The train chugs along, roaring and shouting

Two women from Kolavade village, Pune, sing about a steam-pulled train to Mumbai, the journey on board and life that awaits in the big city

In this ovi, singer Radha Sakpal, 72, describes a train with a “brass neck”, referring to the smoke-spewing chimney of its steam engine. Endowing the train with beauty and strength, the chimney booms in rhythm – bhakka bhakkaa, bhakka bhakkaa. 

Radha Sakpal and Radha Ubhe from Kolavade village in Maharashtra’s Pune district have sung this set of 13 couplets. Working at a grindmill, the women sing of a steam-pulled train, its passengers and their journey to the city of Mumbai. The ovi describes what life in the big city means for the people who migrate there in search of jobs and a source of income.

In a couplet, a woman asks for a soadchitthi or a letter seeking a divorce from her husband before she boards the train. Could this be an outcome of the separation that the couple has to live through as one of them migrates to Mumbai for work? Or, the result of a stressful life of working long and hard hours in the big city? Or, the woman no longer wants to live with a cheating husband?

As the train chugs along in the ovi, a woman anxiously asks her co-passengers, “Now, in which bogie is my brother?” and “Now, O woman, in which bogie is my son?” Alternatingly, the ovi states that she is travelling with her brother, son, or both. The narrative outlines a train abuzz with activity when the woman is separated from her co-travellers.

The next few couplets teem with striking imagery. The billowing smoke emanates from the train’s chimney in colours “black and blue” as the whistle is “roaring and shouting”. The profusion of noise and colour in these lines reflects the woman’s sense of panic. Estrangement from the familiar and a more immediate separation from her travel companions worsens the woman’s disquiet. 

Every object has a gender in Marathi; interestingly, a train is deemed feminine. The ovi parallels the chaos during the journey with the woman’s anxious search for her companions.

The woman calls Boribunder (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) both the train’s parental and marital home. The train rests momentarily when passengers get off and empty the compartments at this last stop.

Soon, a new set of passengers get on. The train must diligently carry them all to their destinations – an unrelenting routine similar to a woman's who carries out all her daily chores from morning till late at night. 

The ovi describes how the woman’s life changes in Mumbai. She runs an eatery and devotes herself to cooking and serving her customers, often migrant men. At first, she takes pains to adapt to the ways of Mumbai – she applies oil on her hair and combs it neatly, she no longer sits on the floor like she did in her village. Soon, she becomes so engrossed in her work that she has no time to oil her hair or even eat. Grappling with the work in the eatery, she begins to neglect her husband – “she attends more to her customers than to her husband,” women sing at the grindmill.  This last couplet signals marital discord and the divorce letter, prophesied when the ovi began. 

Let us listen to the songs of the train and life’s journey chugging along.

The train’s engine has a brass chimney
The train comes from Boribunder, Byculla

The train has a brass strip along its side
The woman asks her husband for a divorce

Here is the train, spewing smoke bhakka bhakkaa!
In which bogie is my fellow-traveller, my brother? 

Boribunder is the train’s parental home 
My son is now ready to go, with his ticket purchased

Boribunder is the train’s marital home 
My son is now ready to go, with his ticket in hand

A whole lot of iron was melted, to build the train
This fact surprises a woman who has no daughter

O woman, the train is roaring and shouting
Now, in which bogie is my brother?

O look, the train spews black and blue smoke
Now, O woman, in which bogie is my son?

To go to Mumbai, the woman was all decked up
In Khandala ghat, she remembered her parents 

The woman goes to Mumbai, she does not eat fish
She misses chila vegetable, and looks for it in the field

The woman goes to Mumbai, she oils and combs her hair
She attends more to her customers than to her husband

The woman went to Mumbai, she does not sit on the floor
Woman, she has no time to apply coconut oil on her hair

The woman goes to Mumbai, she has no time to eat chapati
She attends to the customers in her eatery, neglects her husband