July 26th, 2006.
Kerala is popularly dubbed as my "sibling state" for many reasons. Kerala was the second state in India to which I travelled after my birth and I visited Trivandrum quite often during my early years of life in earth. Kerala is also home to one of the sweetest girl in my life... Nope. You guessed it wrong. It's not a girlfriend. It is not my mom! It is my school mate who is like a sibling to me. Citing all these reasons, I always had a special softcorner for this small state.
In 2006, I visited Kerala with my college mates as part of college tour. As of 2011, this was my last visit to Kerala (I plan to visit Kerala soon. God gift me a chance!). We took 6041 Alleppey Express from Chennai Central to Ernakulam town. WAP-4#22281 was the power for the train and the performance was incredible. That was one of the best high speed runs I have experienced in Indian Railways. The train was running on-time throughout the journey. Luckily, I got an emergency window-seat and without any second thoughts I opened the windows completely and started my usual hobby of watching trains.
At around midnight, my college mate Sudarshan came running and applied cake on my face. It was my 20th birthday !!! July 27th !! For the first time in life I celebrated my birthday in a train! At around 1AM, it started raining and I was forced to use the glass window. I still remember the glorious sight! There was a loud honk and a WAG-7 blasted past my window on the next track towards Chennai with a long goods rake. I dozed off at 2AM and got up at 6:30AM. My college mate Niranjan and myself had a serious discussion on whether we should brush our teeths or not. I still remember Niranjan's reply,"Kaka, kuruvi laam pallu theikudha?". Hilarious reply!
We got down at Ernakulam Town station and boarded a bus to reach our hotel named Shalimar near Ernakulam Junction. Kerala was green, scenic and it was a chilling experience. We travelled in a small ship from Cochin Harbour to a small island nearby (I forgot the name). We visited Synagogue, Jew Steet, an old museum and returned back to our room. The next day we visited an old wildlife sanctuary and few other places which weren't of much interest to me. But I enjoyed and liked the weather very much. It was drizzling always and the climate was neither too hot nor too cold.
On the early morning hours of 29th July, 2006 we started from Ernakulam and headed next to Munnar in bus! Munnar wasn't a delightful experience for me. The hotel food was pathetic and not at all spicy and interesting. I am not a fan of hill stations for some mysterious reasons.
After spending a day and night in Munnar on 30th July, we started in bus towards Thrissur. We didn't see anything in Thrissur as it wasn't part of our schedule. I spent a couple of hours railfanning at Thrissur watching trains. We boarded Trivandrum-Guwahati Express back to Chennai at Thrissur. Surprisingly, this train TVC-GHY Express which holds the record of running late always since its inception was on-time and it reached Chennai bang on time!
Today 12th March, 2011-it''s been 5 years almost ! This Kerala trip still remains etched in my memories. Plenty of reasons on why Kerala is very important to me. My beloved sibling state...
-Krishna Kumar.S
IRFCA-SBC, Bangalore.
Kerala is popularly dubbed as my "sibling state" for many reasons. Kerala was the second state in India to which I travelled after my birth and I visited Trivandrum quite often during my early years of life in earth. Kerala is also home to one of the sweetest girl in my life... Nope. You guessed it wrong. It's not a girlfriend. It is not my mom! It is my school mate who is like a sibling to me. Citing all these reasons, I always had a special softcorner for this small state.
In 2006, I visited Kerala with my college mates as part of college tour. As of 2011, this was my last visit to Kerala (I plan to visit Kerala soon. God gift me a chance!). We took 6041 Alleppey Express from Chennai Central to Ernakulam town. WAP-4#22281 was the power for the train and the performance was incredible. That was one of the best high speed runs I have experienced in Indian Railways. The train was running on-time throughout the journey. Luckily, I got an emergency window-seat and without any second thoughts I opened the windows completely and started my usual hobby of watching trains.
At around midnight, my college mate Sudarshan came running and applied cake on my face. It was my 20th birthday !!! July 27th !! For the first time in life I celebrated my birthday in a train! At around 1AM, it started raining and I was forced to use the glass window. I still remember the glorious sight! There was a loud honk and a WAG-7 blasted past my window on the next track towards Chennai with a long goods rake. I dozed off at 2AM and got up at 6:30AM. My college mate Niranjan and myself had a serious discussion on whether we should brush our teeths or not. I still remember Niranjan's reply,"Kaka, kuruvi laam pallu theikudha?". Hilarious reply!
We got down at Ernakulam Town station and boarded a bus to reach our hotel named Shalimar near Ernakulam Junction. Kerala was green, scenic and it was a chilling experience. We travelled in a small ship from Cochin Harbour to a small island nearby (I forgot the name). We visited Synagogue, Jew Steet, an old museum and returned back to our room. The next day we visited an old wildlife sanctuary and few other places which weren't of much interest to me. But I enjoyed and liked the weather very much. It was drizzling always and the climate was neither too hot nor too cold.
On the early morning hours of 29th July, 2006 we started from Ernakulam and headed next to Munnar in bus! Munnar wasn't a delightful experience for me. The hotel food was pathetic and not at all spicy and interesting. I am not a fan of hill stations for some mysterious reasons.
After spending a day and night in Munnar on 30th July, we started in bus towards Thrissur. We didn't see anything in Thrissur as it wasn't part of our schedule. I spent a couple of hours railfanning at Thrissur watching trains. We boarded Trivandrum-Guwahati Express back to Chennai at Thrissur. Surprisingly, this train TVC-GHY Express which holds the record of running late always since its inception was on-time and it reached Chennai bang on time!
Today 12th March, 2011-it''s been 5 years almost ! This Kerala trip still remains etched in my memories. Plenty of reasons on why Kerala is very important to me. My beloved sibling state...
-Krishna Kumar.S
IRFCA-SBC, Bangalore.
