Get into the train, and train yourself

A 48-line double acrostic poem with the 1st column mirroring the surnames, and the last column, the first names of the children. Lines prefixed with numbers for clarity.

Background

A uniquely sweet memory of a train journey from Kengeri (Bengaluru) to Kachiguda (Hyderabad) on Tuesday, 24th March 2026.

Nestled down in my window seat, I began reading the short story collection “Angkor Vat and Other Stories” by Vandana Kumari Jena, IAS (Retd), one of my favourite writers whom I had met a few years ago in Bengaluru. As is my wont, I was making marginal notes in the book.

While the passenger opposite me was a Malayali gentleman from Kerala, the rest in the compartment were Telugu people. Some impish and zippy decibels began to play on my eardrums. They were wafting from a bunch of children, seated in the compartment behind me. One or two parents tried to control them. I felt that the children should have their fun and frolic, especially in journeys and outings, as long as they were not raucous. They weren’t raucous at all.

After some time, one of the passengers in my compartment asked me what and why I was making notes. I told him it would help me remember the important things in the book and serve as a fulcrum for the review to be scripted by me (since I am a writer, which fact I didn’t make explicit). And I suggested that it was a good way for any reader.

About an hour later, the same gentleman approached me, and said, “Sir, can you please spare some time to have a talk with our kids and tell them the importance of making notes while reading through a book?”

I was more than happy, naturally. Especially, in the current milieu where reading habits have got sacrificed on the altar of indiscriminate screentime.

A rainbow-like assortment of 7 children, from classes 5 to 12, trooped in. We had spent more than an hour together. I talked about a few important things that children of our times need to reflect on and imbibe. They were all attentive, as also the parents, the initiators. At my instance, each of the girls and boys recited a song, poem, or hymn. They are all certainly meritorious and well-nurtured by their parents, who obviously are extrovert bibliophiles, intellectuals with life, patriotic, and human values. 
The epiphanic interaction has transcended the 12-hour journey. The dulcet reminiscence has prodded me to pen a couple of poems in Telugu, one addressed to the ideal parents, and the other meant for the adorable kids—which I shared with them on 03 Apr 2026.

And here is, my poem in English capturing the memory.

(1) Auspicious day it is, true its name, Mangala Vara (Tuesday, 24 Mar 2026) oh!
(2) Kengeri—where I’ve boarded the express train, Ashokapuram to Kachiguda—
(3) Keyed has me up in B-1 Coach with many a kaleidoscopic passenger.
(4) And I pick from my bag Vandana Kumari Jena’s “Angkor Wat and Other Stories”—
(5) Looking through it, underlining, and making marginal notes to weigh—
(6) Appropriate ideas—to later on pen a review of it with relevant calculi.
(7) Dipped into chats are the neighbouring passengers to their hearts’ content.
(8) Every now and then, we eye the vendors for eatables, water, beverages, etc to buy and relish.
(9) Viewing me, a gentleman asks what and why I’ve been noting down on the pages.
(10) I explain its purpose, since as a writer, I have to read, review, and publish.
(11) Capering are some children with jest and zest in the compartment to my rear.
(12) Hearing their hearty hollers and hullabaloos, their parents try them to tame.
(13) After a while a rep parent comes up to me. “Sir, if you nod to explain& to our kids your noting way—
(14) Glad we would be!” he says. More than pleased, I respond, “By all means, yea!”
(15) A bevy of boys and girls, with humility & inquisitiveness writ on their faces, troop in.
(16) Make I—about the need of reading and reviewing—my tested observations—
(17) Keying them with a quest for all-round knowledge, the need to be rooted to our Indic culture aimed  at global shanti—
(18) As also the importance of harmony of Nature, body-mind-heart-soul bond.
(19) Loving the kids like anything, I urge them to recite any song, hymn, or poem¬—and pronto—
(20) All of them, one after the other sitting beside me, do so sweetly to my delight much.
(21) The 7 children—4 girls and 3 boys¬—from 5th to 12th Grade —all captured on camera—
(22) Have adorable qualities. They are—Harshith (Gr. 10) & Shreyansi (Gr. 5)—
Akkaladevi Srinivas-cum-Jyothsna’s children—
(23) United with Dohana (Gr. 12) & Bhuvi (Gr. 9) daughters—
of Chagam Suresh Reddy & Madhavi—who huzza!—
(24) Radiating with Shruthi (Gr. 9)—daughter of Garapati Nagendra & Gidugu Vijaya Naga Sandhya —who with her aplomb—
(25) Ups with equestrian Havish (Gr. 7) & Reyansh—sons of 
Thotakura Venkat & Vanitha. All of them—with depth—
(26) Gaining by touring Ooty and the Coimbatore ashram of a celebrated Guru—
(27) A good base for their lives—have imbibed spiritual serenity and bhakti& through Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
(28) Reared are these children well by their valued-based well-educated parents, aristoi—
(29) And their names suffixed with MSc, MBA, MCA, B Com, B Tech and such good degrees.
(30) Providing their children with right exposure with amity, openness, objectivity, and warmth—
(31) Are these parents standing out as examples for the rest from any quarter.
(32) Thank whom I should for this serendipitous tryst? The reading-cum-noting to end in an apercu?
(33) I have to thank, otherwise, the author, my favourite? Or the train that has become the meeting spot?
(34) Give my thanks to whom? To the extrovert parents who see an open school all over and afresh!
(35) I aver, yes, I do give most of the credit only to the bibliophilic & broadminded parental literati!
(36) Do not expect that every train journey certainly benefits you with an epiphanic flash.
(37) Understand Kate Atkinson’s—“The magic of trains is that they bring people together” — which though not ex cathedra—
(38) Gets into reality at least rarely, making us sight in it an evocative leitmotiv—
(39) Utilising which we can strive to turn into sensible and salubrious beneficial genii.
(40) Tower in education, pursue higher studies, and work overseas with income high, oh you the youths!
(41) However, most of you by assimilating the best overseas, do return with values high—
(42) Owning our motherland to serve and develop it, drawing inspiration from the exemplar—
(43) The iconic Sri Rama who has gifted us the eternal patriotic & sagacious message—
(44) “Any foreign land, however a grandiose golden mine it may be, is not for us worthy.
(45) Know well the verity that even heaven is inferior to motherland and ma!”
(46) Universal peace and harmony are the only exceptions for which students, job-seekers and their kin—
(47) Relocate can, but only to spread and promote the Indic truth, in the foreign lands—
(48) Across the world and prove that the entire globe is a single family to live in harmony. What a truth!