There’s a deep and utterly unique pleasure that comes—when you’re travelling alone-the minute the train pulls out of the station. It’s unlike the exhilaration and the vague anxiety of a plane’s takeoff, unlike the wary alertness of leaving the driveway. Is it the comfort of the plush seats? The old-fashioned charm of the fact that the conductor still says “All aboard!”? I think it has more to do with a kind of promise. For the next few hours, you will be out of time, free and (especially if you ride in one of the cell-phone-free “quiet cars”) at peace; nothing will interfere with your enjoyment of your own company. It’s a bit like a long nap, except you remain awake, soothed and rocked by the rumble of the wheels on the track, reading or daydreaming, entertaiend by the spectacle of the world streaming smoothy by—a delightful reverie from which you will emerge having arrived at your destination.
Reference: Francine Prose
Photo Courtesy: farm2.static
