"Dei, yezhndura. Aaru Mani aayidthu. Innu rendu nimisham." Cue a loud and shrill peeeep coming from the backyard...
My training for my job brought me to Rajkot. A place that I chose for one reason. MG beasts and the King of Beasts were in close proximity. In the name of sport, many a lion has been hunted down and the Asiatic lion has been restricted in Gir
Similarly, Project Unigauge has hunted down the YDMs and their territory is now limited to Saurashtra, some places in Rajasthan and the hills of...
more... Nilgiris. Certainly a candidate worthy of the endangered species tag.
The first Sunday off, I wanted to explore the Gir forest. On Saturday, 3/5/16, Somnath Passenger with RTM 16830R dropped me at Junagadh for my rendezvous with the MG lines. I headed off to the dormitory for some sleep and was up by 5 to take the ticket to Veraval via Talala.
Approaching the MG rake made me feel nostalgic. I grew up to the shrill YAM1 waking me up at 6, running to see the Kamban, Cholan, Pondicherry Passenger hauled by YAM1. Visits to Perippa's house was exciting as it meant a trip by MG EMU. My final trip on MG was around 2003 in a YDM4 hauled Cholan Express from Thanjavur to Tambaram. After 13 years, it was like saying hello to an old friend. My loco was 6720 in SBI colors. The paint was faded but the old lady was not going to give up. On the adjacent loop, 6247 was waiting to haul the evening train to Khijidiya.
At 7:15, the train gave a long hoot and with a lot of belching of smoke and growling, we were off to spot some Lions. The train steadily made its way, stopping at stations to pick up passengers who were heading home to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi and some to earn their daily bread.
The mountains on one side, the fields on the other and the swaying of the coaches with a thatak thatak was a feast for the eyes and ears. At one point, I opened the washroom door and immediately, the scene from Anniyan where Ambi opens the toilet door and creates a scene flew into my mind. Fortunately,the toilets were well maintained and nor did I have a pretty Iyengar/Iyer girl travelling with me to put some scene!!
At Visavadhar, we were waiting for some time for the Khijidiya Junagadh Passenger to arrive. A NR BOXN was giving us company and the passenger pulled in 5 Minutes late with another SBI 6565. The passengers hurriedly shifted to our train and 6565 was detached for a reversal. We got the go ahead and the next stretch was the majestic Gir.
The little beast slowly prodded it's way in the land of the Lions. We crossed the many watering holes and some of the animals spotted were Chinkara, deer, peacocks and Langur. Unfortunately, the Lions were nowhere to be seen. After the Gir, we reached Talala Jn. The Jetalsar Passenger was with 6394. A NFR BOXN was rotting away. I went to platform 1 where the Veraval Passenger was waiting and Talala was bustling with activity.
The khalasi came with the token and we were off. The little one with 6692 at its helm put a great show of smoking, speed and sound. The smoke emitted out would have surely had the green activists up in arms. I reached VRL by 11:35, a lovely and lonely 6302 was standing and a MG inspection car was seen. After Somnath darshan, the VRL RJT Passenger with the Saurashtra Mail slip with RTM 14072 dropped me at Bhakti Nagar to cap off a great trip.
