Few people travelling by buses in the large Bangladesh cities, especially capital Dhaka, are strange to the spectacle of hawkers selling their myriad types of products making way through the standing passengers. The products range from herbal medicines, 'Chinese' kitchenware, women's beauty products like ultra-dense and sharp combs, delicacies like 'jhal muri', sliced seasonal fruits, and what not. For some time, they have been overpowered by beggars. Their badgering of the passengers at times turns so annoying that a few passengers resort to rebuking them.
Of late, the whole spectacle has been lifted to the railway compartments, no matter which trains they belong to. Almost all passenger trains in the country have long been upgraded to the grade of 'inter-city', meaning they are of a higher class, deluxe to be precise, speedier than local trains, and comfortable. Some carriages are air-conditioned and the rest have cushioned chairs. They are called Chair Coaches. The days of the railway 2nd class, inter class, and 3rd class are long gone. They have been replaced with 'Shovon' and 'Sulov' compartments. With the introduction of the new and up-to-date carriages, the nature of railway journeys in the country has undergone a radical change. The middle-class people who jettisoned the train journeys and had opted for long-haul buses came back to the railway. To their great surprise, they found a completely overhauled train service --- with every part of a compartment smelling of health and cleanliness. Naturally, the people embarking on long journeys began preferring the railway. People re-using the century-old transport eventually felt grateful to the Railway authorities for their initiatives to introduce the railway's latest facilities.
Unfortunately, the railway men couldn't stick to their grand promises to keep the carriages free of all kinds of things foul and ugly. These days all inter-city express trains turn into a mixture of chaos and cacophony as they cross the outer signal area into Kamalapur Railway Station. Those begin with the swarming of the rail compartments, except the air-conditioned ones, by the mobile vendors who remain lurking close to the compartments. The slow speed of the trains offers them a grand opportunity to board the trains. In fact, the hawkers start entering the carriages from the immediate-last station. For example, the Sylhet-Dhaka Jayantika Inter-city Express train has more than a couple of stoppages from Brahmanbaria before it reaches Kamalapur, its final destination. These opportunities remain blocked for the inter-city trains like Dhaka-Ctg-Dhaka Suborna Express, Mohanagar Express, MohanagarProbhati; Turna Express; Dhaka-Sylhet-Dhaka Parabat Express, Kalni Express etc. To speak forthrightly, these trains having good reputation for their services are off-limits to hawkers and beggars.
The plight of the passengers travelling by the semi-express trains can be compared to an ordeal. Hawkers of every conceivable kind seem to be ruling the roost in these trains. Decades ago, street beggars and loud cries of hawkers would be considered rather annoying. Nowadays their presence appears to be turning integral to rail travels. Surprisingly, the distressing presence of hawkers etc is getting used to the passengers' eyes and the mind. The other day when two trans-genders barged into a chair-coach compartment of a train in Khilgaon area, clapping with their two palms and cooing in their typical indecorous way, the seasoned passengers dealt with them brusquely. But the unaccustomed passengers felt jittery and stunned.
This shouldn't be glossed over in public transports like a passenger train.
