Antyodaya Express: The best a common man can get. - Vikas Kumar

I want to share another one of my memorable trip in my favourite train.
It was July of 2012, the month it got LHB on 07 Jul and later got withdrawn within just 10 days due to problem in general coaches. which were later rectified and was re-alloted with LHB coaches. I was staying alone at Delhi with my wife and children at home with my parents. It was due to continuous illness of my child I decided to go to home on 26th of Jul and searched for confirm reservation in tatkal on same day at around 1300 hrs, the seats were available in both Poorva and SK in tatkal. I was looking to book in poorva but shortly after that...
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the chart was prepared for poorva and I booked my ticket in SK 3AC in tatkal. I started from my home at around 1500 h and reached Ndls around 1600 hrs in Metro. When I reached saw poorva departing and came to know that other trains including Rajdhnai were running late and were rescheduled. after some time around 1630 hrs, Sdah raj arrived at PF14, hwh Raj at PF15, Bbs Raj at PF13 and behind them SK arrived at PF 16 at 1700 hrs and was rescheduled to depart at 1925 hrs. at that time the chart was prepared and my seat got upgraded to 2AC. which was delightful for me. finally the train departed at 2000 hrs behind Vaishali. the train hardly picked up speed after departing, the AC of one of third AC coach, B3 was not working as the battery was not charged and people sought the help of TTE and settled in other coaches. the attendant was quoted as saying that ''bas ek ghanta sahi se chal jaye to charge ho jayega'', which didn't happended until it reached Aljn, it overtook Vaishali at Aljn and then the speed begun. The train crossed Tdl slowly around 2345 hrs, when I went to sleep, I woke up in the morning at around 0600 h, when the train had reached Ald and took a 10 mins halt at Ald and again picked up speed, but never got full throttle till it was looped at Mzp for the overtake of GR which was also running rescheduled from Anvt by 5 hrs, after the GR passed the train picked up speed and reaced Jep where it took another halt, and Ltt-Ghy came for behind and also halted there, after some time Ltt-Ghy got the green signal and reached Mgs on PF2. then SK was given the signal and it reached Mgs around 1000 h at PF1. At Mgs SK was given the go signal first and Ltt-Ghy was detained there and departed after SK.
The train picked up speed and crossed Bxr and Ara within 2 hrs, and reached Dnr around 1230 h, it covered the entire Mgs-Dnr in 2 h 20 mins. but my worries kept increasing as i was looking forward to take Vaishali from Hajipur to reach home on time. it was my luck that after the overtake even Vaishali was running late, but still I had doubts in my mind whether I would be able to catch it or not. then one of the passengers who was working in Railways police told me not to worry and gave me his number and told me to board the train at Hjp without taking ticket and if someone asks me about the ticket just take his name or call him. he gave me his number too. It was very nice of him. I got down from train at Pnbe outer when the train halted and took the auto from there to Hjp and reached well in time as the announcements were going on, I reached and the train was arriving and I boarded the train without taking a ticket. but nobody came and checked until I reached Mfp. My father was there who took me to home and in a week the health of my child got better.
The return journey will continue in coming blogs...