very simple and small, and therefore there were not many occasions for them to undertake long journeys.