Meter Gauge video ◄The longest trip report on IRI. :D
Almost 8,000 words spanning almost 6,000 Kilometers on rails.►
▌In search of the Chhoti Line || A premium trip!▐
Disclaimer: This trip report is longer than a python rake. I'm not responsible for any nuclear wars, volcanic eruptions, heads going bald, milk spilling on the gas stove or people losing their humorous side as...
more... a result of reading this travelogue that contains several tonnes of grammatically incorrect nouns/verbs/adjectives/ and secretly planted sarcasm bombs. Reader discretion is... Just read.
“What if my condition worsens? What if the name-sake medicines don't make me feel any better? What if I have to abandon my trip mid-way and head back? How will I travel back home if the need arises?”...
These are precisely the thoughts that stream through my mind as I sit in front of the Station Master's office at Mangaluru Junction. A few mongrels are sleeping around me after having a playful time with the dog-lover that resides within my nonchalant self. A loud honk has perturbed my wandering mind and I gaze across the platforms to find the shiny LHB rake of the Trivandrum Rajdhani sliding along the Platform #3, heading towards its home state. The Rajdhani is almost done bidding adieu to the beach city when the rather nondescript Passenger from Kabakaputtur rumbles in with its tiny 5 coach self. I sneeze... The cold has really worsened now. The dogs wake up and unnervingly stare at me. I stare back at them timidly, and apologetically, for having disturbed their power nap. Another guy has just started munching on a packet of cookies beside me and the dogs are immediately attracted towards him. The next moment, the guy is surrounded by a pack of 6 dogs wagging their tails at full notch. The guy is pleased and he makes a quick dash to the stall and buys a packet of Parle-G and feeds them all. They happily munch on the biscuits with their tails wagging as gesture of being thankful to the noble soul. The Passenger that had arrived earlier is now cleared for its short sprint filled with intermittent crawls to Central station, a mere five thousand meters away. There's no sign of my train though, a full 15 minutes past its scheduled departure time.
Oh! Where am I travelling to? Jaipur. The route? Hmm. This is the interesting part that made me jot down this travelogue in the first place. The destination was supposed to be New Delhi when the plans were first laid out. That eventually changed to Jaipur owing to the 'value-added' Meter Gauge line that runs from Jaipur to Churu. Now came the task of choosing the rake that would track a path to Jaipur. The only train that goes to Jaipur from Mangaluru is the weekly Marusagar Express and even that's easy to be kicked out from the list if the criteria is 'convenient trains only' owing to it being perennially full. Tickets do confirm, even those in the farther end of the waiting list but the probability of getting a 'railfan-friendly' Side Lower berth is closer to zilch.. Immediately after Mangaluru, the next take-off point to consider was Bengaluru and the 'any-time-you-wish-to-travel' Premium Express showed plenty of vacancies in all classes. Getting a Side Lower berth with 700 seats available was as easy as snapping ones fingers but lo and behold, I got a bit too picky about the return leg and typed in the 'Preferred Coach ID' as S1 to be as close to the loco as possible and IRCTC showed its ugly face by allotting me an Upper Berth with 400+ vacant seats! Facepalm
So as per the plan, I would arrive into Jaipur at half past six on a Saturday and would be scampering off the same night at a quarter past ten. Almost sixteen hours of slack at Jaipur to take in the Meter Gauge magic and roam around the city like a drifter. There were a lot of ultimately 'unrealized' plans that were being plotted deep within my processor about how I would be walking around magnificent forts, photographing relics and riding the new metro trains and yada yada...
To be continued...
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