Trip to Madhya Pradesh & Gujarat-Part 1

In my erstwhile hometown, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.

 

Year: 1996.

Location:  Chennai, Tamilnadu.

One rainy October evening, a 10 year old kid (or a boy) walks to a shop near to his house to buy an outline map of India. The reason was due to the fact that there was a history examination at school the next day. The child practiced marking various historical places and cities of India. Trivandrum, Bangalore, Chennai, Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam, Mumbai, Indore, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Jaipur and various other places were marked in the map by the boy. Next day, after completing the History exam including the questions related to the map, the kid opened the map and had a glance at the places marked. The eyes of the child rolled from east (Kolkata) to west (Ahmedabad). The small gentle hands moved over the map with a hope that it would physically travel to see these places in reality one day by its own efforts. The bell rang at 11:00hrs signalling the close of exam hours.  The kid handed over the paper to the invigilator and exited the room. After buying a slice of mango for Re.1 the child walked on its way back to his house.

The path was not easy. It needed God’s blessings and even money, most of all patience. It was a patient 15 year wait. As years went by, the kid completed schooling and bachelor’s degree. Suffered during recession in 2008-2009 and then got a proper job. Saved some amount of money every month for future and saved some money for trips as well.  Right now in the year 2011, the kid is now 25 years old and ready to board 12610 Bangalore-Chennai Express to start the journey to Ujjain.

Trip Plan: 
     Bangalore to Chennai by 12610 Chennai Express.

2.        Chennai to Bhopal by 12615 Grand Trunk Express(GT)

3.        Bhopal to Ujjain by passenger.

4.        Ujjain to Ahmedabad by Shanti Express.

     Ahmedabad to Yeshwantpur by YPR special.

 

Date: 16^th April, 2011

Location: Bangalore Railway Station, Karnataka state, India.

I arrived at Bangalore Railway station at 6AM, almost 2 hours before the scheduled departure of my train. As usual, I roamed around the station drooling at electric locomotives and even spotted two WAP-7 series locomotive. I have the habit of noting down train engine numbers, but as I grew up I lost interest in noting numbers.  My train 12610 Bangalore-Chennai Express had a delayed departure by 3 minutes, but it didn’t matter much to me. The train was hauled by a WAP-7 locomotive and I was travelling in AC Chair car located in the middle of the train. Without wasting time, I switched ON my GPS in my mobile and monitored the speed. GPS consumed lots of power in my battery, so I had my mobile charger plugged on all the way up to Chennai. It was a pleasure to watch the train blasting at 110kph. The route was scenic and this was the first time I was travelling in Bangalore-Chennai route in daylight after nearly 16 years. I had travelled only thrice in Chennai-Bangalore route in my life so far, once in 1994 by Brindavan Express, in September-2010 by Kaveri Express and now I am travelling to Chennai again by Chennai Express.

It has always been a passion for me to observe travel movements in GPS maps and I eagerly waited to watch the border crossing LIVE in my navigator.

As my train simply blasted at high speed, the red dot in my navigator moved slowly towards Tamilnadu border. I watched it live in my navigator as the red dot indicating my position crossed the border lines and it was a heavenly feeling to be in your home state. Sometimes, travellers experience ‘feels-like home’ experience when their train enter home state/territory. I use to feel the same when my train enters Karnataka, Tamilnadu and West Bengal.

Posing with WDM-x at Chennai Central.

I had breakfast comprising of two cutlets and chutney. The train reached Jolarpettai (JTJ) at 10:42AM. WAG-7#28028, WAG-7#27776, WAG-7#27904 were seen just before entering JTJ from Bangalore side. Spotted WAP-4#22661 with a passenger and WAG-5HB#23402 with a goods train at Jolarpettai (JTJ) outer. The run was very good and I really enjoyed the speed. As my train neared Vaniyambadi, WAG-9#31107 crossed my train with a BCNA rake. At Vinnamangalam, WAG-5#23588 was spotted hauling a parcel rake. As my train neared Tiruvallur, I had a mini-lunch comprising of Veg-Biriyani and it was a forgettable experience. It wasn’t so great but I couldn’t get any better item so I settled with Biriyani for the time-being.

A middle aged lady was sitting next to me and she spoke first to me stating that I looked like her son very much. I just smiled at her as I didn’t know how to respond to a stranger as I always prefer to be 'reserved' when it comes to strangers that too especially when I travel alone. She was interactive and she told that she was travelling back to Chennai after seeing her son who works at Bangalore.  On further conversation, I learnt that she was a widow and currently lives with her brother in Chennai while her son works at Bangalore. She was an orthodox woman I believe as she had vermillion powder on her face and dressed up neatly in typical South Indian Brahmin style. Her son loved a girl from Gwalior of Rajasthani origin but still she had approved it and now her son is happily settled in his life at Bangalore. I believe the lady didn’t have much company in her life as she was sharing her personal life with some unknown person who looks like her son. Though there are many castes, reservations and religious sentiments in India, there is no such barrier when you are travelling in Indian Railways. You are welcome to show signs at a nearby small child or a baby, lift it, play, shout and sing cinema songs. I believe such things aren’t possible even in the western world.

My train reached Chennai Central (MAS) bang on time at 14:40hrs. The lady requested me to carry her luggage till the station entrance as she couldn’t lift. But her younger brother was already there waiting at the coach entrance so I handed over to him. The person looked at me in a surprised manner. Maybe he thought that I looked like his ‘nephew’. My friend Vimalakar (IRFCA-MAS) was waiting right in front of the coach and gave a warm welcome. We wasted no time and immediately rushed to Ratna Cafe to find if Chilli Parotta is available. Sadly, it wasn’t available and I need to settle for some ordinary Parotta at Saravana Bhavan. We waited for few minutes and Aswin Kumar (IRFCA-MAS) joined us. We spent some time chatting and Vimalakar left around 4PM as he had personal work. The lunch was sponsored by Vimalakar.

Grand Trunk Express negotiating Sewagram curve

Aswin and I spent some time roaming around Chennai Central station taking some photos, cracking jokes, gossiping etc. The rake of 12615 Chennai Central-New Delhi Grand Trunk Express was shunted at 17:45hrs itself. After spending some time inside the coach, Aswin wished me good luck and left. From here on, I was all alone for the rest of the trip.

 Grand Trunk Express had an on dot departure. The train was hauled by ET WAP-4#22755. I ordered dinner and it never came even after crossing Gudur. This agitated me a bit and I purchased curd rice packet from a vendor at Gudur platform. As the train departed from Gudur, the vendor came with dinner. I wasn’t in a mood to argue with him for the delay and purchased that as well and had one heavy dinner! The dinner served had two roties, curd, dal, some sabji and rice. Rice was pathetic and the rest were good.  A Muslim family was accompanying me- a gentleman named Taufiq, a boy named Aslam and his two younger sisters.

I was awake till Nellore and I went to bed only to wake up at Tenali. I was awake for a few minutes and wasn’t really interested in rail fanning so I hit the sack again around midnight hours. GT was nearing Manchiryal in Andhra Pradesh, when I got up and the early morning climate was good. 

Throughout the day, the weather was good and pleasant.WAG-7# 27038 was hauling military rake which was spotted before Balharshah. As the train neared Sewagram, I got ready to take a snap of the curve and went to the door. Sewagram is well known and famous for a 90 degree curve the train negotiates on its way to Delhi. Comfortably seated at the door, I took a few snaps of the Sewagram curve using my camera mobile. It is always a treat to see a train negotiating a curve.

GT reached Nagpur bang on time! The run was good. It had a lot of stops, but still the train had a lot of quality with it. WDM-x#17338 locomotive was spotted with a caboose, a narrow gauge loco ZDM-3B#180 was spotted alone in a narrow gauge line and the platform was flooded with Sev Puri/Panipur vendors. My mouth did water, but I was a bit concerned about the hygiene, so I didn't eat anything. WAG-7#27409 and 31153 were other locomotive spottings at Nagpur station. 

After deparing from Nagpur, GT had a halt of nearly 20 mins at a station named Teegaon at 1430hrs. This was a rare opportunity as I got a chance to observe a machine laying railway track and photographed the same as well. There were a college group from Tamilnadu travelling along with us in the compartment and every time the train went inside a tunnel they were yelling at top of their voices. Even the girls whistled and that surprised me as I always had the opinion that the girls of Tamilnadu were shy and conservative.

My train reached Bhopal at 19:20hrs. I kept my foot on Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh became the 10^th Indian state in my travels. I found an accommodation near the railway over bridge close to railway track. It cost me Rs.800 for non-AC (24 hrs). But I would be staying there only for 9 hours. But I had no choice. My plan was to leave for Ujjain the next day morning passenger. Since this was a new place, I was also a bit concerned about safety. So I settled for this expensive lodge.

After taking a good bath, I went to the restaurant below and had Roti/dal with onion salad for dinner. I love rotis since my childhood and I really enjoyed it. After dinner, I tuned into Kolkata Knight Riders versus Rajasthan Royals IPL match on Sony Max. KKR bundled up Rajasthan for less than 100 and won the match comfortably. Considering the fact, that I love Kolkata very much and being the most favourite city of mine in all of my travels it was a treat to watch.

Teegaon, Madhya Pradesh, India.