How to beat the pangs of hunger in trains

When anyone undertakes a long distance journey by train, he has to plan for his meals along the way – long ago there used to be separate dining cars in important long distance trains. Having breakfast or lunch or dinner in these cars was a pleasant experience but, gradually, things changed. The railways withdrew from this service and handed it over to a private entity. New trains were introduced like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, and Duronto Express, where the cost of food was included in the fare and passengers had to accept whatever was served. The result was a whole bunch of unhappy travelers with complaints of unhygienic food.
The catering service offered through the Indian Railways left a lot to be desired. The quality of food served as well as the service has deteriorated over the years and the railway ministry is now trying to hand over the responsibility to food giants like Haldiram’s and ITC. Moreover, there are also proposals to allow travelers to book their meals from outside sources – they would need to indicate their train number and the station when they want the meal and the food would be delivered in the train.
Of course, such facilities would probably not be available to all passengers because the Indian Railways may have set its sights on Bullet Trains but the fact remains that thousands of people travel every day in unreserved coaches where they get packed in like sardines in a can. To them the important thing is to reach the destination in one piece – for quenching their thirst or beating the pangs of hunger they would have to either carry with them their own eatables or would have to depend on food outlets on the railway platforms.
Actually, that used to be the usual system that travelers relied upon earlier – they would bring with them their own home made foods in containers and consume them as and when they wished. But, the ready availability of meals in running trains changed that scenario. Such meals used to initially come in trays and gradually the trays made way for casseroles.
Moreover, local vendors board the trains with their variety of foods on offer and the atmosphere in the reserved compartments resemble that of a market place – the vendors shout to get heard and at times engage in war of words with passengers on some issue or the other. Agreed – such diversions do make for an exciting journey that may not be a comfortable one. But then, time flies by quite fast.