This travelogue is 1374 words long
The small, but rich, temple right next to my home at my dad's native place was well lit up as an offering to the goddess. The scene was picturesque. With a light heart, I proceeded with my dinner. The time was just 1830. Darkness had set in. After the dinner, it was time for byes, and my grand parents were sad to see me off. My cousin brother set off towards the nearby Municipal Bus Station at Kodungallur about 4 kilometres away on a Hero Honda Passion motorbike with me as the pillion rider. The wind was cold and he sped through with dangerous speeds. He neared the bus station, and I noticed a State Transport Bus waiting for departure. The bus was an ordinary bus, while the private ones (which were around) were Limited stop ones, but were already crowded.
I selected the 'under-lit' government bus over the swanky private buses. The cleaners and conductors of those private buses were shouting at the top of their voice trying to woo passengers to them. The government bus had hardly any passengers and the conductor was least bothered about it. The bus, KL15 4189 (Fleet number TP38), was based at Thrissur Depot of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). As the clock showed 19:30, the bell was rung and the 'not-so-old' TATA engine sprung to life, and the bus slowly moved ahead. The brake of the bus was noisy. The conductor came around selling tickets. He had a Hand-Held Ticket printing machine instead of the old 'ticket rack' system. The fare was Rs. 18.00. He gave me a shiny strip of 'Thermal' paper with some odd things printed on it! The bus terminated its journey at the KSRTC bus terminus which is just 500 metres from the railway station.
I made it to the station at around 2045, while my train was at 2200! As I entered the station, the Chennai bound Mail from Trivandrum pulled in. A WAP4 from Erode was doing the honours. The station was heavily crowded. I browsed the titles on display at the bookstall. I enquired for the railway timetable, but in vain! I checked the reservation charts to find out my seat number. That was 22 in AS1. The OKHA Express from Ernakulam was to arrive soon. There were a good number of passengers waiting for that train at the station.
The passenger train from Coimbatore pulled in with an Erode WDM2. The same rake returns the next day as Trichur-Kozhikode passenger. The OKHA express pulled in with WDM3A #14030 from Ernakulam in charge at around 2120. The platform emptied. The train moved out after about 10 minutes. I returned to the main platform to get my water supplies. The Chennai Egmore Express from Guruvayur was to arrive soon on Platform 1. The train pulled in with an Erode WDM2 in charge. There was a huge crowd for the general coaches. A group of about 100-120 passengers were waiting for this single train! A set of minimum 80 ladies thronged into the small 'ladies' portion of the rear SLR. The coach, which could hold about 30 passengers, was already packed, and this huge group rushed in! Imagine the chaos inside!!!
I was back on platform 2 to continue waiting for my train! The shops on the platform were slowly closing down. Most lights on the platform were switched off. It was getting dark, and I preferred to sit right below a light for fear of my security! A light WAG5 of Vadodara rushed towards Ernakulam. Some minutes later, twin WAG7s of Lallaguda pulled in with a long Container rake and proceeded towards Ernakulam. After some more minutes, and Erode WAG7 pulled in with a long BCNA rake, and proceeded towards Shoranur. There was no sign of my train appearing. At around 2150, announcement about my train was made. At 2200, a waist-level headlamp was seen, and the train was soon approaching the station. The loco in charge was WAP4 #22295 of Erode Electric Loco Shed. The train was 6322 Trivandrum Bangalore Weekly Express.
My coach was AS1 (WGACCN 02143 based at Trivandrum ). The coach arrangement was: Loco-SLR-GS-S1 to S10-A1-A2-AS1-GS-SLR, making up a total of 17 coaches. I had an upper berth. The train pulled out of the station at 2213. The TTE came around to check the tickets by 2220. I showed my ticket and he jotted down the berth number allotted to me on my ticket and went away. I climbed up my berth, and decided to retire for the day. The coach was already cold, and it made a very good temperature for me to sleep comfortably! I covered me in the blanket and went off to a deep sleep. The train was getting stuck up at signals quite frequently.
The sleep was very deep and by the time I got up, it was around 0600. I was wide awake, and was in the berth till 0630. The co-passengers in the lower and middle berth were already up and running. I went to the toilet to finish off all my morning chores. It was chilling cold outside the passenger cabin! I opened the door, but closed it in a matter of a few minutes! It was ice cold outside! Some minutes later, I returned to the door and guess what! The fog was thick, and I couldn't even spot my loco. At around 0725, we pulled into Bangarpet.
The DEMU towards Marikuppam was preparing to depart. I walked up towards the loco to have a look at the loco. The loco had her headlamps still on. My train pulled out at 0735. We crossed the Chennai bound Lalbaug right outside Bangarpet. The loco doing the honours was WAP4 #22341 of Erode. The train stopped at all stations from Bangarpet to Krishnarajapuram! The train was more of a passenger train! We crossed the Patna bound Sanghamitra Express at Tyakal. The loco was Arakkonam WAM4 #20505. There were no interesting spottings until Whitefield.
The Marikuppam bound passenger was waiting at Whitefield. The loco was a WDM2 from Krishnarajapuram. We had a 5 minute 'unscheduled' halt at Whitefield. The empty rake of the weekly Bangalore-Ernakulam Holiday special was stabled there. We pulled into Krishnarajapuram at 0855. We crossed the Chennai Express there. We pulled out of Krishnarajapuram at 0900, now late by 10 minutes. We crossed a few light WDMs between KJM and Baiyappanahalli. At Baiyappanahalli, we crossed light WDM3A #14084 (of KJM) going home! We had a longish wait for a signal at Bangalore East Outer for about 5-10 minutes. We finally pulled into Bangalore East Station at 0915, and pulled out at 0917.
We crossed the Chickballapur passenger near Bangalore Cantonment. The train was a normal passenger train hauled by Krishnarajapuram WDM2 #17776, instead of the usual DEMU rake. We made it to Cantonment at 0925, and finally reached Bangalore City at 0940, early by 5 minutes. We were received on Platform 3. The rake of the Kacheguda-Bangalore express was on Platform 2, Udyan Express was on Platform 4. Platform 1 had some other train. I walked out of the station, and pulled into Comesum for breakfast. The restaurant was already crowded, Thanks to about 2 arrivals at the same time! I "lightly" filled my tummy and set out to board a bus towards my brother's home. That was the first time that I went to the Kempegowda Bus Station and the layout of the terminus awed me! People were using the foot over bridge in a much disciplined manner! I walked down to the 'platform' that I wanted. I spotted Platform 15, 14...but 13 was missing! I saw a JP Nagar bound Volvo waiting for departure at Platform 12.
I hurried into the bus, and took a seat at the rear end of the bus. The bus was cool and silent! The 260hp automatic transmission engine was desperate to speed up, but the traffic in the city was too tight. The bus was crying to speed up. She managed to pick speed after Jayanagar. The driver spotted an empty road, and he simply picked speed. I got down at JP Nagar, and took an auto rickshaw home. The 600 kilometre, 16 hour long journey ended at 1100.
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