Toilets in Kalka-Shimla trains kick up a stink

Shriniwas Joshi

A British had asked if there were good loos in Kalka-Shimla Railways and he put the question in the web. Several replies and suggestions came up but most replies were not cheery. I have no occasion of travelling in a railmotor, which runs on the rails from Kalka to Shimla and back, but the replies to the above question disclosed that these had no facility of loo. The facility of loo for the general people, ie those travelling in the third-class bogeys, came to Indian Railways in the year 1909 when Okhil Ch Sen wrote a letter to Division Office, Sahebganj, West Bengal. The letter read:

“Dear Sir, I am arrive by passenger train at Ahmedpur station and my belly too much Swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance the guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with ‘lotah’ in one hand and ‘Dhoti’ in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shockings to man and female women on platform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station. This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray you honour to make fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers. Your’s faithfull servant.”

Since then we have Hopper Toilets in our trains where the outlet throws excreta outside on the tracks. All of us have travelled in Indian trains and have experienced the horror of ‘enjoying’ the smell of the toilets. Sidle into a small cubicle where there is fixed on the wall a glass, generally broken, if, intact, then it is so dirty that you can hardly see your face, a basin, a soap dispenser which oozes out watery soap if luck is on your side; otherwise it is like ‘haathi ke daant’, the other fixtures are either a squat toilet, which we call the Indian style or a commode in the Western style. Yes, there is a push button that throws water through a flat funnel-like pipe to clean your poop. Further process has been fittingly described by a railway passenger, “You roll up your pants or salwar so the hem doesn’t get wet, hop around a bit, secure your phone and your eye glasses, pull down your pants, and aiming for the hole under which visible tracks clack-clack-clack, hanging on to the vertical wall rail by one hand while you sway in time to the motion.” Once you come out of the toilet, you check whether your phone, purse and spectacles are there in your person because the drop chute toilets, along with your excreta, may swallow your important possessions, too, if you are slightly casual.

“The Guinness Book of Rail Facts & Feats” records Kalka-Shimla Railways as the greatest narrow-gauge engineering in India. It is indeed true; construction of 103 tunnels (102 existing) aggregating five miles and over 800 bridges in three years, that too in rough and hostile terrain was not an easy task. The historic, approximate 115 years old KLK-SML Railway line, which was opened for public traffic on November 9, 1903, became Unesco- declared world-heritage railway line, when it was conferred heritage status on July 10, 2008, and listed under “Mountain Railways of India”. But the engineering feat could not make good toilets.

With this heritage, we owned the heritage of smelly toilets. I am reproducing what the passengers who had travelled on this train had to say about those. “On the normal toy train there are loos in the smaller carriages but they can be a bit smelly and I would not really recommend that you use them.” Then there was a traveller who had to say so about the toilets in our prestigious train, “We were in a totally different layout carriage with one end with a double bench seat facing each other, toilet compartment in the middle by the entrance door which was very smelly and a single bench seat opposite the toilet door.”

But there are favourable opinions on Shivalik Express that runs between Kalka and Shimla. Almost all tweeters have praised it and also its toilets. One of the web-writers says:”The best train from Kalka to Shimla is the Shivalik Express. The coaches are equipped with reversible cushioned chairs, foldable table for serving food, wall-to-wall carpeting and wide glass windows. Windows can be opened. Toilet is there in each compartment. The train starts climbing the hill within five minutes of starting the journey with a speed of not more than 25 km per hour.” India is looking towards bio-toilets based on anaerobic decomposition of excreta. All of us are waiting for 2022 when it is likely to happen.

Tailpiece

A lady writes from Gurugram, “For comfortable journey to Shimla from Kalka, take Shivalik Express. The ticket includes toilet and meals.”