By D M Pariat
Strange how dreams are repeated and this happened to me a few days ago. After a long day spent at Mawber studying the tea trees left over from Thomas Jones’ time and a rather tiring drive I was ready to hit the sack early. In this dream I was again in this train The Meghalaya Express seated amongst other fellow travelers. The train was moving at a rather slow speed and, in fact was slowing down and finally with a screech of wheels came to a stop at a very poorly maintained station. We all got down and asked a passing guard the reason for the stop. The harassed looking guard explained that the train’s steam engine used coal and it was stopping at this station to load up on coal when he was told that there was none to be spared as a ban had been imposed by a National Tribunal on the mining and movement of coal. The driver of the train joined in and said that negotiations are going on but he could not guarantee that the fuel will be available soon but not to worry as the Board members are very enterprising people and they will think of something. Knowing that we were stuck there for a few hours at least, a group of us decided to stroll along the tracks.
The first carriage we came across was the Education one – here the people seemed relax as results had been declared but in one corner there was a slight commotion. Under a board proclaiming JMC University Office a man was busy nailing shut the doors and windows. Curious, we asked him why he was shutting down. ”Aare”, said the man, ”Ungrateful lot these people here – we were doing them a favour issuing PHd degrees at a very cheap rate and in record time, yes, a Phd degree at two lakhs only and delivery within a month but now after a couple of years we have been accused of doing something illegal – anyway, their loss”. The man refused to talk further and we ambled on.
The next carriage had Environment emblazoned on it’s side. Here a shocking scene awaited us – all the passengers there were helping themselves to whatever they could – some were ripping off the cushions, some were uprooting the seats, others were tearing off the floor boards while another group was taking off the window panes. Of the roof, there was nothing left. A horrifying sight was some people working frantically to remove some of the wheels! On asking, we were told that this was the people’s compartment where passengers with tickets could help themselves to whatever they liked and no one could stop them. We all protested that this destruction especially the taking off of the wheels would mean that the train would not be able to progress on it’s journey but the guard on duty only shrugged his shoulders and walked off. Aghast, we carried on to the next carriage.
This one had BLACK DIAMOND on it’s side – the signboard was, to my surprise, made of gold studded with diamonds. Wow, we all thought, what luxury. The scene inside though, was far from a happy one – the people there seemed shell shocked, some had their heads in their hands and some were definitely on the point of breakdown. On inquiring we were told that the recent and sudden National Tribunal ban on coal mining had hit the industry very hard – a lot of them did not know what else to do as coal mining had been their livelihood for many years. The miners told us that they were fighting back and a lot of organizations, including the government, were taking up cudgels with the Tribunal to get it to overturn it’s decision and they were desperately hoping for a favourable decision so that they can get back to business as usual soon. However, a stream of people, mostly outsiders, were seen leaving this carriage and boarding another train on the adjacent track – this train was the ILP Express and on asking the guard there about the meaning of ILP, we were told that ILP stood for Ia Leit Phai i.e. to return. Seeing the puzzled look on our faces, he explained that the people leaving were the immigrant mine workers who, with no jobs available, were returning to their home state. Hmmm, I thought, well, perhaps this is one way of controlling the influx. Feeling tired we decided to inspect just one more carriage.
The next one was the Cement compartment and we could hear people inside laughing and jabbering away – a big party was going on and people were celebrating, dancing wildly while others were sitting around with satisfied looks on their faces. On the sides of the carriage there were boards proclaiming ‘Long Live Meghalaya’, Long Live Jaintia Hills’, Long Live Ministry of Environment’ and ‘Long Live District Council’. One bespectacled chap was busy in a corner working on a computer and looking closely, one could see that he was working on how much profit his company had made recently – the zeros that followed a number ran from one side of the screen to the other and down to the bottom – no wonder these guys are celebrating I thought. The young man with me also mentioned that these cement guys loved puppetry and in their warped sense of humour, the faces of their puppets resembled some of the faces of the Board members.
A loud blast of the whistle woke me up and, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, was glad that it was again just a dream but recalling the sight of the Environment carriage, I realized my nightmare had not ended.