Trains over planes

I love trains. Why you ask?

• I get to spend hours reading without much interruption from humans.
• ⁠Eating and relaxing is more comfortable in spacious AC train coaches than being cramped in plane seats.
• ⁠With trains you essentially just get in and get out. There’s no fuss of guards, check-ins, microscopic security, gates, relay buses, and luggage pickup.
• And with Bangalore in particular, the airport somehow being more than a city’s length outside the city, the air transit hassles and time only add up.
• It saves money too, and reduces carbon emissions.

With increasing rail speeds in India now, however gradually, the odds increasingly seem to favor of this perspective. And so whenever a destination presents an opportunity to chill-read on rail, I grab it. A day before taking an intercity train, I send many longform reads and articles to my Kindle and immerse myself in perusing them without the distraction of a regular day. It’s like a daylong trip with the self. Only if you want it to be.