“How early do you reach the railway station to catch a train?” could be a curious question. I have some more! “How long have you waited for a train?”. Not good enough. Here’s one more. “Have you ever tried to sleep on a bench at a railway station’s platform to kill time?”
My last journey from Nanded to Hyderabad made us wait for 5 hours! Would you believe it? The delay for the special train from Akola to Tirupati was announced to bea of 2 and half hours and turned out to be double of that.
After learning about the delay, some clever heads caught another available train. Some nappers (including me & my friend Vishal) tried to find a peaceful (!), fan-over-the-head(!!) and clean (!!!) place to rest the spinal cord and some even succeeded at it (I could not, for, one, I don’t like full lights and second, mosquitoes singing full-on while I sleep). The wait for a train perhaps teaches you more than the journey itself. This wait taught me how to kill time by counting number of bogies of a goods train. Some Railway officials also showed how water is supplied to a train and how a bogie is connected to an engine, with a practical demonstration. Hands-on was avoided only for the reason of lack of energy!
Later half of the story saw some “lost and found” happiness & conversation of few people who apparently were colleagues of each other. Some sweet exchange of words with the railway manager was done. Some clever brains who didn’t catch the earlier train now found another train to Hyderabad and went by that train, by general class. I and Vishal did not dare take it; 6 hours journey, sitting on a wooden bench, starting at 3:40 AM. Don’t imagine in the wildest of dreams.
Climax of the journey began with the arrival of special Train in Nanded station at 4:00 AM (5:15 AM was, supposedly, its arrival time in Hyderabad). And happily, station after station, waiting for signals, blowing hardest whistle it could, finally, the special train reached Hyderabad at 9:45 in the morning.
On the spot I took a decision. Hereafter I’ll be faithful to the generic 563 and 564 (numbers of the trains which we Nanded-Hyderabad regulars take). Earlier also, I was in the soup while boarding one such special train (Krishna Express – Mudkhed- Secunderabad – 12:40 AM). Perhaps it was the curses by 563-564 which gave me strange experiences whenever I took another, special train.
And we experience the same, seemingly comic, yet very serious delays in train schedules, only to expose the casual behavior of the System.
So, How long have you waited for a train?
4 comments:
Ajay, u described the "journey" very well. I have a couple of experiences like u. I stuck at Jabalpur rail station in last dec. the train announced late by 5 hrs, then railway management announced new arrival time time and again... 1 hr late per announcement. scheduled departure time was 7:30 PM and the train was arrived at 9 AM on second day.. we passed that night in railway waiting room. same as u.. a lot of passangers in a room. the worst thing was the condition of toilet. so many thigs..
yeah Rohit,
railway stations & facilities available there are beyond description now. People have to have some civic sense.
Good Experience man....!!!!!!!!
Hey!! i didn't know u wud narate so... well. gud narator huh!!! i never knew ke just describing 'waiting for a train' cud be soo... interesting!! may be its ur bad experience, but i enjoyed a lot reading!! 'one man's poison is anothers meat' lol..lol.. keep on writing ur experience.
takecare
Chitra
Post a Comment