Trip Report:
On 7 April i came to know due to some urgent personal work i had to travel to LJN latest by 8 April from Mumbai along with my 7 year old son .As i was aware that i will not get ticket for LJN directly i decided to go via JHS.After some research done by my brother booked the ticket by 11104-BDTS_JHS in 3AC in the evening of 7.I got WL-27/2.,28/3.At the most i was thinking that i would be lucky if my ticket would be in RAC.IR sometimes throw pleasant surprise when i came to know that both the tickets were confirmed.I booked the ticket in SL for onward journey from JHS_LJN by 12107 for ...
more... 9th April i got RL WL 76/52.RLWL77/53.The idea was that after reaching JHS i will go to my relative home & would catch the train after 3 hours i.e. 9:30 AM.
I was surprise to know that my ticket was not confirmed & i booked the ticket by 01683 BPL_LJN in SL where more than 300 berths were available.
The positive side of non confirmation of my ticket by 12107 was that me &my son was able to visit JHS fort & museum.
After having my lunch i rushed to JHS station whose schedule departure was 14:10.I inquired at the enquiry counter where i came to know that train was running 45 mins late.I reached the designated platform where Jhelum,Punjab Mail came & went.I was under the impression that after Punjab Mail my train will come but their was no sign of train.I called my brother to find out what is the exact location of 01683 & to my utter dismay i came to know that it had crossed Lalitpur at 14:30.
My son was getting restless i purchased Biscuits & Cold drink.The cream biscuit MRP was Rs 20 vendor demanded Rs 25.when i confronted him he gave the reply "Britannia ka he 20 wala yeh lelejiye priya Gold Ka".I requested him to charge MRP only when he did not pay attention to my request i replied him "accha de do"& i started looking for the IRCTC helpline number which was printed on the board.To my utter surprise he gave the biscuit at Rs 20 on MRP.
Train arrived at 16:30 & it ran like passenger till LJN.The train was detained at almost all the station & at kalpi it was standing still for one hour for crossing.As a passenger my pride was hurt when goods train was allowed to pass by detaining MY train.
At Kalpi one vendor took the opportunity & start selling garam garam small vada with the claim that it was best vada.I decided to try & to my pleasant surprise i had never tested such a tasty vada.I & my son really enjoyed the vada.
At one small station we were just looking at the different varieties of birds which we city dwellers hardly see.One scene was really amazing around 40-50 small birds came out from the bushes(jhadis) & flyied till the nearby trees which was hardly 15 mts away & again after few seconds flying back to same bushes.This went on for 10-15 times.I was really thrilled to discover that strange behavior of the birds.We really enjoyed this visual delight.
My journey was completed when train reached LJN at 12:00 AM.01683 .01683 was now 01684 as passengers were boarding after we alighted.This train had same rake as that of BPL-PBH Express.My feeling was that train was purposely detained at many stations so that train can start its journey immediately after reaching LJN.
