Letters: Phileas Fogg and the Indian Railways

18-4-2002

During this 150^th anniversary of the Indian Railways, it is interesting to recall the momentous journey of Phileas Fogg. Mr. Fogg, an Englishman with a resolve to go round the world in 80 days , left London on 2^nd October 1872, sailed through the Suez and reached Bombay on 20^th October at 4.30 P.M. At 8 P.M. on the same day he caught the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay to Calcutta via Allhabad. In the words of his biographer Jules Verne : “ The train had left on time…At the station of Kalyan, it left on the right the branch that goes down to the south east of India via Khandala and Poona…During the night, the train crossed the ghats and came to Nasik… at 12.30 P.M.the train stopped at Burhanpur.. toward the evening into the passes in Satpura mountains” . Mr. Fogg’s train journey was interrupted on the 22^nd morning 65 miles before Allhabad because the track had not been completed. After covering the distance to Allhabad on an elephant during which he rescued an Indian princes from Sati, he resumed the train journey to Calcutta which took him through Benares and Burdwan. He reached Calcutta at 7 A.M. on 25^th October. Thus the whole journey, except for the elephant walk, took almost 58 hours. The venerable Mumbai – Howrah mail via Allhabad ( till recently the famous “4 Down” ) still traverses almost exactly the same route ( a total of 2156 kms) but in about 40 hours. While it may be a folly to trust timings given by a Frenchman, it is said that Mr. Fogg, who is said to have lived by the clock, himself scrutinized the first draft of his biography. Monsieur Verne while describing the whole journey bemoans the fact that the subject of his biography had no eyes for either the beautiful Indian countryside or the flow of the heavenly Ganges!

P.R.Vishwanath